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female
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anonymous
writes:I have a really big problem with biting my lips, the skin around my fingers, the inside of my cheek. I am usually making it bleed or hurt really bad. Does anyone have any idea why I do this all the time, even without noticing? And how can I stop? Reply to this Question
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reader, anonymous, writes (28 January 2010): Heyy I am a 16 year old female and I also bite my cheeks, fingers, and lips. Its such a bad habbit and I try to stop a lot but when I get bored or stressed I find myself doing it. Most of the time I don't realize I'm doing it. My mom and dad so it too... I do have O.C.D. Though. Sometimes I find that chewing gum helps and also breathing with my mouth open. Its cool to think lots of people have this same problem... I though I was the only one. I've asked my dentist about it and he says there isn't much anyone can do, you've got to break the habbit alone. When my friends and boyfriend finds me doing it they slap me and tell me to stop. Lol. If you chew the inside of your cheeks like me you need to break the habbit cause it can lead to mouth cancer and infections. I do bite my fingers but not as much... Usually only when it gets dry and I chew off the dead skin.
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male
reader, anonymous, writes (8 July 2009): I bite my tongue and cheeks until they bleed and get sore. I'm 29 and living with parents, and they stress me out by treating me like a child and trying to interfere and control everything I do. My mum is almost certainly OCD the way she cleans things all the time, and my Dad is a bit of a control freak, so it's easy to work out where my stress comes from. (I move out next month though, so hopefully that will help.) I also just completed a Law degree, and it was during all this that it started, so definitely stress related ... although I had a jaggy tooth which is what started the actual gnawing. I can prevent it for a bit if I chew gum, but sooner or later a rough edge to the tongue makes me start playing with it, then I start gnawing and biting it. It must look awful too; gurning away. I've just bought a mouldable gum shield off eBay so perhaps I can wear that and it'll break the habit. I'm hoping the shield and moving out of my home will solve my problems. Good luck to all you other sufferers; it's comforting to think I'm not alone!
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male
reader, anonymous, writes (1 July 2009): I got the same problem. I think this is a problem that can be dealt with without medicine or drugs. I'm going to stop biting my lips, cheeks and nails tomorrow!
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male
reader, FriendNdeed +, writes (21 June 2009):
There's reason to believe that any form of skin/tissue nipping releases endorphins....the body's naturally-occurring version of heroin. People who chew their nails to the quick, or yank out strands of hair, or deliberately cut their own skin, grind their teeth really hard, or suntan, or pierce, or tattoo....they all may be getting a hit of nature's own smack. Sounds like I'm making it up, right? Consider it this way. Our skin and internal surfaces are coated with epithelial cells. These cells are fragile and precious. When we hurt them, they trigger the release of endorphins. Endorphins kill pain, elevate the mood, and play an important role in healing. When we intentionally self-injure....as with biting our own cheeks, finger, or lips....we are triggering nature's strongest reward. Most people stop because of the pain. It seems that others aren't so bothered by the pain, or consider it worth the price. Trouble is, when taken to extremes 1) you can get addicted and cannot stop, 2) like any addict, you'll have to increase the amount you do it just to keep the buzz alive. Look online, you'll probably find a recover group for your situation (i.e., Nailbiters Anonymous). It's okay if that makes you snicker, but you'd better do it if you've already started making bleeding cuts. It will not get better on its own, except in wonderful but rare cases.
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reader, anonymous, writes (10 March 2009): This is a weird problem for me too....I had this problem 10 years ago then it stopped and now its back....I get obsessed with biting my lip and making it hurt...sometimes I even say ow!...out-loud...the other weird thing about it is when I am doing it its like I zone out into some kind of trance...this is the first time I looked into this problem...so far I am seeing comments about stress and endorphins? I am sorry I am not offering any solutions at this time but I just had to respond to your comment its nice to know I am not alone on this.
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female
reader, anonymous, writes (10 March 2009): Here is what I did when.When I realised I was biting my lip I closed my eyes and counted to ten and thought about good things instead of what was making me bit my lip.
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reader, anonymous, writes (8 March 2009): Im a 16year old girl in highschool and i bite my fingers and cheeks too. I used to pull out my eye lashes and suddenly i stopped in 5th grade and started chewing on my fingers and inside of my cheeks. its gotten so bad that my left pinky is puffy and red and it bleeds all the time. i bite all of my fingers so there all kinda like that. i realized over winter break this year that i havent been chewing on my fingers so i figure its stress related. all of my friends think its gross and try to tell me to stop and that its gross but it doesnt help. Ive tried tape, gloves, medicine but nothing has really helped me. I really would like to find some way to stop.
please help me out :] thanx
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reader, usaftw +, writes (17 September 2008):
idk if its ocd or not, but i used to peel the skin off my fingers as a young child then after my parents kept nagging me, and found another way to stop, fortunately i dont peel the skin off my fingers anymore, unfortunately i now bite my lips and cheeks until it bleeds immensely. acutally at the moment, i have a very large hole in my bottom lip that was oooozing blood a little while ago.... God help me.
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reader, ccwong  +, writes (16 August 2008):
Hi,
I've stoppe biting finger nail for 1 month. A bit of sharing as in how i stop finger nail biting. Hope the concept helps.
"If I want to get back together with my ex-girlfriend, I have to stop finger nail biting. If I stop biting for 24 hour, I get to give her a call. Once I bite my fingers, the "24 hours" period restarts from the moment I bite my fingers."
The idea is: I really really like to/love to/wish to/dream to/fancy getting back together with my ex-girlfriend. Whenever, I bite my fingers, I was like, "shit... I have to wait for another 24 hours".
When I look at my fingers, I think of my ex gf; the thought of calling her makes me stop biting my finger not to trigger the 24 hours count down; Stop biting my fingers make me look forward to calling her.
For me, the important point/main idea/strategy is:
If there is something you really really want, make that your aim/objective/target/dream, and stop yourself from biting fingers if you really want to achieve that. Calling ex-girlfriend every day is what i want in order to get back with her. If i bite my fingers, i can not call her as a form of punishment for doing bad things.
Hope this punishment VS reward concept helps.
Any comment/idea/sharing/opinion, please email me at [email address blocked]
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reader, anonymous, writes (21 May 2008): i have a habit to bite my cheeks but not till they bleed, but i used to .i cant stop, the only other way i can stop is to do something else with my mouth, and at the moment i have a ritanor i just got and i fiddle with that with my tonge the only problem is that now its become another habit and the ritanors really lose now and might break?! this is so fustrating!! i also peel my nails if theyre not even and when the skin around my nails starts to peel randomly, i hav to peel it right off and it kills!!! they get so sore!!
oh and i just found out that u shouldnt cut ur cutiles off coz it makes them worst so i fort i shud spred the word coz i do it!! just push em back and use hand cream for nails so that the get soft and eventualy there will b nothing to peel off or bite!
i hope i dont hav OCD but it kinda sounds like it?! :(
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reader, anonymous, writes (25 April 2008): I also bite and tear off the skin around my finger nails with my teeth. It's so satisfying to chew the skin and then swallow it! Now my fingers are torn to shit and it hurts like crap! Female age 32
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reader, anonymous, writes (11 April 2008): Hi I have the same problem also, I am 16 and i am looking for a cure! I bite all my fingers until they bleed, now the cuts are going down nearly to my knuckles on some fingers, i work in an office and it is so embarassing. My boyfriend is constantly getting angry at me telling me to stop but doesnt realise i cant! I have tried nail the habit, putting sellotape round my fingers, plasters, this just makes the cuts soggy as gross as it sounds. I only found out this was OCD the other day when reading a magazinge and had no idea other people did it. I have been doing this for YEARS. i think it started when i stopped biting my nails and must have gone onto the skin. When I go to wash up or get in th bath the cuts sting like hell and throb.Anyone know a solution?
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reader, anonymous, writes (31 March 2008): been chewing inside of my cheeks for years and cant stop. i like eating the new skin the next day. Cant stop. Then I find myself picking the skin off my thumbs and its so worn out around the cuticles. cant stop.
I dont know what is driving this habit. But I have to stop. This has been going on for at least 16 yrs
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reader, anonymous, writes (29 March 2008): i understand what your feeling and your frustration i have
the same problem i have been biting the skin around my nails and my lips and the inside of my cheecks for the past 7 years basicly since i was 9 .. i once bit the skin around my finger so bad that after a while it got infected causing my nail to fall off .. after a while it grew back .. 6 months later .. and i still bite my fingers .. honestly ive tried stoping but i just cant my friends have tried helping me but they could't do much .. i dont know if what i have is OCD or just a bad habbit but i dont feel like its OCD . i would been bitting on the inside of my cheeck and i wouldent even know im doing it so i guess maybe its OCD .. but im really not sure .. so good luck trying to find a way to stop .
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reader, anonymous, writes (28 March 2008): I have a smiliar problem where I bite my lips until blood runs out of my mouth. They end up chewed up and bloodless and eventually white blisters occur. I also chew my fingers until they bleed. I have tried to stop but really have no idea how to go about it. I hear that you can recieve hypnosis treatment for this, but I'm a dedicated sceptic and therefore do not belive this will help. Perhaps it would work for others though.
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reader, anonymous, writes (15 March 2008): I do this too. I really wish I could stop. I don't know how. I bit the inside of my lip. I peel the skin off my lips, like until it bleeds and I bite the skin on my fingers and it bleeds too. It's so embarrassing, but I can't help it. I try putting like lotion on my lips, they say it helps, but I just started putting it on. I don't know, I hope you get through this.
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reader, anonymous, writes (22 January 2008): I have the same probelm, can't believe other people do this, LOL I've been biting my cheeks since I was in high school, don't really know why I started, maybe boredom. Now I can't stop. Today, I bit the insides of my cheeks, real bad and they hurt like hell. Why do I do this? I don't feel that I have OCD, maybe just a nervous habit. I bit my finger nails for since I was 6 or 7 years old, I am now 26. I used to get acrylic nails done, which completely stopped me from biting my nalis, now a year later, I have let them grow and get stronger and now I regularly get manicures, they look much better. So if I can bite my nails for over 18 yearsand stop like that. Maybe I can stop chewing my face off. LOL The cancer thing scares me, but I'm a smoker, so I'm gonna die anyway I guess. There is a reason and time that everyone must go, it's gods choice when to take you, not because u bite your cheek or smoke cigarettes.:)
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reader, anonymous, writes (2 October 2007): I have the same exact problem. I've chewed on my fingers for years, and in recent months have started biting my lip and the inside of my cheeks much more than usual. I didn't realize the connection until I read this, but I have been diagnosed with minor Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) too. I'm currently being medicated for it with an SSRI (like prozac, i think), but I've been on it for a while and I'm still doing it.
I'd advise you to talk to a therapist about it. Whether you just have a bad nervous habit or are OCD, or something completely different, you'll be able to find things to try to help you cut the habit.
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reader, anonymous, writes (2 April 2007): hi i do all of these things to and i dont know how to stop it to but it drives me mad it is called obcessive compulsive disorser and i use prozac which is called fluxotine hope this helps and if u have any advice for me too let me know thanx
samxxx
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reader, useless  +, writes (23 January 2007):
 hey i do those things most of the times too, but i just bite mi nails. well maybe its b/c your feeling nervous about something or your mind is roaming somewhere else u sometimes don't know what your doing'...or are you just thinking too mch..-how to probably stop dating is think of something else b/c when you don't you end up biting yurself..and that's how I kinda solved my problem.-sorry if I'm not much help, but you can at least try..
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reader, stina +, writes (22 January 2007):
 Hi Anon,
I used to have a bad problem biting my thumbs, so I know how irritating and embarassing your problem can be!
What I did for my problem was put band-aids on my thumbs w/ like neosporin or bacetracin on them. First of all, if you have a band-aid on, then you can't bite the skin. Second of all, if you have some sort of medicine on your hand that shouldn't be ingested, you'll think twice before putting it in your mouth. Have you tried keeping your nails done? Not necessarily with polish, but just nice and clean and clipped so that there's nothing to really bite?
As for biting the inside of your cheeks, I know that they sell soft plastic "bite plates" that people can wear to bed (check your pharmacy). Sometimes if a person is stressing s/he can grind their teeth at night resulting in biting the inside of their cheeks - the plastic guard can help with this problem. If you bite the insides of your cheeks and lips during the day, then maybe you could try chewing gum. But that doesn't really solve the problem; it's just sort of going around it. Is there something stressing you out?
About biting your lips - maybe if you try putting on a chapstick it will make you less likely to bite them. I know that if I have chapped lips, I tend to bite them for some reason. Maybe you'd want to try something called Lip Scuff - it's sold at the Body Shop. Lip Scuff has little "beads" in it that help to slough off dry skin and oils to heal lips. You just apply it, smoosh your lips together, wipe it off and I usually put on a chapstick afterwards. Here's a link if you want to take a look:
http://thebodyshop.com/bodyshop/index.jsp
Click on "Make-up" and then "Lips". It's in the second row of products on the right.
Hope this helps!
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reader, Peterk5699  +, writes (22 January 2007):
 As someone said below there are special solution that you can buy to make your fingers taste nasty. Perhaps you could try one of those. Apply it daily and each time you tast your fingers it will be nasty and you will be put off.
Good luck in trying.
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reader, anonymous, writes (22 January 2007): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionWell living with my parents is kinda stressing me out, would this be a reason? I am 24 and they still treat me like I'm 15. It's kinda ridiculous......I get nervous a lot too by just thinking I have to talk to people....would this be another reason?
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reader, carlyuk +, writes (22 January 2007):
 hiya i have the same problem i dont think its anythin serious, but i get it from my dad he does it to does anyone in your family also do it? i have tryed such things as solutions that are specially made to make ya fingers,nails and lips taste horrid they didnt work for me but thy could work for u!!! let me no ow u gt on hope
ive helped xx
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reader, cd206 +, writes (22 January 2007):
 However much you might protest to this it's a form of self harm. Is there something in your life which is worrying you or making you feel uneasy at the moment?
CD
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