inner lip and cheek removing

Hi Maya, For at least 6 years now, I have been practically eating the inside of my mouth, to the point that I had to get veneers on my teeth from the damage I've done. I guess this disease can play out several ways. As a child, I chewed my fingernails, then when I decided not to do that anymore, it moved to the cuticles and sides of my fingers. Then during one period of my life, I remember picking callouses and chewing on them. Got disgusted with that, and started chewing on my lips and inner cheeks. The dentist said that I had bruxism. I told him that was not it - I was not doing it in my sleep, I was doing it while awake, but he didn't believe me. I got a mouth guard, and was able to quit that habit by wearing the mouth guard, but just recently I started having problems with my skin, and now I've probably got 50 open sores on my back, left arm, and the backs of my legs. I think this all has to do with dermatillomania. Have you downloaded the guide? It has a list of therapists that deal with this disorder. I'm thinking about making an appointment with one, even though he would be 1 1/2 hours away. I'm very afraid of the sores I've got now - with MRSA around it's scary.

I am definitely starting to realise that this can play out in so many different ways and also realising that although my worst problem is picking at my acne, I have many other obsessive impulses too. I too bite at my cheeks, especially when I'm feeling anxious - to the point where it stings to eat but I just cant stop, even now I can feel myself running my tongue along the inside of my face ready to bite at one of the healing 'scabs'. This can go on for a few weeks at a time and then I'll stop for a month or so. I am finding it really helpful to find other people going through a similar problem and its really helping me to link different obsessive complusions that I have and get to the deeper problem of my anxiety which I've never really given much thought. Somehow its easier to deal with the anxiety on a superficial level by pulling at picking at skin rather than deal with the real cause of the problem.

Maya617, i have the same exact problem!!! I can't believe i finally found someone just like me! The only difference is that instead of using ny fingers, I've come to find out that using clippers is a much more useful tactic.(Though it's nothing i should brag about.)

*my