Most people have some kind of anxious habit. When we are faced with stress, we turn to our habits as an immediate form of stress relief. One of my awful anxious habits is picking at my skin (lovely, I’m aware). Sometimes without even realizing, I will incessantly pick at the skin around my nails sometimes even to the point where they bleed (even more lovely!).

I am fully aware that it is an absolutely disgusting and very unhealthy habit, and as a result,  I am constantly faced with questions and comments from people, typically including phrases like “what’s wrong with your hands,” “just stop doing that,”  and the most common, “doesn’t that hurt?” and the list goes on. Comments like this do come from a truly loving and caring place, and I most definitely appreciate the love and concern; however, comments like this usually just tend to worsen my habits.

The whole reason I started picking was anytime I got the common hangnail, it bothered me how it made my fingers look uneven which lead me to pick it off. Picking the hangnail would then leave a mark, which I hated even more than the hangnail so I would continue to try and even it out. This escalated to the point where I was doing this on every finger whether there were imperfections or not, leaving me with rather sore, bleeding fingers.