Compulsions...how to stop?

[EmilyR6]

I don't perform rituals or have any common thoughts/anxieties associated with OCD. However, I regularly engage in picking and compulsive behaviors - seemingly always when I'm bored/unoccupied. There are two behaviors that I switch off between: Picking at my scalp and trying to bite the papillae off of my tongue. I know it's weird... I've looked around online, but I can't seem to find hardly anyone who shares this second behavior! I'm very confused as to why I do these things and can't remember when or why I started.
The second behavior is painful - and I recognize that it's painful - but it feels satisfying somehow. I usually engage in these behaviors when I'm not fully occupied (not quite "bored", but not quite fully engaged). For example, when I'm watching a movie/TV show, reading a book, doing homework, surfing the internet, etc. It gives me the feeling of having "something to do". I just can't sit still and concentrate on a single activity, so I unconsciously start doing these things. I'm even biting my tongue as I type this, for god's sake! Then...if a swollen taste bud/papillae forms from the initial biting (which it usually does), it irritates me so much that I have to remove it with further biting/picking/whatever it takes!
I've been doing these things for years...maybe over a decade (and I'm only 20). I can continue to do them, because they're not easily noticeable by others and have little consequence. But I really just want to stop. I can't say how many times I've tried - so many. But I just can't seem to. I might go for a week without doing anything, and then, when I'm spacing out, I'll pick up the behaviors unconsciously. It's so frustrating... =(

[mbaadedf]

I bite my toungue as well! (Well, duh, not sure who would google this post if they didn't.) Anyways, I find mine is related to stress and/or dehydration. Also, when I am about to get sick (though, maybe the stress is actually the root cause of the sickness as well). I also notice I'm doing this when I'm only slightly preoccupied with a task, like watching t.v, but knowing that I should be working on something else, or thinking about all the things I need complete during the next day. Anyways, hopefully reducing stress and uping the water intake will help!

[cjay112]

I have the same issue. I bite my tongue, not just the sides but the sides and the tip. Once one papillae becomes inflammed, its all downhill from there. I will continue to bite off papillae in that whole area until there are none sticking up higher than the rest. By that point, my tongue is bleeding and sore.
I never stick out my tongue for pictures or to make a funny face because usually my tongue has white patches all over it from trying to heal. But once the patches form, I pick at those as well. Its a never ending cycle.

I agree that I do it more when I am bored and doing something rather mindless.. Reading all these posts I was doing it..

My dentist has asked me several times if I bite my own tongue, I have always responded "yea I think I do it in my sleep" because I have been too embarrassed to say "uh yea I like to eat my own papillae".  

I havent been able to do the whole mind over matter thing as of yet.. maybe one day :-/

[studentmomma1983]

It seems like the OCD with thoughts is so different than the picking issues... I mean...it has taken all my life but at least I have finally mastered my panic disorder. Learning to be the boss of your thoughts works for that! But the urges for me to pick...nothing stops them... In fact, during times I am stressed, even my boyfriends have adapted to it and they let me pick at them! Like pulling out their ingrown hairs and popping blackheads and zits. I feel like such a freak!!!!

[studentmomma1983]

so here I am, 29 now and after suffering ALL my life with these terrible disorders I am finally researching into it. I have been biting my tounge since birth. I remember doing it in Kindergarten. I also pick at blackheads,bumps, pull hairs out ( I have two bald spots in my eyebrows and EYELASHES) eyelashes being the newest picking addition... for the love can anything stop it!! I just can't take it anymore. I have put myself through years and years of torment. I wasn't able to get through highschool becasue it was so bad...had to drop out. Spent hours in the morning obsessing over makeup or a misplaced hair.. one day I was so distraught i shaved the whole damn eyebrow off!

As i read through these confessions, it's like I am laughing my *** off at ths crazyness but then tearing up at the same time because i do it too! And it feels like a ton of weight taken off my back to knw I am ot alone. My tounge has sores on it again... can never seem to get pass the healing phase. Especially when the tounge scabs come in- that extra layer over the sore...it is the first thing to come off, till its all irritated again, and then more biting because i irritated it causing a bump. I just cant handle any Bumps..anywhere. And typicaly this is when i am stressing and having anxiety. TRIED to tell the Doctors since i was a kid i had OCD. They never listened and look at me like im crazy! So resultantly, i never tell anyone now. Damn doctors put me thorugh every known antidepressant. Nothing works.

I just want to be able to focus. I am finishing a college degree and i am goig to fail if I cant focus!! This is my last shot...single mom here and nothing else to save us. How can i turn these issues"off"? Even if I am numb on some meds, i would take them- i dont care, just want the crazy to end. SOmetimes aderral works...but not always..

I pray there is hope for us all

[412_Taybaby]

gaaah I have this same problem with my tongue . If I'm at home doing nothing really ill pick off the skin on my tongue with my nails then in public I just use my teeth and rip off the skin . Idk why it feels good to me ... That pain just feels good till the next day. Then I regret it because I can't even eat! Like right now I'm in a hardcore mode of biting my tongue! :(

[joew1996]

I do exactly this, even when I become aware that I am doing it I can't stop because it feels good, I hate it sometimes!