onychophagia:Severe nail picking

[Susiemac]

My 13 year old daughter used to bite her nails up until 2 years ago. She managed to more or less stop this habit, only to replace it with the even worse habit of continually picking at her thumb nails. Actually, it's more like 'digging'! She has worked away at one particular thumb so that there is absolutely no nail left;the nail-bed is destroyed and either bleeding, or crunchy with dried skin. She digs right up under the nail-bed, too. She uses the index finger of the same hand to do it with and seems to do it not just if she's anxious, but also if she is excited, or even when she is enjoying a favourite show on TV. I find it unbearable to see her destroy her beautiful hands and would love to hear of anyone who has been able to control this habit. She gets upset and embarrassed with it herself, too, and it was she who found a possible name for this habit: ONYCHOPHAGIA. Can anyone help?

I have a friend who picks at the skin around her fingernails, in exactly the way you describe your dd doing, and in the same circumstances. She saw a hypnotist for it last summer and hasn't picked since. Quite amazing result, really, especially as she didn't notice exactly when she stopped. We think the frequency of her picking tailed off quite sharply during the first few days after the session, because she was aware at that point. But one day one of us commented on how nice her hands were looking, and she suddenly realised that she couldn't remember when she last picked at them.