Is this part of skin picking? Part of OCD?

I have what you have, only I chew the skin of my fingers and.. consume the flesh (gross, I know). It's called dermatophagia (google it, the wiki page is actually quite helpful) and it includes biting the inside of your mouth and lips. According to wikipedia it's an "impulse control disorder" and an "obsessive compulsive disorder" so yep, OCD.

Ugh this has effected me my whole life, but I pick on my scalp as well. And, don't even get me started on if I have a scab. It stinks cuz my whole family notices and call me gross. I know it's gross, I don't do it on purpose.

This is me. I pick my lips for sometimes over eight hours they bleed and than I go to mirror and pick at my face for hours on end ! Bad but maybe today the mental physician will help figure it out ! Good luck my friends !

Hey everyone, I have had this condition for years and only discovered it was an actual condition about a year ago. Some nifty ways to stop doing it, especially when you're always biting your fingers is to use antibacterial gel on your hands every time you start, it gives you something to focus on doing - running it in, it will kill any germs lurking there and when you go to bite again, it tastes disgusting so you notice yourself doing it more as you get the ikky taste. It's helped me to stop completely.

With picking the face, why not look in the mirror and instead of picking, put on a facemask? You can get ones which really set into your skin (like mud masks). Your skin will feel and look great afterwards but you also still get the sensation of picking the mask off bit by bit as it's actually this sensation and urge that is the addictive part.

Hope this helps some of you!

Love Rach xx

It's called Skin Picking Disorder/Dermatillomania and it is a component of OCD. I know because I've had my fair share of researching about it and I've suffered from it as long as I remember. I started to bite the skin on the inside of my mouth since I was young and I would literally experience pleasure from the biting and creating blisters. Later on, I stopped around 3rd grade and stuck with picking my lips and biting my nails. I stopped biting my nails because my OCD has convinced me that if I bite my nails, the dirt and germs under my skin will of course get on my tongue and later transfer to my throat and give me a soar throat. But that actually helps me to a great extent cause now I don't bite my nails anymore, but I do wash my hands many times every day. I just make up for it by using Gold Bond lotion. The only Skin Picking Disorder left on my list is picking my lips and that is something I've done for a long time and I believe it starts out of the sudden anxiety I will get from the thoughts I will have or the fear I will create about anything (aka relating to OCD basically). I try to stop it by always carrying my chap stick around and applying it whenever I want to pick my lips but it doesn't really help. I read online that since chap stick and blistex is medicated that it only encourages you to pick your lips more and that the best thing to use to stop picking your lips is just regular lip gloss. But I've tried it and it doesn't help that much and would rather stick with chap stick. Sometimes what I like to do is apply chap stick and then lip gloss over it to encourage myself not to play with my lip for aesthetic reasons but this can fail if you don't keep up the trend. In general, this is very well part of OCD and you can actually reach out for help about this as well. http://ocdla.com/compulsiveskinpicking This site actually talks about the disorder and the different therapy treatments that can be offered for it. https://iocdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Skin-Picking-Disorder-Fact-Sheet.pdf This is a fact sheet that describes the disorder and answers questions about it. https://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/drug-abuse-addiction/compulsive-skin-picking-dermatillomania-2/ This site goes into more detail about Skin Picking Disorder and its common causes. This site right here: http://ocdchallenge.com/ was created by a woman named Elizabeth Mcingvale who has suffered OCD since she was young and is now a leader in helping others conquer their OCD. She runs the peace of mind foundation and OCD challenge website. This site allows you to create an account and take a thorough test on your OCD and what path you can take to help manage it. It also keeps up with you by asking you everyday if you indulged in your rituals and habits and it shows you different ways you can help yourself to stop these habits. Although I can truly say that it has been hard for me to conquer my OCD, I can admit that I believe that my OCD has very well decreased over the years. I guess for me it was just realizing my mistakes and trying to improve on them. It is very hard to avoid washing my hands sometimes but what I have been doing is telling myself that the germs that I believe that have transferred to my hands from whatever I touched is a lie and these germs are the same germs I can get from touching something as simple as remote. In some way it has helped, but in other ways it doesn't do the best of progress. I guess you just have to keep up with yourself on this. What also helps is delaying your rituals and habits since those are the biggest parts of your OCD and by delaying them, in some way you are telling yourself that its ok to be in the position you are in and to not indulge in the habits. I don't see any harm in getting help with managing your OCD. Even though it seems like you can't compare it to depression, OCD is very important and can later on develop into depression if you do not try to take care of it and help yourself. I myself get help for it and I am not ashamed to admit it :). But anyways, although its still a struggle for me, I am here to talk to anyone who is suffering from Skin Picking Disorder or from any issues regarding OCD :). Hit me up if you ever need to talk about it!