Harmful Stimming-please help

Post Reply New Topic

My stimm is causing more and more damage and its needs to stop,ive tried a few methods but it is so difficult!
I pick the dead skin off of my neck,sometimes the inner elbow,my face,or my chest.
because of this i am developing big skin tags all over my neck and chest ,my neck is sore too and hurts to move up.
my therapist told me to hit myself with a rubberband everytime i stimm ,but i cant bring myself to do it i just dont like hurting myself
my boyfriend knows i dont like wet sensations so he licked my face when i stimmed,still stimmed but with less frequency
I think i do it when i have higher levels of anxiety or im concentrating on a book or tv
most of the time i dont realize i do it,when i do it i cant stop it just feels to good/impelled to do it.
this started like 2 to 3 years ago when i started meds so i dont know if its related
when my mom angrily yells at me to stop i do it even more
also one of my stimms is going away to pick my nose,it comes and goes,it dosent really get to the point where i hurt myself but its unsanitary
i do it now mostly in the car and when i watch tv

I used to stim kind of like that. Took a while to consciously switch myself out of it. Lately I try stimming by tracing circles on my palm with the thumb of the other hand.

The advice to smack yourself with a rubber band is stupid. We don't respond to those 'negative feedback' techniques the way NTs do. They only increase the anxiety which increases the stimming.

My advice is to find an alternate stim to do that's not harmful, but gets the fidgets out.

Sprinting should fix that. Or just drop and do as many push-ups as you can every time you feel like picking. Just ideas. I'm lucky I grew out of it, I used to flap my hands! Drove my parents nuts.

I have a similar problem. I have a spot on my chin which I pick at all the time, it's been there about a year and won't go away. I used to have one on my forehead which I christened (to myself!) "the red spot of Jupiter" but now it's gone. But the biggest problem is picking the skin off my my lips and making them bleed. I've started carrying a squeezy toy around with me and playing with it everytime I want to pick my face in order to replace the stim with a harmless one, but as it's entirely subconscious it's easier said than done. I wish I could find a way to stop it.

i cant think of another stim to replace it with that i would enjoy as much and wouldnt be harmful
ill try running or push ups since i have started dieting excersing recently,it can only help
also i tried the squeeze ball and for some reason it build up tension instead of releasing it,the act of making a fist and squeezing makes me angry
i also tried clay but it gets all over my hands and under my fingernails,i wonde rif theirs any clay thats not sticky?

i just remebered a lady that i asked at a clinic said to massage my hands to stimulate them and this might help? has anyone tried this?

I pick at things too..

I finally healed a spot on my pinkie finger that I had been picking at for -TWO YEARS-. Every time it would get close to healing, i would pick at it and it would re-bleed and then start the whole cycle again.

One large step in fixing it, was 'DO NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO HAVE DRY SKIN'. If its not there, I cant pick at it, so i lotion obsessively, I trim hangnails off right away etc.

That said, I pretty much subbed it out for some of my older stims that were knocked out of me as a kid or young adult. I do the lip biting thing too....but I also move air around inside my mouth, thus stretching my cheeks out, sometimes one side at a time....sometimes both. I had stopped that for a while after someone told me not to make strange facees so much, but lately i have stopped caring...it feels nice.

I know actors in their workshops do exercises in which they shake out tension.

I sometimes shake and squeeze a favorite soft T-shirt as I remember sports or action movies. But this is embarrassing and not really for public consumption.

I hear yeah, I'm in a severe need to stim right now, however I can't because my nerve damage in my back means I can't feel my finger tips right now.

I got tendinitis and nerve damage.

i bought clay from walmart 3 different kinds with very different textures,very different stimuli
i didnt realize how much i am sensitive to touch,how active my hands are.....maybe i should get into pottery
anway im going to try one each day and see which helps the most

i dont know about the lotion ill try but i dont like how it feels its too wet

Stress balls help me control the urge to pick at the skin around my fingernails. I have one with me wherever I go, but normally the worst time that happens is like you say... when you're absorbed in a book or a film, or just some activity which leaves your hands fairly idle.

Perhaps also keeping your fingernails really short might help lessen the damage?

I pick the skin around my fingers, too. I keep my fingernails short, now I rub my nailbeds compulsively. So no, that might now help. The trouble with skin picking is that it's really hard to stop.