Hands and feet

[lifestreasures]

Hi, I was thrilled to see there is a group for this problem and I joined right away (today). I am 50 yrs old and until recently I thought I was the only one with a "picking" problem. I mentioned my habit to a therapist and found out it actually has a name. I tried to enter the chat room but to no avail.

A little background on my specific picking problem. I started picking and mutilating my fingernails when I was 14 ( I was/am highly anxious). Now I pick the nails and skin around my fingernails and toenails (mutilate toenails, especially baby toes) and I pick what begins as dead skin underneath my large toes which leads to picking, bleeding and soreness of the healthy skin. Have you heard of this or done this specific habit before?

I look forward to hearing from you. I have a strong urge even around people and I have figured out ways to hide it but not as inconspicuously as I'd like. Thanks.

[linlin]

Hi.

Yes, I've done this. I start by picking at and peeling off dead skin from my toes and heels - and can get to a point where I've drawn blood and made the bottom of my feet sore and hard to walk on. I'm usually alone when I do this, but my family has seen it - though I wish that wasn't the case. (My mom and grandmother both picked at their feet, too, if you can believe that.)

You know how you hear that something is a problem if it interferes with your daily life? Well, I live near the beach and I like to take my child to the pool almost daily, but I didn't Monday because I was too afraid of what others might see/think. We did go today - I forced myself really - saying to myself, you do this to yourself, you live with the consequences. But that's not a particularly healthy attitude either, of course!

Tomorrow there is a group swim date at a local pool for moms and kids, but because I actually know and am friends with people there I am too embarassed to go. I just hate that this problem is negatively impacting my child now, so I'm going to use this board for help and support as much as I can to get to a better place. Join me.

[PPCGUY]

I have this problem...in fact, If I could stop picking at the calluses around my fingernails, I probably wouldn't have this problem.

[twinkletoes6]

I do it too...have for years. I used to be dancer and I would pick the hell out of my callouses. I pull down deep too--have to use bandaids or liquid bandage to cover sometimes. Several of my siblings pick their feet too. Hereditary?

[hidden]

Yes, I do it too.
My feet look absolutely awful.
Tried to quit this past Feb., but am slowly sliding back into it. (The damaged area keeps widening). Damn.

[raerae]

hi all,

i havent posted in ages but i pop by every now and then... i keep meaning to post but ive been feeling quite bad for a while- i sort of feel like ive lost my voice. and i feel guilty for not contributing.

but aaanyway, i read this thread and i wanted to share what helped me with the whole hands and feet thing.

as a child and teenager i used to chew the sides of my thumbs so bad that the damaged areas on each side would almost meet on the pad of my thumb. a few years ago i realised that what made it easy for me to do was that that part of the thumb has relatively thick skin- well, it certainly had after years of attack. this makes it prone to peeling and cracking, and thus highly pickable. also the thickness allows one to bite deep without the pain that youd get if you tried it on softer skin.

when i was doing my arts degree i was spending a lot of time with my hands in clay and water and my thumbs were a mess. i began to lightly file the sides of my thumbs (when my hands were dry), with an emery board, two or three times a week. eventually the peeling layers got evened out and the skin was thinner and softer, so no cracking bits to gnaw on and increased sensitivity to the pain of trying! it really helped me break the cycle.

same goes for feet... thickening=cracking=picking=ouch, ouch, ouch! since i dont need thick foot skin (lets not forget that this capacity for increased keratinisation is one of natures ways of protecting us... v.useful before we dreamt up shoes!) i use a foot file to keep it from getting too thick:

e.g.

www.thebodyshop.com/bodyshop/browse/product_detail.jsp?productId=prod1200003

and a foot cream with urea (the skins own moisturiser, apparently):

e.g. www.drfoot.co.uk/acatalog/CSS_Foot_Cream_60ml_Tube.html


this has really put a stop on my thumb and foot picking and i hope it might help someone else out a little too!

love, rae xxx

[raerae]

one other thing...

i posted a while back about the (foot)picking references in Margaret Atwoods novel, ‘Cats Eye’, but couldnt find the passages in the book. well, now i have and i also found a link from which the following is taken:

“And yet, the most revealing aspect of the novel centers around not just relationships in general, but the relationships between women. By effortlessly weaving the text between the past and the present, Atwood explores the many different relationships women can have - whether it is between mothers and daughters, between lovers or just friends. Specifically, the novel focuses on one key relationship, that between Elaine and childhood friend Cordelia. Cordelia represents the best and the worst in people. She's all one would ever look up to as a child and young adult. She's the ultra strong Atwood character archetype, she's almost the perfect woman: beautiful, smart, charming, larger than life and powerful. In many ways, Cordelia is the ultimate Atwood antagonist.

And it's frightening how much power Cordelia wields over Elaine: "In the endless time when Cordelia had such power over me, I peeled the skin off my feet. I did it at night, when I was supposed to be sleeping. My feet would be cool and slightly damp, smooth, like the skin of mushrooms. I would begin with the big toes. I would bend my foot up and bite a small opening in the thickest part of the skin, on the bottom, along the outside edge. Then, with my fingernails, which I never bit because why bite something that doesn't hurt, I would pull the skin off in narrow strips. I would do the same to the other big toe, then to the ball of each foot, the heel of each. I would go down as far as the blood. Nobody but me ever looked at my feet, so nobody knew I was doing it. In the mornings I would pull my socks on, over my peeled feet. It was painful to walk, but not impossible. The pain gave me something definite to think about, something immediate. It was something to hold on to."”

www.epinions.com/content_121816518276


and, from a later chapter:

“She must have realized what was happening to me, or that something was. Even towards the beginning she must have noted my silences, my bitten fingers, the dark scabs on my lips where I’d pulled off patches of the skin.”


until i found this board a year or so back i thought i was the only person in the world who picked... i wish id read this book when it was first published...

rae xxx