Body-focused repetitive behaviours

[TheMostHappy]

I thought I might start a thread for people living with chronic body-focused repetitive behaviours including trichotillomania (hair pulling), excoriation (skin picking) and morsicatio buccarum (chewing the inside of the mouth). I have lived with the latter two for as long as I can remember, even as a very young child. I can go for long periods of time without a flare up, and have noted stress and anxiety to be significant triggers for me. It's something that not many people talk about. It might just seem like an irritating habit but living with it can sometimes get a bit miserable - living with constant sores in my mouth is uncomfortable, and the more jagged the sores, the more I chew so it's never ending. I also persistently pick the skin around my finger nails in the same way, to the point where it bleeds and I am still not able to stop if I can see or feel an edge or it isn't perfectly smooth.

I was wondering if anyone has managed to break the cycle permanently and can share some tips?

Hi OP, No experience I can share sadly but this sounds really hard for you, as well as painful. Have you spoken to your GP? Sometimes AD's can help, as well as CBT. You don't have to struggle alone.

Hi, thanks for your reply. Do you know I hadn't even thought about cbt or anything for it, it just seems so trivial but yes it is something I really struggle with and it has quite an impact on my life having all these sores. I wish I could stop but it's like a compulsion. The more I do it the more I do it because it's cyclical.

I used to bite the skin on my wrist when I was anxious until I went too far and had a massive bruise which people noticed. That scared me and I've managed not to do it since. It probably helped that the habit developed when I was an adult and wasn't so deep rooted.

But it would certainly be worth looking at CBT - you can self-refer if you don't feel able to talk to your GP.

www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/

You've probably seen these but just in case:

www.bfrb.org/storage/documents/Expert_Consensus_Treatment_Guidelines_2016w.pdf

I pull my hair and have done since I was 7 or 8.
I haven't found anything really except I do it less if I'm not bored/just watching TV absentmindedly. If I do that, i pull tonnes out.
I actually believe it's a deformed gene and o really want there to be some kind of way to put it right

Have you tried NAC supplementation?
Just Google "nac trichotillomania" and have a read of the studies that come up.

I just get mine from Amazon - I am now on 3 600mg caps in the morning and 2 in the evening after a bit of experimentation with dose.
I'd describe the effect as turning off the urge to pull and pick, or at least turning it down from 9/10 to 1/10.

There absolutely seems to be a biochemical trigger for these behaviours. My mother was a lifelong nail biter, but in the last years of her life she finally stopped, not because of any efforts she made, she just... was on a whole load of drugs (mild ADs for arthritis pain, god knows what for diabetes, skin issues, and the failing heart and kidneys).

I no longer find myself compulsively and unattractively fiddling with chin hairs in company. Ofc everyone's biochemistry is different but it really helped me. My trich is now just a mildly gross private hobby for a minute or two a week rather than something which ends up with me damaging my skin and looking odd in public.

Pity I didn't find out about it decades ago when I was in my first job and pulled out so much hair from a patch on my head that it yielded a small bald patch which always grew back white afterwards!

I had absolutely no idea about NAC I will have to investigate - thanks so much for this helpful information and for everyone's experiences.

I currently have a huge welt inside my mouth where my top and bottom lips join. It started as just one of those little tiny pimples that you sometimes naturally get, and that irritated as I could feel it, so I bit it off and that was over 6 weeks ago and now it's absolutely huge and swollen and rough and jagged so I find myself gnawing on the roughness trying to smooth it out 😭 and around and around we go.

I will also look in to cbt. Thank you for that suggestion, it's just one of those things I thought they might laugh me out of the office with if I requested it for this particular issue.

I've read lots of good things about NAC but I don't seem to find the time to actually order some 🤦🏻‍♀️

I have all 3 and my trich is flaring at the moment. My SE is a constant, usually my fingers, but I seem to subconsciously stop when there's something on the horizon - anything that would involve photos. Birthdays, weddings etc. Maybe C19 has put a stop to most things like that and that's why it's flaring.

I stumbled upon this thread but I'm grateful it's been started 😄

Thanks @Mamamamasaurus I'm grateful you joined the thread. It can be quite an isolating experience can't it. I honestly didn't realise SE and MB was even a "thing" (I hate that expression, sorry!) until quite recently. I thought it was a very stupid habit that only I had. I have a delivery of NAC winging its way to me as we speak and it should arrive tomorrow so I will let you know how I get on with it.

I started off really well today after a corsodyl mouthwash but started again on my mouth this afternoon and corsodyl made it worse the second time.

Fingers crossed for the NAC!

I am sorry it sounds painful - I have OCD. What you are explaining is obsessive behaviours - highly recommend you go to the Dr to be referred for CBT. If you are in the Uk you don't always even need to go to the doctor - you can self refer yourself to organisations like Healthy Minds which is run by NHS.

I tried the NAC supplement and haven't found it has made much of a difference unfortunately. Today I bought some "Iglu" mouth ulcer treatment. Although I don't have ulcers, the layer covers up the roughness of the lesion I have created in my mouth which I have found really helpful in stopping me from chewing. It also has lidocaine in it to stop the pain so fingers crossed this is a good patch up. I'll have to have a think about the cbt- I've had it in the past for other issues and didn't find it terribly helpful - it raised more questions than answers

I can't believe I've found another mouth-biter!

I have always had oral focused problems, as a baby, I sucked my thumb, young child sucking hair, then biting nails stopped in teens when started smoking, stopped smoking in 20's and didn't think anything of it until someone at work said "why are you always chewing your mouth and twisting it, it's really annoying".

I didn't realise I was doing it, 20 years later there are no signs of stopping. My mouth is lined, I get headaches, my jaw and teeth ache and my face is always contorted. At first I noticed I was doing it when I got hungry or just ate but now I find I am doing it without thinking.

I have tried a therapist (she said "just stop doing it"), flicking a band on my wrist when doing it, trying to be mindful of when I do it and trying to 'just stop', try to let my mouth relax, brushing teeth, gums. Wearing a mouth guard except when eating which gave me a bout of tongue thrush.

I've searched online and found people with similar problems but it all seems to be about biting your cheek accidentally rather than the constant compulsion to nibble those rags of skin - You know what I'm talking about. My tongue can't seem to stop probing them out. I've even thought about piercing it to make it more difficult.

I only ever managed to stop once when I was on holiday, I woke up at 7am with my jaw and teeth throbbing and a headache so I think I was in the mood to have had enough (a bit like starting a diet). I felt my tongue start to move to seek out an uneven piece of cheek and mentally stopped myself by relaxing my jaw and letting my tongue lol, and repeat every time I felt like this (you can only do it first thing on a morning because once you are well into bite-fever you can't stop mid day). I also brushed the insides of my cheeks and lips when brushing to try and get rid of the rags. I tried to be mindful of biting all holiday and managed to continue it when at home. I got used to not doing it and it helped that my sores and rags had cleared up and my cheeks were smooth to stop temptation. It lasted for 3 weeks and then I dared say to DH "have you noticed I haven't been biting for the last couple of weeks" (he didn't notice btw). The day after while eating I bit my cheek drawing blood. I thought "I'll just bite this bit off and even it out" and 4 years later I'm still biting daily.

Watching with interest and might give this nac trichotillomania a try.

Hi @SnoopCatz and welcome it is good to know you're not the only one isn't it!! That sounds really painful and frustrating for you. I didn't have much luck with the NAC but I'm finding the Iglu mouth ulcer treatment really helpful as it covers the lesion and evens it out so there are no rags to chew when you run your tongue over it. I might need to get shares in the company I think as I'm going to buy a lot of it

Good news - my mouth has completely healed since using Iglu

Bad news - I absent mindedly started picking my fingers whilst on a work call today very sore!!!

I do this too. Mouth mother was a mouth biter, I used to bite myself raw when younger.
I started 'picking' my feet in my early forties, thud has progressed to cutting with nail clippers and I often bleed as a result. Sometimes I can barely walk with the pain of newly inflicted injuries and I can bleed profusely, all of my leather doled sandals are blood stained. I was told it was a form of self harming. It is worse when stressed. It doesn't worry me greatly and it is nice to hear that I am not the only one

God so many spelling errors

I pick my skin on my fingers too in the same way, always have done! If I have my nails done and one chips I pick them instead so I always look a bit scruffy 🙄

Practical preventions - I find keeping my nails short stops me picking my face so much, and keeping my hands/ cuticles moisturised helps too.

@SnoopCatz, oh my god I have always chewed my lips. Now in my forties, I have all these lines above my upper lip, presumably from the constant chewing. It makes me feel 20 years older and so upset with myself that I brought it upon myself. I used to pull out my eyelashes when I was little as well. So helpful for my mum to threaten me at the age of 9 or so that she would "take me to the doctor" if I kept at it. Gee, where can I have possibly gotten my fear of medical professionals?

Welcome @everythingbackbutyou - I can fully recommend the Iglu mouth ulcer treatment for lip chewing, it really helped. I'm free of sores for the time being thanks to that.

@thatfuckingtent this is the thread I mentioned

[quote Mamamamasaurus]@thatfuckingtent this is the thread I mentioned[/quote]
Thanks

Can I join. I have trich and the skin thing I didn't know it had a name. There a cross over for me as I bother my scalp the most. I have torn up the skin just within my hairline on my neck so much I can't work out if I have impetigo or not. It's disgusting and embarrassing.

I had hypnotherapy about 10 years ago. It stopped the behaviours for a whole year. Then it just started again.

Thinking about it I'm also a mouth chewer. Christ what's wrong with me.
I've had trich since I was 7. I pulled out all my eyelashes but it was 1986 and I was just told off by my parents and my teacher. I was witnessing horrendous domestic abuse between my parents at the time. I would lie in bed listening to them arguing and him knocking her about tearing my eyelashes out.

The behaviours are linked to my mh but also kind of abstract. My anxiety is raging now though so the skin picking is really bad.

So glad I stumbled across this thread yesterday. I was actually unconcsiously in the middle of a cheek biting episode and reading the thread helped me to become aware of it and stop before it got too sore or gave me really bad jaw ache. My tongue is still probing the rough spots so that iglu stuff would be really helpful. A therapist akso told me to do something positive like apply lip balm whenever I have the urge to chew so I am going to try that.
I have had these compulsive behaviours since I was a child, starting with hair pulling then feet picking, both of which I don't tend to do anymore. Now my main issues are cheek biting and picking at my scalp. I have psoriasis so it is really tempting to pick any flaky bits of skin, especially on my scalp. I just thought it was a disgusting habit until I read a book on OCD which explained these types of behaviour are on the compulsive spectrum. For me it is definitely linked to anxiety and I think also a type of perfectionism, trying to get everything smooth.

I skin pick and I just can not stop and I have been like this for decades
Sometimes I get the urge to pull hair and eyebrows but knowing I already have really shit hair I do stop myself
Haven't done it for years but I have done the biting when I've been really stressed and had awful sores in my mouth
It's shit

Conscious acknowledgement of hair pulling has helped so much with my eyelashes. I am able to stop this and beat urges though a few lashes get come out now and then. I'm so cross with myself when this happens that I remain v conscious of it so that will prevent an urge for quite a long time. At 42 this is the best my eyelashes have looked since I was 7. I know it's getting out of hand when I'm trying to do it when I'm driving it's so dangerous!! I have to wear mascara right up until I'm about to get into bed. The bare eyelashes are very high risk.

I know it's linked to anxiety though it's more abstract than that. Sometimes it's really bad after the anxiety or trauma or whatever.

I replace one habit with another though.