Does anyone else pick the bits of skin off the side of their fingernails and pull and fiddle at them until they rip down in a satisfying and bloody mess?

[FrannyandZooey]

and could you kindly suggest to me that I STOP DOING IT as I fear I may lose a finger or two at this rate

I have no idea why I am indulging this bad habit so much this week. I have 3 on the go and it ruddy hurts tbh

it's not so bad as soon as you have done it, but the next day when you wake up and it is all swollen

apologies to the squeamish btw
thank god for 'hide this thread'

Me too. If I don't have nailpolish on, I pick constantly at the cuticles (that 'skin around the nails').

Which is why my nails are always polished (as soon as I take them off, I have to put polish back on), and I always have a small manicure set in my bag.

Of course I still do it, but much lighter than before. It doesn't get to bleeding/stinging stage.

Never even thought about chewing inside my cheeks or even picking at my feet. Live and learn

Oh and I quit smoking about 4 months ago with no problems and no patch or medication. So I don't think I am totally incapable of breaking a bad habit.

Oh.
My.
God.

I thought I was the only weirdy that did this!!!! Thank the lord for franny

I do thumbs, fingers - whatever has a bit of skin flicked up. I pull it. It bleeds. Then scabs. Then I pick at that. More scabs. Lots of hard skin and sore, throbbing cracks in the skin as it dries.

I managed to pack it in during the run up to my wedding (started picking at my right heel instead )

I find putting plasters on helps. I dont get the urge to pick because there isnt any rough skin catching on things. AND. also, when the plaster comes off, the skin is really soft and you can easily slough off the loose bits of skin etc.

My right foot has very dry skin on the heel that comes off in sheets it seems. I always go one step too far though, and currently I am sat here with my right foot throbbing constantly because I over did it last night.

I've never chewed the inside of my cheeks though.

I do pick at scabs and spots though.

My left hand pinky finger has a quarter of a nail left at the momemnt, surrounded by nail bed and skin!!! I have done this and picked at several other nails and bits of skin surrounding them.

My favourite tool of the trade is tweezers to get to the 'hard to reach' bits of skin. I know I should stop. When people ask what happened to my finger, I tell them I jammed it in a door!!

I've never had a manicure but I would like one if only my hands and fingers were more presentable.

Feel quite bad now............

guilty

poor Dd is doing it, I've noticed..

at least I've managed to stop biting my nails so I'm not showing that bad habit..

so now we have to ask the difficult question - are we a representative sample of the female population or is it that MNers are more likely to be a big bunch of freaks?

yup, tweezers

I've got about 4 dotted around...

four? pah. amateur.

the pursuit of the perfect tweezer is my personal holy grail.

get so frustrated when I can't find a pair of tweezers and it needs done!

If you ALL do this, how come I've never seen anyone with hands like mine? Do you stay indoors? Wear gloves? Have hand doubles?

I am dead proud of my nails now that I've stopped nibbling

am considering putting a little bit of polish on right now...

i refer you to my earlier question. [freak]

My name is Klaw and I am a freak

Gave a long involuntary sigh when I saw the thread title.

Have always been vaguely pleased that I'm not a finger nail nibbler, but just can't resist chewing the skin around my finger nails. Even the bit right under your finger nail on extreme tip of finger... Or the bits that go hard after you've had a skin split on soft pad of your finger tip, then heal but havent' quite finished healing.

Basically, I can eat my whole hand.

I firmly believe that there is a hand cream out there that will stop me doing this. That's even more nuts than eating my hands in the first place, isn't it?!

oh no, tweezers are for amateurs

Nail clippers are the ones for the job you know

They arent for clipping nails at all.....

"And those outside bits of eyelashes - YES YES"
I don't know what the heck THIS poster is on about and I am not sure I want to know

I think many of us are talking about different things, btw
I don't mean the cuticles, I don't mean hangnails, I don't mean random parts of your fingers or thumbs - I mean the very specific little stringy hard bit that runs between your finger and your nail, down the side
normal people are probably not even aware this part exists but it does, and it goes all the way down the side of your nail right to the bottom, and it smarts like buggery when you pull / bite it

Kerry that is almost bad enough to stop me. Note I said almost.

Don't you all hate having to sit on hands/shove em in pockets/generally hide them?

I do Got my hands and nails looking good for my wedding last year,even got acrylics done. Wish i could do that again!!

oh god yes!!!! Wow - haven't read thread yet but am sadly excited...

My fingers are basically bloody stumps and it drives dp bonkers. she's always saying things like the only Christmas/birthday/wedding present she wants from me is to stop picking my fingers.

But I can't. I love it and can't resist...

dd1 does this.

Any ideas on helping her stop?

Just read the thread and can now confess to feet and cheeks as well

Honestly I don't think you can stop if you're this kind of person.

I'm trying to think if we all checked in on the addicts thread - about being easily addicted to things - and I think a fair few of us did...

I think it's more to do being addicted to something than being stressed.

F&Z yes I do that and it really hurts. Also gets infected quite easily and burns until it heals.
I haven't been doing it so much any more, not sure why

I was addicted to fags and gave up really easily. Decided to lose weight easily too. I can do anything fairly easily if i put my mind to it but cannot stop myself doing this!! WHY????

I know exactly what you mean franny
They are the best bits of your hands and yes they hurt like hell and then the hard bit that you left cause you didn't pull it all the way down... it throbs and bleeds but sooo satisfying

I do this. Very satisfying (except when the skin comes off and it hurts).

I pull my eyelashes out too.

And I do the cheek thing.