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Compulsive habits?



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Thank you from the bottom of my nail beds, WASa!

Once you start messing with your cuticles it's a battle from that point on. They grow back funny, jagged, sticking out, you name it. That stuff is amazing. Just put a lot on your cuticles so there is excess around the nail bed. Then go to bed. It usually takes me two nights of doing this and my cuticles are fine.

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For me I cannot STAND it if my nails have jagged tips. If it is not absolutely smooth and perfect I'll cut them all off. Makes me nuts to try to ignore it. I hyperfocus to the point of ridiculous. If they are not perfect I cut them off and let them regrow. Since I don't use fake nails or coverings it can take months to get them where I want them.

If one nail is a hair shorter than the others I will redo my entire manicure.

Yes! I never thought of it as hyperfocusing, but that's exactly what I do, with a lot of different things. If a frame on a wall is slightly (we're talking just a fraction of an inch, here), I can't stop focusing on it until I get up to level it. Same way with curtains - they have to be perfectly level. I never could understand how my roommate could stand having her finger nails all different lengths. Mine have to be perfectly even, or I'll cut them until they are even. Absolutely stupid stuff will drive me batty. Rythyms and evenness, whether something looks symmetrical or not. Hell, I get frustrated when I'm trying to rearrange a room, because decorations HAVE to be symmetrical. For example, if I put anything on a mantel, the pattern of the way I arrange everything has to be symmetrical. If it isn't, I'll rearrange it until it is. If I don't rearrange it, I can't stop focusing on it.

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I always eat with the same fork. Strange.... I know. Donna

I do this too! Our new flatware seems huge! I will wash my fork, from our old set, with small thin tines on it, and use it all the time, everyone knows to leave my fork alone!!!

And I have recently developed a new one, and need to quit now! I feel like Linus! I had a tumor growing on my Thyroid, and any weight on it at all was unpleasant. So I went to wearing all V or lower necked tops. I also could not stand the weight of the bed covers at night. I have this small blanket---just a throw size, it is super soft on one side, and satin on the other, it is very lightweight. I got to where I would only use this up high, cover my shoulders etc. with it. I had surgery...and as I recovered, I still used it, with good reason, incision stitches....I even took it to the hospital and used it!

But now....while still somewhat hypersensitive in the area, I still want my blanket!!! With the satin on one side, it has a tendency to slide, and if I cannot find it, I am up and searching the sides of the bed in the dark. Wakes up DH---but I want my blankie!!! I like the soothing way it feels---but I am pushing 50---now is a helluva time to develop a need for a security blanket!!

Maybe summer will help break this silliness!

Kat

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It sounds like you are describing mycotic nails. The thick yellow nail usually means there is a fungus growing in there. It usually happens of someone cuts/tears their toenails down too far to the point that they bleed. The fungus is in the air and it gets into the nail bed and over time the nail grows in thicker and thicker.

Here is some info:

ACFAOM.org: Onychomycosis

The only reason I bring this up is that there is a treatment. It's an anti-fungal drug that is in tablet form. You take one tablet daily for (usually) 90 days. By that time the nail has had a chance to grow out again and the mycotic nails are gone. She's just too young to have to have something like nasty yellow nails.

Thanks for the info, but thankfully that's no what she has. She just has normal cuticles that happen to be very thick. No yellowing at all. I WILL try the pomade, though!

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I am a scab-picker and a scratcher. I am also a hair plucker. Now that I am an old fart I have some face woolies to pluck at. My husband once suggested that I have them fixed forever but I was horrified at the thought; I had to explain to him that plucking them was very comforting.

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I am a scab-picker and a scratcher. I had a rash a few weeks ago that cleared up with medication, but I still have some scabs from it and I will pick them absentmindedly anytime. Even until they bleed.

I will also spend a long amount of time in the bathroom using the blackhead/whitehead extractor (I have blackheads on my nose) as well as plucking stray hairs from my eyebrows.

I have had a few hairs that grow in the same places on my chin/neck since I was 14. I have to get rid of them ASAP. If I find one I will pluck and pluck until I finally get it. I started keeping tweezers in my purse so I can pluck them anytime. I have another pair in my car and numerous pairs around my house. When Rosie O'Donnell had her talk show, she once had a chin hair that she let grow out and she put a bead on it. That horrified me because I loathe them. But shaving doesn't get rid of them and depilatory creams, even the ones meant for facial hair, make my skin break out. Maybe I'll get laser hair removal on them someday.

My husband has started to get the occasional weird hair on his ear and I beg him to let me pluck them, but he usually refuses. It feels so satisfying, through!

This is an interesting thread. :)

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Speaking of your DH's occasional ear hair made me remember an event of a few years ago.

I had cut my DH's hair not long before---and we were at his parents over the holidays, and I was sitting on the couch, he was laying with his head in my lap, I saw this hair, I swear I thought it was loose, so I pulled it---like to keep it out of his ear! He levitated them jumped up all the while yelling "What the hell did you do that for?" I was laughing so hard I could not answer, he was pissed at me for laughing, and his Mom had no idea what had happened, later she told me, she thought I had passed gas with his head in my lap! OMG NO!!!!!!!!

I would guess from his reaction, your plucking his ear hair would hurt like hell!!! Do so at your own risk!

Kat

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Oh, I know it hurts him. But it still bugs me to see them! I keep telling him that he'd rather me notice them and pluck than have a co-worker or a student (he teaches) see it and make fun of him. Especially because they're white sometimes!

Speaking of your DH's occasional ear hair made me remember an event of a few years ago.

I had cut my DH's hair not long before---and we were at his parents over the holidays, and I was sitting on the couch, he was laying with his head in my lap, I saw this hair, I swear I thought it was loose, so I pulled it---like to keep it out of his ear! He levitated them jumped up all the while yelling "What the hell did you do that for?" I was laughing so hard I could not answer, he was pissed at me for laughing, and his Mom had no idea what had happened, later she told me, she thought I had passed gas with his head in my lap! OMG NO!!!!!!!!

I would guess from his reaction, your plucking his ear hair would hurt like hell!!! Do so at your own risk!

Kat

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I peel the dead skin off my heals, I will pick and peel until they get sore or bleed. It sucks, on the less disgusting side I also twirl my hair.< /p>

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Anyone able to stop? I found doing a compulsive hobby helpful to some extent (needlepoint, knitting, sudoku, etc.). Any other solutions??????????????

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the hair plucking thing is a new one for me - well not so new. I had lasiks surgery about 5 years ago. All the build up from the drops would get on the lashes and I would pluck it off daily.

Now, I cannot stop pulling on my eyelashes. I can pull out 3-4 at a time. I have gaps in my eye lashes. I use to have lovely thick and long lashes. Why can't I stop doing this again?

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This was so funny that i had tears!!!!

My DH has asked me to help "seperate" the unibrow. So he lays his head in my lap and I pluck them - I laugh so hard sometimes that I can't continue. :smile:

Ok, maybe that is a little sadistic and mean, but I just think it is so freakin' funny because he has made fun of me for having my eyebrows waxed and tearing up. :myscared:

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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