Bad habits involving the body

Post Reply New Topic

I have begun to realise during my posts on various threads that I have a variety of rather unpleasant habits related to bodily matters. I eat quite badly and talk with my mouth open and don't generally have much concern with remnant food stuck to my face. I also have an unusually intense obsession with lesions, pimples, blackheads, in-grown hairs and the like. I chew my nails and cuticles mercillessly. Any warts on my body are physically torn out with my fingers as soon as possible. I never thought of any of this as unusual but the intensity and agressiveness of these habits and a sense (now) that other people don't do this (as excessively as I do) is dawning upon me. At one time I twirled my hair till it fell out. Another period of time, I chewed all the hair off my arms. I am naturally hairy so this took some doing. This went on for several years. I am fortunate that with a lot of willpower I can shift the habits to new less obvious ones.

I realise now too that removing the contents of my nose may not have been as discreet as I had thought. I am seriously not attempting to sound gross. Its a very real issue. I generate a large amount of nasal snot and 'greenies'. Last week I walked into a parent-teacher meeting and sat down next to the wife. She quietly pointed out the rather obvious 'greenie' that had deposited itself on my shoulder.

Yes, I am a large, hairy, sweaty, nasally congested person with bad skin that generates a lot of pimples, and suchlike.I guess this is what got me interested in these bodily manifestations, probably in my teenage years when such things were a major concern to self image.

So there we go, another aspie-like part of me that I have not understood properly.

I have decided to try be more self aware and try a bit harder concerning bodily functions and social norms.

Some information for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatillomania

...sorry I'm grossed out by your post, I have a very active imagination and it was very graphic for me, particularly the nasally-related topic.

Are they actually green? I would see a Dr. you might have a sinus infection or chronic sinusitis. The picking concerns me because of the likelihood of causing infection. I'd talk to a therapist abt overcoming that issue. If it is an ocd issue a combo of therapy and medication can help. I chew my nails so can't comment on that

The eating habits frustrate me in my own family. I don't like going out to eat with my husband or daughter because it embarrasses me. I can't even look at my husband when he's eating whether we're out or not. I feel ashamed I feel that way but it is the truth.

My aspire son has some similar habits but not strong or obsessive. I need to give him gentle reminders. He has gotten better with age but I think he'll always need gentle reminders from family or friends. His job helps as grooming is an issue for work. He'll never be on GQ but knowing his weaknesses I think he does alright but can improve.

Anyway... you are not alone. Awareness is the first step

I hate to admit it, but I can relate to your post. I've never chewed the hairs off of my arms tho'. I have dermatillomania, which started as picking at imperfections caused by keratosis pilaris, but spiralled out of control so that every pimple results in an ingrowing hair and all the problems associated with that. I have permanent reminders, on my forearms, of spots that became seriously infected sores, with several hairs desperate to find a way out to the surface. I've spent a fortune on treatments, to improve the appearance on my skin, so I can wear short sleeves in the summer, and it looks reasonable now. My GP sent me to a dermatologist, not realising that my existing minor skin condition was being exacerbated by what I was doing. The dermatologist soon worked it out, but never offered any sort of support to sort myself out. She really should have suggested I should be referred for a psychological evaluation. I've also picked at my nails and surrounding skin so much that my fingers have bled and been stinging for days. Every so often I tell myself that I need to stop this nonsense, but then I start again, before I realise what I'm doing. I've always known that this was not normal, but never knew the reasons behind it, until I found WP.

Last edited by Mummy_of_Peanut on 20 Feb 2013, 10:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

I can totally sympathize. I also engage in many of the same unsightly habits. I can't stand to have a pimple or scab. Any imperfection on my skin surface must be eradicated. Scabs are bumpy and have harsh edges and feel tight. I have a need to remove it and make it smooth, even if it bleeds. I had a couple of other bumps on my face I picked off but now they are not there any more! My husband gets real mad at me when he sees me picking at myself. I don't see anything wrong with it, but I guess it is offensive to other people. I try to hide it, but inevitably he sees the raw wound and chastises me for giving myself lesions. It makes him really upset but I don't understand why since it's my skin and not his. I also have had terribly sensitivities on my skin throughout childhood. I do attribute some of this to my allergies--I'm highly allergic to many things. I cannot sleep on sheets that have any particles on it, it is like little tiny razorblades on my skin. I hate the hair that sticks on my skin in the shower, it is like an alien latching onto me I have to get rid of! I also have eczema on one area of my body which, when it flares up, I will scratch and scratch until I bleed. It is awful because I then look like a leper in those spots, and then I then pick away at even more despite how painful, because I don't like the rough edges of remnant skin. My nose--forget it. I used to get nosebleeds as a kid and you can imagine how the dried blood up there afterward would drive me crazy. Plus, those damn allergies again. Let's just say I have an indecent relationship with my nose. On the other hand, I'm not grossed out when I have to clean out my kids' boogers. LOL I really didn't think it was anything truly problematic but now you make me wonder!

I think picking at pimples is pretty normal.

i don't know if this qualifies as a "habit" but i have long been accident-prone due to lack of proprioception.

Interesting that this thread has come up in light of what I did a couple of nights ago. I had a dry scaly spot about 1/4" across that was bugging me. I meant to just scrape off the scale, but by the time I was done I had dug a scrape on my arm. It's all scabby now.

One habit I have is biting my cuticles. I started that when I quite biting my nails years ago. They look terrible and hurt and bleed at times. It's a vicious circle -- I bite at the bad skin, pull it off, it dries and then is hard and scaly and forces me to do it again, ad nauseam.

Yes, but dependent on how much time is spent on it, and the pain and amount of body mutilation that is involved. Also, I don't think people generally mess with their pimples out of sheer pleasure. Mostly "normal" people want them to go away. I am positively delighted with any sort of eruption in my dermal layers.

A few years back I had this bump on my forehead. It was a strangely innocuous bump and was not really squeezable. So, I left it, other than for the occasional massage. As time past it grew and my fascination with it grew at an equal pace. It started going blue-purple eventually, but still nothing came of it. Being bald and with this fairly prominent bump, folk started calling me 'rhino'. As with rhinos I am largely immune to such barbs. At some stage, when massaging this bump, it started releasing dried puss. You know, a bit like a blackhead does. I got extraordinarily excited and even though I was at work at the time I just went nuts squeezing away. It would not have mattered who entered the ablution block, I had blood running down my forehead and it was all on. The intense pleasure of it all was simply irresistible. To this day (many years later) the memory of the large solidifed chunks that came out of my head ar simply exhiliarating. The bump consisted of a hard puss formation that took the form of a crater and the softer stuff was more in the centre of the puss crater. One edge of the craterous solidifed puss came out, I got hold of it and carefully tugged, resulting in the whole thing coming out in one piece. The whole bump became infected and for days after I enjoyed the removal of copious quantities of the stuff.

Now, I don't relay all of this to you to be disgusting. I relay it to you to express the intense pleasure I had in all of this. Writing the whole thing down in graphic detail enables me to relive it. I actually enjoyed the associated pain. The pain is intense but then,as you release there is a deep throbbing numbness which is actually very pleasant.

If I need a pick-up, all I have to do is thing of this little episode with the bump on my head.

I know from all this that I have a low pain threshold.

Quite the story there, and it reminds of something my mother and brother used to do. They would pull out the toenail of their baby toe. I couldn't imagine why they would do such a painful thing. Mom's explanation was that Yes, it hurt terribly, but it felt so good when it stopped hurting that it was worth the pain in the beginning. Very strange...

Fascinating. I don't go so far as pulling whole toenails out. I do tear at my toenails mercilessly and they bleed terribly. Generally toenails are out of sight and out of mind but hen over time I become aware of them being longer than required. I could just use nail clippers but ripping at them with my fingers or possibly the cap off a beer bottle is distinctly more pleasurable. I realise from looking at dermatillomania on the web that there are folk with much worse issues of this sort than me. Mine is an activity that I engage in once or thrice a day whereas there are others who go at it no stop. I also generally target things that need fixing whereas the truly obsessed pick at everything. The chewing of the hairs on my arms was the exception; that was truly off-the-radar OCD.

I also generally target things that need fixing but my dislike of body hair at one time compelled me to tweeze out my body hairs. It was a very relaxing hobby. I would do it at night as a way to wind down from the day (when I had time, and no kids of my own). My husband put a kabosh on it, so I stopped for the sake of marital harmony. I wasn't particularly distressed about having to stop, as I resorted back to shaving, which provided a less superior result, but adequate enough.