Dermatophagia (lip, Finger Or Skin Biting): Why Does It Happen?
Why do we bite the skin on our fingers, lips or skin? Can peeling the skin off your fingers be a sign of a disorder? Find out why we do it and how to eliminate it.
The dermatophagy It is a psychological condition in which a person compulsively bites, chews, gnaws or eats their skin. People often tear the skin off or around their fingers (the hangnails of their fingers), as well as bite the inside of their mouth, among other behaviors.
The people with dermatophagia They may become ashamed of this behavior, since it may be visible due to the wounds it leaves on the skin. According to research, this behavior may be related to or part of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This is because a person has thoughts and behaviors related to these actions that are continuous, uncontrollable and recurring. But why does dermatophagia arise and how to avoid it?
The dermatophagy It is known as a body-focused repetitive behavior (CRCC). Although it is mainly known by those people who bite the skin on their fingers or the skin on their lips or inside their mouth, it goes beyond these bad habits.
In reality, these types of behaviors are part of a disorder. Mainly, people with this condition can biting your lip, fingers, or eating the skin on your body, leaving it bloody, damaged and in some cases they can even infect it. This compulsion most frequently affects the hands, especially the fingers. However, it can also occur in other parts of the body. Other body-focused repetitive behavior disorders include:
The people that They present dermatophagia They can perform the following actions:
Biting your mouth inside
Lip biting
Biting the skins (hangnails) of the fingers
Peeling the skin off your fingers
Present skin damage due to this type of attitude
Distress due to this type of behavior, since it interferes with your life
This disorder is closely related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Despite this, not all people with dermatophagia They have OCD, sometimes this type of attitude is a manifestation of stress or anxiety or a habitual reaction to feeling uncomfortable, that is, a kind of coping mechanism.
Why do I bite my tongue or fingers?
The main reasons why people suffer from dermatophagia are the following:
Impulsivity and impulse control: The dermatophagy It is closely related to impulsivity. An impulsive act involves not being able to resist the temptation to perform a certain action, as well as its relief and the feeling of pleasure that accompanies it. Impulsive behaviors are linked to not thinking about the consequences of actions, therefore, it is associated with a loss of control.
Anxiety: Anxiety can also cause dematophagy In fact, the appearance of lip-biting or finger-biting behavior may be the result of a general anxiety disorder in response to nervousness or the physiological symptoms inherent to it.
Obsessions and compulsions: As we have mentioned, the dermatophagy It is also related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Stress: It can also be the result of being faced with moments of excessive stress and the need to cope with these moments, added to the lack of adaptive coping skills.
Inner nervousness: Nerves can also cause behaviors associated with dermatophagy With this type of attitude we seek to relieve tension.
Emotional pain: Through this type of behavior biting fingers, lips, and other parts of the skin The search may seek to feel pleasure to alleviate these types of negative feelings. However, another cause of dermatophagia may be trying to calm the emotional pain a person is experiencing. Through these behaviors, the goal is to generate physical pain that would allow them to decentralize from emotional pain.
If this type of attitude continues over time, people can suffer injuries to the skin, mouth and fingers. Furthermore, if the dermatophagy does not stop, it is very likely that people end up adopting these attitudes as strategies to cope with stress. Creating a bad habit with which these situations and their respective thoughts are not really faced correctly.
How to stop biting your fingers, mouth and skin?
If you suffer from dermatophagy, it is important that you try to combat these types of attitudes before they get worse. To do this you can follow the following tips:
Seek psychological treatment: Psychological therapy will focus on finding alternative behaviors that are incompatible with biting your lip or fingers Cognitive behavioral therapy is also used to use behavior modification techniques to eliminate these inappropriate actions and establish appropriate behaviors.
Learn incompatible behaviors: It is relevant to detect when, how and in what context dermatophagia develops. Once we know it, we must try to replace this habit with one that is incompatible, that is, we cannot do it. do if we bite our lips, hand or skin
Learn coping strategies: As we have indicated, normally biting fingers, mouth, or skin It may be due to a state of inner nervousness, whether due to anxiety, stress or tension. In this way, to replace this type of behavior we can learn other coping strategies such as breathing or relaxation techniques.
To leave behind attitudes related to dermatophagy it is essential to try to make small changes and apply them continuously daily to remove this habit from our lives.
