Dermatillomania. When an innocent lip-biting habit becomes a problem

Often the habit of biting your lips becomes a consequence of constant licking due to their dryness or numbness. Dryness can occur due to heart problems. The desire to lick your lips and stretch them to restore blood circulation can be reflexive and unconscious.

Signs of a heart attack may include dizziness, weakness, and pale or blue lips and nails. You need to take the medicine and try to sit or lie down. In severe cases, if you feel chest pain, you must call an ambulance. If you have heart problems, Corvalol or nitroglycerin and chapstick should definitely be within reach. Chapped lips as a result of licking can cause a lot of trouble. They crack and a scab forms. As a result of biting the scab, the habit of constantly biting your lips is formed.

Consequences of habit

Rough, cracked lips look unsightly; in addition, they bleed and cause a number of painful sensations. With such lips it is impossible to laugh, smile, eat or drink normally. That’s why you need to take care of them and prevent cracks and crusts from appearing. People with weak hearts often have problems with thin and delicate skin. How to stop biting your lips if you have health problems?

It is enough to remember this feature of the body and keep it under control. There is no need to bite your lips in pain, it looks very ugly. In good schools, in ballet and theater schools, they always teach not to overuse mouth movements, not to bite or lick lips. Throughout the world, licking the mouth, including after eating, is considered bad manners. Cultured people are accustomed to using a napkin or handkerchief. In order to moisturize lips, there are special creams, vitamin complexes and hygienic lipsticks.

What is dermatillomania

Dermatillomania, or neurotic excoriation, is an obsessive behavior associated with skin damage. In a trigger situation, a person wants to squeeze out a pimple, scratch a wound, pull off a hangnail, or bite the inside of their lips or cheeks. Moreover, pain and blood do not stop him.

This is similar to selfharm, but there is a difference. With self-harm, a person deliberately, almost consciously, causes himself pain in order to cope with his experiences. With dermatillomania, a person does not do this with the intention of causing pain. For him, this is a way to distract himself from anxiety or boredom. At this moment he has no control over his behavior.

Dermatillomania is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In a person with OCD, the following pattern occurs: “trigger thought - anxious expectation - fear - habitual ritual - satisfaction.” In the case of dermatillomania, it happens like this:

1. A person is stressed, has an anxious thought or is simply bored. He tries to be distracted by the imperfection of some area of ​​​​the skin - for example, a hangnail or chapped lips.
2. He resorts to the usual ritual - pulling, scratching, squeezing. It is impossible to resist this desire.
3. There is temporary relief.
4. After some time, the discomfort returns, and the chain repeats.
5. The person feels guilt and shame for the “failure.”

Accurate statistics on those suffering from dermatillomania are difficult to obtain. Not all people with this disorder seek help. They may think it's just a bad habit. In addition, not everyone chooses the right specialist: they go to a dermatologist, not a psychotherapist.

However, there are studies that do have data. According to them, 1.4% or 5.4% of people suffer from dermatillomania. There is also evidence that the disorder mostly affects women and begins in adolescence.

Bitten lips as a sign of hidden anger

Secretiveness and anger can also lead to lip biting. The habit of biting your mouth to prevent unwanted words from escaping seems quite unpleasant. Most likely, your life is full of small unpleasant stresses and you are holding back anger and the desire to dominate. This habit is often observed among school teachers. By old age, the mouths of some of them literally retract inward. It looks disgusting. At first glance, such a face, with signs of constantly pent-up anger, immediately reveals a bad character.

Psychology clearly shows the connection between biting and anger. How to stop biting your lips, if it really helps to stop unnecessarily harsh words?

In this case, the substitution method works great. Remember the joke about the girl who went to a good manners course and there they taught her to say “wonderful!” instead of bad words. The right thing to do would be to follow her example. People who know how to control their emotions usually achieve more and no longer have to bite their lips from suppressed rage.

Consequences

Biting your lips indicates that a person is very worried, worried, stressed, or experiencing other unpleasant sensations. He develops small wounds. The lips begin to become inflamed, and this is fraught with the fact that they begin to react to spicy and salty foods, cold and hot water. This creates an unpleasant feeling of very chapped lips.

Another negative consequence is the possibility of contracting an infection. Microwounds are an excellent environment for the development of bacteria that lead to skin inflammation. As a result, various diseases can form and actively develop, one of them is cheilitis: unsightly herpes appears, which also worsens the appearance of the lips and face.

For girls, bitten lips mean the inability to apply lipstick due to the excessively red border of the lips. The cosmetics will lay down in an uneven layer and will further emphasize the unsightly cracks. This is especially important for women whose professional activities involve communicating with people.

Sexy bitten lips. Hot thing or girl with no education?

The habit of biting your lips can develop from the habit of grimacing. It is especially pronounced among aspiring actresses without education. The image of a sexually bitten lip, widely disseminated in world pop culture, is based on the cult of the “bad girl” from the street, who does not care about good manners, she is so liberated, sexy, accessible, and this is her main competitive advantage compared to well-mannered young ladies who don't bite your mouth. Do you need this image? The bitten lip message sounds like “my emotions are so strong that I can’t control them and I bite my mouth to contain my ardor.” If this is a public image, then why not? The main thing is not to turn it into a real habit and always have on hand care products for delicate skin.

How to stop biting your lips? Biting your mouth is a clear sign of nervousness and can lead to the development of real neurosis. you need to remember this simple fact and not abuse the image of a poorly brought up girl.

Neurotic signs

There are people who really enjoy biting their lips. This is already a real neurotic sign. Psychology defines such conditions as painful. Such people deliberately create sores and peel them off with pleasure, receiving a strange pleasure from this action. In public, of course, they complain about the terrible condition of their lips, which they would like to correct. But when no one is looking, they lick their mouth and rub it with their fingers, constantly biting it to create sores, the main goal of which is to tear them off with their teeth.

If you find yourself with such a tendency and you like raw pain, a pleasant taste of blood, painful kisses that lead to bleeding cracks on chapped and swollen lips, urgently go for an examination of the functions of the thyroid gland. It is possible that your hormone production is disrupted. The earlier you detect the disease, the easier it is to establish normal metabolism.

Why do neurotic symptoms often require help not from a psychologist, but from a neurologist and endocrinologist? because many neurotic diseases and behavioral disorders are caused by improper hormone production. If you adjust your hormonal balance, your behavior will also return to normal.

How to deal with dermatillomania

Anastasia Kudryavtseva , psychotherapist at Lahta clinic, 7 years of experience.
There are three criteria by which one can suspect a disorder and understand that help is needed:

• There are damages to your skin: wounds, marks from scratching and picking, hangnails. • You often try to break the habit of injuring your skin, but nothing works. • Combing and picking distracts you from your work. You can't do anything until, for example, you pull out a hangnail.

It is unlikely that you will be able to help yourself. A working way to deal with dermatillomania is to stop scratching, squeezing, and picking. But people suffer because they cannot stop. In addition, they feel angry, ashamed and guilty. These feelings make the task even more difficult. Therefore, the most important thing is to treat yourself with compassion, understand that you need help, and ask for it. Dermatillomania is usually treated with cognitive behavioral therapy.

Learn to control yourself

How to stop biting your lips if you have discovered this trait in yourself? You need to keep your behavior under control. A good arsenal of mouth emollients will also help. To avoid causing an allergic reaction on irritated lips, use only natural cosmetics sold in pharmacies.

Avoid mass-produced skin care products sold in supermarkets. Often such products are based on petroleum chemistry. But an oil film is not at all what you need now. The basis of natural remedies is natural glycerin, whose molecules penetrate damaged areas, soften and smooth out damage. If there are abrasions and cracks, antibacterial and healing additives will be useful.

Folk recipes

Even if a person takes a vitamin course, lips need to be looked after externally. Special masks and balms that can be made at home will help with this.

The first recipe is an oil-based balm. To prepare it you need to take:

• Shea Butter;
• wax;
• cacao butter;
• almond or coconut milk;
• cocoa powder.

All components are taken in the amount of 1 tsp. First, the wax is heated in a water bath, after which it is mixed with all the other ingredients. The product is placed in a lipstick tube or in a small container with which it will be convenient to spread on the lips, and placed in the refrigerator for a day. After this, the product should be applied as needed or when the lips begin to dry out. Shelf life – up to 6 months.

Another recipe is a balm with honey. They take 1 hour. l. honey and 1 tsp. butter. A prerequisite is liquid honey. The components are not heated, but simply mixed. The product is applied to the lips before going outside or before going to bed. It will help you quickly get rid of dry lips and can be stored for up to 2 months.

Both products are harmless and can be used even during pregnancy. The only contraindication is individual intolerance.

Why does a person bite, lick or pick at skin?

In a child, the reason for picking, licking or chewing the skin is to suppress feelings of guilt, shame, anger or disappointment.

This can lead to:

• lack of attention;
• unfair or aggressive behavior on the part of adults;
• communication with unpleasant people.

Often the cause of skin biting in a child can be the presence of a similar disorder in the parents.

If negative factors are constantly present in the life of a boy or girl, then this habit can take root and will manifest itself at a later age.

In an adult, the desire to bite, lick or tear skin is formed due to:

• attempts to drown out emotional pain by inflicting physical pain;
• self-doubt;
• regularly recurring stressful situations;
• dissatisfaction with one's own appearance (biting chapped lips, removing pimples, picking at sores).

Video about causes of self-harm

Posted on the channel “Psychologist Veronika Stepanova”.

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When we do this they turn red. As soon as the person we are flirting with notices the gesture, he immediately shows attention to us.

There are other ways our bodies show that we are flirting.

Lip biting isn't the only thing our body does when we flirt with someone. Here are some other ways we show attention without even realizing it.

Flirting in general is real body language

Of course, you can do this with words, but the main component of flirting always comes from gestures and movements. The way you stand, the way you touch your hair are all great ways to flirt.

Our bodies speak a language completely unfamiliar to us. Luckily, there are many scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying body language, which helps us learn a lot about flirting.

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Your pupils dilate

You're unlikely to ever notice unless a very attractive person walks by. When you look at people who are beautiful to you, your pupils dilate a little.

When our pupils dilate, it's a really big subconscious sign that you find someone attractive.

We don't need scientists to tell us how sexy lip biting is. This is one of the main things people notice when they are attracted to someone. Study all these signs and next time try to control yourself, watch yourself. This way you will learn a lot of interesting things about yourself. In addition, surprise your partner with your knowledge and experiments.

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Correcting your hair

Have you ever noticed that when you meet a handsome guy, your hand automatically reaches for your hair to straighten it? If so, you are not alone. You may not do it consciously to look better or to flirt, but your body does.

To attract a suitor, your body knows you need to look attractive. When you straighten your hair, you are doing just that.

When should you contact a specialist?

Symptoms indicating the need to consult a psychologist:

• biting lips, cheeks, picking the face, chewing the tongue until they are injured;
• frequent attempts to stop and unlearn this habit;
• depression and decreased physical activity.

First of all, you need to exclude other causes that can lead to skin damage:

• biting your cheek or lips when talking, eating or sleeping;
• the presence of skin diseases;
• food allergy.

If involuntary biting of the cheek and lower or upper lip occurs regularly, this may indicate a pathology of the bite and the temporomandibular joint.

The action draws attention to the lips

When we meet a person we like, the first thing we pay attention to is their lips. We imagine ourselves kissing them and that is why they are the center of attention. Our bodies know this. They are ready to show potential suitors that we have excellent juicy lips.

Thus, we bite them only to draw attention to that part of the body. When we see a person for whom we have certain feelings, we may subconsciously bite our lower lip so that he will pay attention.