[ouch]

I have been eating my nails to the point of making them hurt and have been squeezing out ingrowns on my legs to the point of making them infected. Why am I doing it? I don't know.... At first it was only to remove ingrowns, but now for some weird reason it has become some strange fascination with I don't know what. Feel embarrassed about it- don't think I could ever tell my therapist. Anyone experience the same? How do you stop it?

although i dont self harm now, i use to. i use to cut my forearm until it would bleed.

i think we do it for comfort initially, even though it causes pain we find comfort originally which then turns to pain. im sure this is why we do it.

i did it for attention, i use to cut my forearm so people would pay attention to me and talk to me.

i think its a mixture between comfort (we are giving ourselves attention, although the wrong sort) and attention seeking. after you do it for a while you become acustomed to it and do it merely out of habit. i also use to pick the skin off my fingers and palms which turned into a habit and it was very hard to break that habit.

try talking to your therapist about it, they might give you techniques you can use to stop, and they can help you drop the urge to harm yourself. dont be embarrased about it, you have nothing to be ashamed or embarrased about. it will pass and no one will think less of you for it.

well i hope this has helped you Ouch, take care ok.

simon

[ouch]

How did you stop doing it? It is self-harm I guess - I wasn't sure initially, because I was just doing it for a purpose (to remove ingrowns), but now I have scars on my legs (not visible though, and I live alone so not for attention)

i guess i stopped doing it by seeing my councillor and talking about it.

it sounds to me like you do it out of habit, you started doing it and have done it for a little while so you just do it without thinking too much. we all have habits.

consider trying to squeeze a stress ball evertime you feel like "picking", or distract yourself. we mainly develop habits when we are bored. thats why i found i picked my skin. if you feel bored and have the urge to pick just do something to take your mind off it. try watching a movie that you know you will like and not be bored of. or come on here and chat. anything really, i dont know what interests you have so i cant say what to do except just to do something that interests you and occupies your mind.

it mihgt not be self harm, again, i dont know. it could just be habit so its simply a case of breaking it. try those techniques i gave you.

another technique i found helped was to chew some chewing gum when i wanted to pick. keep some chewing gum with you and when you want to pick, just chew on some gum.

good luck with it and let me know how it goes.

simon