In my twenties, I used to think snazzy medical words for normal things were fun but now I think they are pretentious and annoying. But, still, I was amused to find out that my life-long inclination to pick at the skin on cuticles and lips has a word.
It was terrible in my teens and twenties, my fingers constantly bitten-down and bleedy-looking. My lips were less bad but, still, sometimes I resembled one of those dudes who gets lost following a disastrous SAS mission and crawls out of the desert after four days of drinking their own urine.
These days, I am much better. I keep my fingernails short and I am just generally more distracted and less chronically anxious, (though I am still capable of being acutely anxious), so don’t attack myself so often.
I am usually very careful with my cuticles so I’m not sure what happened in the last week or so, because my hands are a mess. I have got five active sites on my fingers where at some point I pulled at a piece of skin and it is now red and sore. The third finger of my left hand is a real problem - ragged cuticles and dotted with red pinpricks. A sad and sorry sight.
Perhaps it is the weather. It is very unexpectedly cold at the moment - maybe you’ve noticed? - but I have merrily put away all my gloves and I’m acting like it’s late July and 32C. I don’t like summer much, so often want to rush into it in order to get it over with - but I have gone Too Soon and I’m back to being picked and bleedy.
Anyway, the whole thing reminded me of my foolproof 4-point plan for regenerating hassled cuticles, for anyone who is suffering from the same thing.
1 Trim your nails nice and neat and short, if only as a memo to self that we are starting afresh.
2 The key to eliminating ragged cuticles is moisturise, moisturise, moisturise. One tube of hand cream isn’t enough. I have three: one by my bed, one by the kitchen sink and one to put in a handbag or pocket when I go out. Only Vaseline Intensive Care Hand & Nail will do. I slap it on as often as I can.
3 Get a pair of cuticle clippers and know where they are at all times, so that you can neatly clip off hangnails, which will prevent you from pulling or picking at them. I think one of the reasons my fingers are a horror show is that my pair has disappeared from my desk drawer.
4 Lansinoh. The miracle worker. Is there anything Lansinoh can’t fix? Every night, smear a conservative amount around all fingernails, massage in and leave to work overnight. It really is the most incredible stuff.
How about you? Do you have a favourite elaborate medical term? Or where are you on your compulsive skin-picking journey? Please leave a comment in the handy box below.
I used to bite my nails down to the quick and pick endlessly. Having two prem babies I was cured overnight upon introduction to the NICU’s rigorous hand hygiene routine and the thought that I could harbour some potential danger in crevasses of fingers.
The relentless hot medical soap scrubbing and geling at every touch point round an incubator gave me hands like cheese graters until a wonderful medic introduced me to ‘Nursem’ cream, possibly the silver lining to two NICU stays.
Esther, what did you / your parents do to help as a child? My 6 year old son - who has likely inherited GAD and ADHD from his father - bites his fingernails AND toenails to the bleeding quick. I'm searching for a child-friendly solution. All manner of bribery attempts have failed, and I want to be kind but also help as it's quite painful for him.