severe lip picking

This is the first time I have ever googled this problem; I'm 28 and have picked my lips since I was about 13/14...I have done it pretty much every day since. Until now, yesterday I decided enough was enough and that I've got a few days off and that I'm going to try and not pick them at all. SO I've used carmex constantly and the skin is really gross underneath HOWEVER, they are healing themselves and I am DETERMINED to not pick them...hopefully by tomorrow they will be healed completely...or even Saturday. However, even though it's not a problem that has really got to me, I realised I can't do it forever and my mum has always told me off for doing it! Even now at 28!! So...it's like smoking, the temptation is ridiculous; it's like a drug when you do it...HOWEVER the only way to stop is literally staying strong and being fully conscious of NOT doing it too...they will be horrible for a couple of days YES, but then after, you will become more aware of you doing it. Putting on carmex constantly is definitely helping the healing process and makes them look better. Anyway, a couple of days being strong & aware is all it takes really, (I notice I do it when I'm anxious) maybe try other ways to relieve your anxiety instead...(I know it's not as satisfying coming from a lip-picker I KNOW!) but...in the end you will be proud of yourself & your lips will look normal! yay :)

I have been picking my lips for about 38 years, since I was about 4 yrs old. Two years ago I got acrylic nails for the first time and found that I could no longer do it with those fake nails on. YAY! I know someone who was born with a bad nail condition and has gotten acrylics every 2 weeks since she was about 12 years old and now she's in her mid-twenties, with no adverse effects. I hand-wash dishes a lot, and got a little fungus a couple of times, but it went away, no problem. I recently stopped getting them done due to finances, and to see if I'd start picking my lips again, which unfortunately, I did, and now it's been a couple months. I will get a new set pretty soon. I recommend the natural style of American manicure, which is like the French manicure, but not stark-white tips. They look very natural! I get mine rounded (not square shaped) and short. I had some expensive solar nails and another special kind that is meant to be superior, but the acrylics are the cheapest, look great, and do the job of preventing lip-picking. I was addicted to lip balm every night, which made my lips feel "tight" and when I picked them, they rarely bled, since it was pretty much the dried lip balm coming off. Occasionally my lower lip bleeds a little but heals in one day. I tried Mary Kay's lip exfoliation to ease the feeling that they need to be picked at, but that didn't help much; I usually still felt like picking. I have also tried the stick on nails from Dollar General, which are fine for a one-day special occasion or weekend, but they come off fairly quickly. The thumb ones stayed on well though, so I just kept them on for about 2 weeks (they were french manicure) which made it difficult to pick. I hope my experience and advice helps someone!

I have been picking my lip for as long as I can remember. It's something that I.enjoy doing even tho its sometimes hurts like hell and it starts to bleed. I use my fingers but most of the time I use TWEEZERS.. Yes, I said tweezers.lol I don't do it bc I enjoy the pain or seeing the blood like some ppl do I do it bc I kinda get excited when.I pick at them and peel off a long and wide peice of skin...weird I know..I went as far as dumping out a bottle of meds and used the bottle to store my lip skin bc I thought it was such an exciting feeling to peel that skin...but after a month of doing that I reposed I better not bc I would pick more and more everyday just so I could fill the bottle..its weird I know but I'm only telling u guys this bc most ppl live doing it bc of the pain or the blood and I did it just for the skin. The blood and pain part I actually hated...the best part was less then 24 hrs later the skin would grow back and I would be right back at it with the tweezers and a mirror... I just got done 3 mine ago and I'm typing with a peice of napkin on my mouth stopping the blood...I go thru phases where I would do it constantly for a couple months and stop for a couple...I think it gets bad when I'm more stressed out and have a lot on my mind and when I do it I'm focusing on my lip and only my lip....I thought I was the only one out there who had this issue....I'm soo happy I'm not...I constantly catch ppl staring at my lips when they r talking to me and I'm always wondering like what r they thinking...I hope one day I could actually resist from doing it....

I’ve been picking and peeling my lips (particularly the bottom) since about middle school; I am 22 now. I had never met another “lip-picker” until I met my boyfriend 2 years ago, I noticed a few small puckered wounds on his lip that I noticed far too frequently in the mirror. Until I met him, I was very ashamed of myself and what my psychologist wanted to call “Self-mutilation.” (I felt that was taking it too far, although yes, demographically it could be considered that, and I am tired of doing it) but for the first time outside of therapy, I told someone. After we got to know each other, I told him that I picked my lips, without pointing his out. He openly admitted he did it as well. We talked a lot about how embarressed we were, about it "feeling good," how we wish we could stop. As well as how it feels that people always seem to notice when you feel the least confident about it. Ever since that moment, if someone tells me “Your lips are chapped” or “Your lip is bleeding” I simply say, very easily, “Oh, yeah, I have a habit of picking my lip, kind of like biting your nails.” In reality, you do feel a little self-concious, but I promise just saying those words confidently and admitting that you have a habit, is so relieving. And guess what? Each time I say this, the person I said it to goes on about a different subject and doesn’t notice again. It's refreshing. When I was young I had (excuse the likely misspelling) trichotilomania, which is pulling of the hair folicles. I did this to my head and eyelashes for about a year when I was 6, my parents were divorcing at the time. I didn’t know what it was until I researched it in high school when I noticed my lip habit, and very quickly associated my lip picking with my previous condition. For those of you out there that have any ‘picking’ issues: hair, skin, nails, teeth…it’s all the same. So lip pickers, if you come across someone who doesn’t pick their lip but pulls at something else, feel free to open up to them. I’ve done this for a few people that I’ve come across, just telling them openly that I have the same habit, and even that helps. The surprise on their face mixed with the “You understand?” stare is priceless, and you may just make a new friend. I hope I can stop picking soon. My bottom lip is always so red and blotchy, I never feel comfortable in photographs, and I have spent a small fortune on the menthol Medicated Chapstick. My boyfriend has gotten so much better though! And he’s the one helping me each day reminding me not to pick when I zone out, or get drowzy but not tired enough to sleep. It really helps to have a teammate and best friend in quitting this habit. He is patient with me, he knows exactly what it's like. *** Side note: Ladies stop covering it with lipstick! No matter how bad you think it looks, please no lipstick!! From personal experience, the synthetic dyes can actually cause bacterial infections in the cuts. It kills me to read so many women stating that they cover it with lipstick and liner. Lipstick shouldn’t be applied to any open sores!*** Thank you for this site and forum. I knew there were others out there that could empathize, but I didn't realize how many! I wish I had found all of you sooner! :)

Same boat as everyone else: been picking since who-knows-when and I seem to be drawn to picking/biting my lips without realising it. Current age: 25. Times I've tried to stop: haha too many to count! I am contributing to this conversation because one of my many spur of the moment "cure" lip balms has actually been able to heal my lips fast enough that i have been able to stand NOT picking the new skin off before it heals! First, I read about coconut oil and started applying this, thought it was pretty good, seemed to be working. But then I randomly bought SUPER Lush Lips by Dr. Nicholas Perricone on Strawberry.Net and I am in LOVE with this balm! Although I read somewhere that it's been discontinued :( But anyhoo, i bought it cos it claimed to have "coconut oil tocotrienols" in it... not that I know what they are... but i was enjoying the straight coconut oil so i thought i'd give this a go, BEST DECISION I'VE EVER MADE. Day 3 of using it constantly and my lips have gone through the new skin phase and are almost healed completely for the first time in I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHEN! I managed to force myself to not pick for the last 3 days... I think i maybe let myself pick/bite with my teeth once or twice but that's a huge deal. I feel that I'm getting over the compulsion to pick when I'm bored/nervous and the SUPER lip balm/coconut oil is definitely helping, so get on it if you can find it online!! It's funny that I tell my flute and piano students every lesson that repetition is the key to perfection. If you repeat a desired behaviour over and over correctly enough times you will force a new habit, whether good or bad. Why I have never put my foot down and applied this to my lip picking situation I'll never know. The more times you can keep your hands/teeth away from your lips the better your "winning streak" will be and you will make a new, good habit of resisting the urge to pick :) I'm looking forward to having smooth normal lips in the next few days because I WILL keep this good momentum up!!! Good luck, everyone :)

dear friends, let me say first how moved i was when i read all these comments about 10 days ago. apart form the incredible insights and self-analysis i saw throughout this forum, what struck me was the strangely beautiful (shall i say almost poetic) way in which you wrote your confessions. here is my story: i have been picking my lower lip intensively since 2007, so about six years now, although it probably started earlier than that, but in that period it must still have been intermittent. around 2007 i was having a very stressful time in school when i started picking intensively. i have not had my mouth look normal since then even for a few days. the worst fruit of my picking labor is a dark spot from a blood vessel that has been broken, with much blood flowing all down my mouth and chin (vampire-style) a total of fifteen to twenty times maybe. it's always been the same vessel so i am not sure if the dark mark will go away even if i stop picking for a good while. it's ugly and it bothers me a little but perhaps not as much as the general condition of my lower lip. now, when i read the posts more than a week ago it was like a revelation. it just so happened that around the same time a significant other, who is a habitual cheek-chewer, decided to quit the habit. that was a big inspiration, along with your posts, because instead of being scolded by someone who doesn't have the problem, i saw a good example close at hand. if someone next to you shows they can do it, it could help you as well. or at least it had that effect on me. so i decided to stop, and here is the report: 1. i armed myself with two very smooth dark pebbles, very pleasant to the touch, about two inches in diameter, that i had gotten years ago on cape cod, so there were some pleasant memories associated. the pebbles went into my hands and didn't leave them except in cases when i had to hold something else (while cooking e.g.) 2. i started scabbing. it was terrible. i couldn't bear it but i tried my best, and i think i did do my best. there was a relapse of sorts every once in a while but not quite to harmful: i felt a compulsion to at least clip the edges of the scabs every once in a while with a pair of nail clippers. i wish i had not done that because it was a bit of cheating, but in the end it wasn't so bad because i was careful and really did not cut more than little ends that were already peeling off, and i did it very gradually. 3. the worst thing was that one round of scabbing turned out to not be enough. there was a second round — but the scabs were thinner, smaller, and less prominent. so i was trying to be patient. 4. after the fist six days or or, when the scabbing had become lighter, i started using honey — just smearing honey (very thick, non-viscous, raw and very waxy organic honey) gently on my lips. that was really good. i managed not to lick my lips, as i saw some people said online when describing this method of sealing and moisturizing the lip surface. my lips are not perfectly healed or smooth yet, but it's getting there. i will try to continue to be patient and not touch or pick them. i am feeling hopeful. it was not as bad as i thought it would be after the first week. that's the hardest time.

Wow!!! And here I was thinking I was the only one who did this! I'm a 33 year old woman and I can't really remember when it began, but I was at least a young teenager, if not younger. I can't remember a trigger or an event that made me start. I pick my lip when I'm thinking, watching TV, eat, as I am online, doing homework, at work and even driving, etc. My family, when I lived at home, used to tease me and say I'll pick my lip until it bleeds (they were right), but of course, didn't make me stop. Some partners of mine have brought it up, but I can't stop doing it. It's as if I just can't help it. Being a woman, you always want your lips to look nice and succulent, but I have the opposite effect. I keep several chapsticks on hand to help smooth away the look of the effects of the picking. It makes me feel better, but I doubt it looks good to other people. If my nails are cut short, I'll just try my darnest to bite them. I don't know where this came from and wonder if I'll ever stop. It consumes me. I can see how this can be OCD related. Maybe even an oral fixation (Freudian theory). Are there other lip pickers (feels weird to even type the phrase) that also smoke, drink, eat excessively or anything else that will maybe be related to an oral fixation?

I just stumbled onto this page and it sounds like I wrote it. I'm 34 and been doing this since I was around 5. I do it when I'm stressed. I do it when I'm really relaxed. I do it when I'm driving, nursing my son, reading, or under pressure. I usually don't even realize it until I'm a good 10 minutes in, at which point, "oh well, I've started, may as well keep going, and then I really mean it, I'm going to try and stop." My SO keeps telling me to "just stop" but I've been trying to "just stop" for years. Looks like there are some good suggestions on here, maybe one of them will work for me. The last time I went a whole day without picking someone commented that my lips looked awful, which set me off on a binge. Then I ended up having to photoshop my lips so I could share a photo of me with my son, since I looked like I'd been punched in the mouth. I'm just so glad to know this is a real "thing" and that I'm not alone in this crazy.

I have been picking way at my lips for as long as I can remember. I pick and pick until my fingers are covered in blood and my eyes are watering, and even then I keep picking. Sometimes when I'm out I bite my lip and realise I'm making a weird face so I have to stop. And the problem is, I know what I'm doing to myself, and I just can't stop. I saw a comment about fake fingernails working but I'm only 15 so I don't think I should be wearing fake nails. If someone thinks of a good way to stop please let me know!

Oh my gosh! I thought I was the only one who did this! For as long as I can remember, I've been picking my lips. I pick them until they bleed. It pisses off my bf because he doesn't want me to scar my lips, I'm not sure if that's even possible, maybe he's just saying it to get me to stop, but I barely notice when I do it. Like, I know I'm doing it and I know I shouldn't, but then it's like I don't notice or don't care. It sort of annoys me when I wind up with red spots where they were bleeding, it looks bad but doesn't leave any scars or anything, so I don't really mind. No one at work says anything about it, no one besides him tells me to stop. But being yelled at to stop doesn't exactly help. So I don't know what else to do. I bought this stuff to help me numb and moisturize my lips, because it's the way they feel that bothers me the most. They feel like they are peeling anyway, so I think "I'll just peel off the dying skin". But it turns out, they aren't peeling at all. I don't know why they feel like they are, and it really bothers me.

Ive been lip picking for at least 2 years and its horrible, Ive tried stopping but usually cant go more than a day without doing too and i just realized im doing it now whilst typing . My friends usually tell me to stop but i just wait til they're not looking and continue doing it , My lips are always chapped dry and peeling because i never give them the chance to recover but im glad im not the only one that does it. Also if i ever get itchy bites i always have the urge to pick them and have to resort in covering them with band aids just to stop myself.

I knew that I was not the only person that picks the skin off my lips but I did not know that it was this serious. I have been picking the skin off my lips since I was in the 1st grade. I saw my mother doing it one day and started because she was. I have tried using chapstick to make sure I don't but it doesn't work. My b/f gets mad because he says it makes my lips ugly. Like some of you, he would pull my hands away from my face which would only make me anxious. If you have ever saw a movie with a drug addict feening for their "fix" then you know how I am. That’s how I feel whenever he pulls my hands away from my face. Then I try to sneak and do it without him seeing. Which only works for like a minute or two. I am now 27, so this has been going on for almost 21 years. One of the things that helps me is when I go get my nails done (sorry guys). Because of the thickness of the acrylic, it prevents me from being able to successfully pull the off my lip so I don't do it. However, I am tired of spending money just to keep myself from picking my lips until they bleed, burn and are sore. I am just tired of it but can't stop.

I don't feel like such a freak now that I know I'm not alone I really want to stop picking at my lip and I really have tried chapstick and candy I do it worse when I'm stressed its like a habit they look bad and sometimes lipstick wont hide it, I'm twenty six,my husband gets aggravated at me and even my six year old tells me to stop, I know how u feel

I used to pick at my lips really bad too. it was at its worst when I was smoking crack because my lips were always burnt and peeling. Since I've quit I've been picking at them a lot less, but what really helped me the most was using carmex. I use it constantly to keep my lips mosturized and I've found that as long as they aren't dry I don't feel the need to pick at them.

I'm also 20 and have been picking my lips forever. I'm just like you, lol, I don't even notice I'm doing it until it stings or I'm bleeding. I was able to stop once for about three weeks, the secret? Fake nails. Honestly, I hate fake nails, I don't like how they look on me and are, more often than not, tacky. But when I had acrylic tips for prom my senior year, I couldn't pick my lips. I even had moments of overwhelming anxiety not being able to, but over time those moments grew further apart. It got to the point where I would touch my lips constantly because I still had the compulsion, but no longer picked at them. I hated the nails so much that when they came off, I didn't replace them, I should have. Try it out for longer than 3 weeks, it's a habit like any other and CAN be broken, it just takes more patience than what I gave it. My friends are the same, always smacking my hand away and telling me to stop, ignore them, they don't understand and cannot help. You can take control of it, but it has to be YOUR decision, don't worry about your boyfriend, you should stop for you :) and you can do it

I'm 22..I've been picking my lips since I can remember. I pick them all the time my entire family especially my mom always tells me to stop or slaps my hand! It gets so bad to the point where ill begin to drull on myself! I don't understand why I do it and where it came from! When I do it in public I get all kind of weird looks...so I try not to! I also bite the insides of my jaws and puck scabs! I can't stand scabs....Ive even tried to pick other peoples scabs! I just feel weird idk!!!

I pick my lips too (I'm 23 and have been doing it since grade school)! Usually in public and around people I try to just bite instead. I also pick at the skin around my fingers. The one thing I found does help is having fake nails. I still pick but they make it so it's less severe. I have anxiety disorder and picking/biting seems to just relax me. I realize I do it when I am more stressed out and tend to notice I hardly do it when I am with my boyfriend. I don't do it to feel pain, and get irritated if it does hurt or bleed and stop. I just want my lips and skin on my fingers to be smooth usually once my lips are smooth I stop. I'll used nail clippers to clean up my fingers and then stop. It's a weird thing to be doing I find my hands get sore from repetitively picking and I am most worried arcarpal tunnel or arthritis in the future. It's like how smokers just addicted to the hand to mouth action and the smoking not just the nicotine. It's something I've done for years and I'm just used to doing.

Ok so for me it began when i was about 8 or 7. i just remember touchin my lips. now im 13 and i remeber my ex always got so mad becasue she saw all the the cuts on my lips. it was only my bottom lip. i still do it alot. i mean i can't stop. but im begging to get control over it. usally when i start to touch my lip i get vazaline so i cant pick my lip. another way is i try not to think aobut it. but when its on my mind i do it alot.

I had no idea other people do this! I know about the hair pulling and other disorders, but I didn't realize I had one - well, I knew this was not normal, but until googling had no idea others do it! Yesterday I was getting a tire replaced and the urge to pick was so bad, I use my teeth a lot too, I bit at a hard patch until I got it off and, of course... major blood. Just about the time I got it off, I realized the guy behind the counter was watching. I was SO embarrassed. What a nutjob he must be thinking I am. Then it bleeds another 10 minutes and I'm trying to pay for my service while acting like "no biggie". UGH, I have to stop doing this. I can go a few days, but the minute that skin starts coming back, I have to get it off. I bleed almost every time, I pull too deep. I know I'm going too deep, but I do it anyway! I'm 47 and I really don't remember when I started this. I don't think I did this when I was younger. I've had a lot of stress the last 10 years and I'm sure that plays into it. Now that I know I'm not alone, I'm going to tackle this. Glad I found this site!