Is it normal to eat my own skin?

Ever since I turned nine, I've had the constant habit of biting the skin off of my hands, scabs, mosquito bites, and scratches before eating them. Whenever I'm stressed, I turn to my fingers and take a few small chunks of skin from it before eating it. I don't know if it's the pain that makes it relaxing or the feeling between my teeth, but it relaxes me most of the time. I can hardly go a day without thinking about it or doing it. Is this something normal?

(Sorry if you were eating btw)

Edit: I also have some foods that I sometimes chew on to relax myself when I have the urge to bite or scratch myself. This includes walnuts, dried cranberries/raisins, tofu, crackers

Is It Normal?
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Comments ( 10 ) Sort: best | oldest
  • That sounds like a problem.

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  • Normal but only on fingers.

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  • I eat the skin on my fingers daily

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  • i do this a lot too, on scabs and blisters even, i like the way it feels

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  • it sounds like you may possibly have dermatophagia or excoriation disorder. i would definitely recommend seeing someone about this. you will get through this. <33

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  • I used to rip the skin off the sides of my thumbs. Didn't even know I was doing it until I felt wetness. But I never had a desire to fucking EAT what I tore off, jeez.

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  • I have a really bad habit of chewing and ripping off the skin of the inside of my cheeks until it bleeds.
    But I think eating scabs can make you ill, shouldn’t do that

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  • Picking and scratching, normal. EATING SCABS IS FUCKING GROSS.

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  • That's probably not going to your skin any good in the long run. Do you develop scars from doing this?

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    • I have a lot of scars from scabs I've picked from mosquito bites up my arms. On my fingers, I don't bite into it deep enough to draw blood but there are little visible areas where it dips in slightly after it heals.

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