- Date posted
- 2y ago
Bad habits
How do I get rid of bad habits. I often bite my gums and it’s painful but I can’t stop. This usually occurs when I’m stressed and have a lot of intrusive thoughts.
How do I get rid of bad habits. I often bite my gums and it’s painful but I can’t stop. This usually occurs when I’m stressed and have a lot of intrusive thoughts.
And pick my lips
Firstly, talk to your therapist if you have one for a more detailed plan and strategy tailored to your specific personal needs and situation. In short, you've identified that it is harder to stop when you are stressed, but it is not impossible. The next time you are stressed or intrusive thoughts are heavy, resist the urge to bite your gums for just one minute. Then notice that if you can go one minute, you can go two. Small steps lead to big gains over time! I cannot stress the importance enough the value of doing Habit Reversal Training with a therapist who is trained in the approach, which includes every therapist at NOCD.
Same
I used to profusely bite/pull at my nails, cuticles, and cheeks inside my mouth until I would bleed all over the place. It was painful and horrible. One thing that really helped me was finding a way to prevent the action. My therapist told me to paint my nails, and although that partially worked (because I couldn’t bite my nails), I could still destroy anything I put my nails into (literally). She then suggested I start doing dip polish on my nails which made them indestructible and bulky so I couldn’t pick ANYTHING orrrr bite them at all. I don’t recognize my hands anymore, and even when I don’t have my nails done, I bite and pick a looooooooot less. It’s almost never now! I also wore some mouth appliances when I was/am alone to control biting. You can’t tear things with Invisalign or bulky things in your mouth! The physical prevention paired with mental work is awesome. Don’t know if something like that would help! Good luck, I’m so sorry you’re going through it right now!
I’m having a very bad evening with my intrusive thoughts. I was doing really good dealing with them but tonight one hit me hard. I’ve been having a lot of different intrusive thoughts but I’ll have one occasionally about hurting my mom or my dog who I love and they’re the only family I have in my life. They’re my world. I was helping my mom put away the dishes and I had the big kitchen knife in my hand and my intrusive thought was you could stab your mom. And then my brain said I had a twitch in my hand and that meant I wanted to do it. Let me just say that I wouldn’t hurt a fly. I actually caught a fly in a glass and put it outside instead of killing it this evening before this intrusive thought happened. I’m such a gentle and compassionate and caring person and these thoughts instantly cause me to have a panic attack. And I have no one to talk to them about. I know they’re hard for my mom to hear and I don’t want to be any more of a burden than I already am. I do desperately want to tell her and have her reassure me that I’m not crazy or a psycho. Then my thoughts wander to if your hand did flinch could you be a psychopath. Is hurting someone in you. I know it’s not but I feel like my mind is out to get me and hurt me. I’m working so hard and I thought I was doing so good but I need to know why I have these thoughts. They’re not ok. I need someone to help me make sense of why. I know we aren’t supposed to ruminate but I shouldn’t have thoughts like this about people I love and care about the most in the world.
I struggle so bad with intrusive thoughts. They can be so bad that I'll cry because I KNOW that's not how I feel or want to do. (Too embarrassed to say what they're about) I'll constantly try to figure out why I have them, and constantly figure out what they mean, causing me to constantly circle around and around. I had to get on anxeity meds, which helped a little but the thoughts still happen. How do you help yourself with this? How do you know that you're just not some physcopath? 😅
Two things are happening: I get thoughts that just keep looping. They almost feel like song stuck in my head. Also, I’ll imagine something and I feel my stomach drop. Then as the seconds go by I keep getting fragments of the this thought but with different details. For example, it’s kinda like how a “vision” is portrayed. I’ll get a glimpse of the thought and then it’ll rapidly expand into something worse every few seconds. I don’t know if I’m causing this or if it’s just an automatic thing like any other intrusive thought. It feels unavoidable, idk if this is a compulsion or if it’s just another manifestation of an intrusive thought. Apart from that remembering an intrusive thought triggers the full thought again and then it just keeps looping or expanding. I don’t know how to stop any of this. Help?
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