Self-Harming Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior: We All Do It

Biting nails. Popping zits. Picking blisters. Scratching scabs.

Who can honestly say they have not done any of the above? If you said you haven’t, I do not believe you. We are all human and we all have little habits we do, sometimes without even realizing it. Some people will spend fifteen minutes in the mirror just picking at the pimples or zits or blackheads on their face. Before a big test, people tend to bite their nails and hangnails, sometimes until they bleed.

Surprise, surprise – these are self-harming behaviors.

Of course, these are not exactly the same ways of self-injury as cutting or burning. However, these behaviors are seen to also be self-injurious because they are, in fact, injuring your skin. Maybe you are doing it without realizing it, but you may be doing it because you’re stressed or tired and never realized it before.

Self-Harming Is a Type of Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors

Just recently, I learned there was a technical name for these behaviors. According to the NeuroBehavioral Institute in Weston, Florida, these behaviors include, “skin picking, hair pulling, skin biting and nail biting, which result in physical and psychological difficulties.” Many of these behaviors feed from our inner anxiety, which, to me, makes perfect sense (Types of OCD Related Disorders)

Over the course of the past few years, I’ve become more than aware of tiny bumps on my upper arms from a skin issue I’ve always had. Even now, five years after my last self-harming incident, I pick at these bumps. I pick them and sometimes they bleed or irritate my skin. I really do not understand why I do this and it can easily be connected to my mental illness. However, I now see it as a body-focused repetitive behavior. I’ve been trying to log when I pick and if there is an emotion attached and I have yet to find any connections.

This will be brought up in future blogs, I am sure.

If Everyone Does Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors, Does Everyone Self-Harm?

If you admitted that you have bitten your nails or picked a few scabs here and there, you now have admitted to being human. We all do these things without realizing it and it does not make us bad people. When it comes to self-harmers, this is how it feels when they cut their wrists or burn their thighs. It does not seem like a big deal to them. The difference between these self-harming behaviors is the emotions linked to them.

When I would cut myself, I did it because an emotion was so strong it was forcing my body into a shock, of sorts. I couldn’t stop the anger from screaming inside my head, telling me to cut because it would make me feel better. When you’re a self-harmer, you have a hard time deciphering positive versus negative coping, and usually that little negative little devil sitting on your shoulder wins.

So, next time you are picking your hangnails in class or popping a zit so it will go away before your next big date, remember that that, too, is self-harm. Try to stop yourself - really stop yourself. It will be hard, because it is what you’ve grown used to doing. That may give you a little insight into how hard it is for a self-harmer to stop cutting.