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Old Aug 14, 2011, 01:45 AM
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jf93 jf93 is offline
Junior Member
 
Member Since: Aug 2011
Location: Dixie/Chi
Posts: 16
Ever since I can remember I have bitten or ripped my nails down to the point where they almost always bleed. I have to tear them off as far up as possible. Most of the time I actually rip the toe nails off completely. It's often painful to walk or use my hands to press buttons, open things, write, etc. I can't stand my feet or my hands. I don't really know which came first though the nail issues or the hatred of those specific body parts. I also feel the need to pick scabs or wounds. I had a car accident several months ago. I had a compound fracture (bone sticking out of the skin) and I had a pretty large area of scar tissue/semi-dead skin/scab-ish like stuff that was healing back together to cover the open wound and I couldn't stop picking it. It wasn't thin like a scab but more just like injured flesh. It was too thick and attached to pull off so I used scissors to cut the flesh off. I also picked my surgery incision and scabs from my stiches as often as I could. I would check all the time to see if they were scabbed over again so I could pick them again.

I know all this is very detailed & quite frankly it grosses ME out so I can imagine how you're feeling if you've read this but I've never told anyone, I mean of course people notice my hands and my husband doesn't even like for my feet to get near him, even just an accidental foot on foot touch dozing off in bed really bothers him, but I've never mentioned it to a doctor or anyone else. I'm too embarrassed & I really don't think I realized it was a problem until my husband started speaking up and I really started thinking about what I was doing.

Can somebody tell me what this is called? Obviously it's some kind of OCD but it'd be nice to know what specifically. I feel like I HAVE TO do it. I don't know why. I don't feel like anything bad is going to happen if I don't. It just nag nag nags at me like it's driving me crazy. If I do happen to fight the urge long enough to forget about it (which is extremely rare) the next time I look down I've done it again anyway without thinking about it. Also, if you have this problem, is there anything you do to curb the urges?

Last edited by Christina86; Aug 14, 2011 at 12:41 PM. Reason: added trigger icon