My Picking Diary

Pinny

I’m so sorry to hear that @FloatThruThis

We can start again, from afresh! What drives yours?

I’m struggling with mine too.

I’ve been picking my arms and both a colleague and my mum have made comments recently.
I just made stuff up but I was so incredibly embarrassed

FloatThruThis

Hi Pinny, I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling with this too. Although I gave up on not picking my face, lips, & the skin around my fingernails, I had been going for months leaving my fingernails alone. My trigger to pick at my fingernails was that I had just trimmed them and one was a little ragged. That’s all it took. What about you?

Pinny

Aww I’m so sorry, it’s so difficult because I don’t know about you but sometimes I don’t even realise I do it! Until afterwards…
I guess stress is a huge factor for me. I’m always looking for ways to ease my stress but it’s hard at the moment as I’m working away from where I live. I don’t move jobs for another 2-3 months.

Do you use fidget toys?

FloatThruThis

Yes, it’s like my fingers have a mind of their own. Someone gave me a fidget spinner & I bought myself some playdoh, but they’re both put away somewhere unused. Have you found fidget toys helpful?

Pinny

I actually don’t, but I do fidget with my phone pop thing and one of my rings. So I think they could be of benefit.
Maybe I should try one!

FloatThruThis

I tore my fingernails off down to the quick again last night. So this time I lasted 2 months. Better than nothing. I was picking at a toenail and it started to tear my fingernail a little; that’s what triggered it. I don’t really care about my toenails because nobody sees them, but my fingernails are a different matter. I think I’ll just try keeping my fingernails filed down even shorter than they were so I’m not as tempted to rip them off completely next time.

FloatThruThis

Only lasted nine days this time before tearing my fingernails off down to the quick again. My boss is back from vacation & our air conditioning isn’t working. Woe is me!

FloatThruThis

I tore my fingernails off down to the quick again last Sunday. I was picking at my toenails and my fingernails started to tear off and that’s all she wrote. I was doing okay in leaving my healing fingernails alone to grow back this week, but I went to a family gathering this afternoon and started picking at my fingernails and the skin around them again. Now I’m home and I don’t want to stop picking at them… It feels too good in the moment, but so painful and embarrassing later on. I have such a love hate relationship with this compulsive little behavior of mine. Oh well, there are worse problems to have. If I just leave them alone for two weeks they will heal themselves.

FloatThruThis

I tore my fingernails off down to the quick again Thanksgiving night. I was in bed watching tv/movies and started picking my toenails and my fingernails started to tear. That’s a trigger. I was rereading this thread after my last post and noticed that I had motivated myself last year by noticing Thanksgiving was coming up, so that kick started my willpower to keep that upcoming date in mind as a short term goal.

A new thing that has helped is (on top of the usual nail care), rubbing neutrogena hand cream into my cuticles. I do use cuticle oil, which is good, but rubbing in the hand cream after helps immensely. In addition to kind of locking in that oil, it creates a short term barrier to not see/feel where the cuticle may be dry or ragged.

I’m also going to look at fidget toys today, but I haven’t had luck with those in the past. It’s not enough to just have something to fiddle with, I need something that creates a feeling of flow as well or else I won’t be motivated to use it. I’m also going to try to be mindful of cutting my toenails regularly & start to wear socks to bed now that it’s cold out.