Nail/Finger skin picking?

Is the anxiety medication working? Because it doesn't sound like it is.

>>17241212
Could be a placebo, but she believes it helps her, I don't personally see it though.

Seemed to be a lot more emotional when she was taking it at the start a few months ago, on her period it's even more apparent it's not working as intended, but I just blame it on PMS and try to be as understanding as I can.

>>17241206
It's a common nervous habit (Look at the fingers of the next 20 people you pass - I promise at least one will be a biter), and almost impossible to break.

Some people just outgrow it with age, some reduce it as their stress levels drop, but many just keep on through life.

As bad habits go, it's a fairly benign one, and perhaps best just ignored.

>>17241219
You might want to mention this to her psychologist or something, I don't know, but it seems like her picking is pretty bad. Give her something else to fiddle with that's harmless, like a ring? Or some kind of bracelet? I wear jewellery and fiddle with my rings when I'm nervous, instead of biting my nails.

>>17241206
I do this. I can stop if I'm using my hands, for example when reading or playing vidya. Otherwise it's nearly impossible to stop, having my hands not doing anything is stressful.

>>17241254
Another suggestion: could getting her nails done professionally be a deterrent not to pick it off? Some of the treatments are harder to pick off too.

>>17241263
Because of their bad condition, she doesn't like people touching her hands, or looking at them. I'm the exception.

>>17241219
The drug itself wouldn't be a placebo, docs don't really do that, but she could be experiencing a placebo effect.

It could also be that
>the picking is less an anxiety thing and more an OCD thing, which, either way it would be exascerbated by stress but I'm not sure an anti-anxiety med would help it if it was OCD
>it works enough that she notices it, but not enough to make an outward difference in her behaviour
>the habit is so ingrained that she is having trouble stopping

Either way, meds probably wouldn't fix it all the way, she'd need to do some behaviour modification on her own and/or with a therapist. Plus reducing her sources of stress would help a lot. That's one of the main things that helped me anyway. I picked my cuticles and stuff a lot at my last job. Now if I do it, I know I'm stressing about something and I take it as a sign to do something about it.

I wouldn't try to grab her hands or anything like that though. Touch is good because it brings the anxious person into the here and now. But anything that is physically restrictive or restraining is probably not good for someone who is feeling anxious.

>>17241303
It's not like, I'm aggressively yanking her hands away.. I just kind of slip my hand between hers and try and hold her hand like we do when driving or cuddling or whatever.

>>17241206
I'm a female who also does this.
My boyfriend does it too though. We try to help each other to stop but it's so satisfying. It's so gross and weird but it's literally rewarding and pleasurable to rip a big piece of skin off with no pain or blood after biting at it for an hout

>>17241206
As someone with persistent anxiety, I can tell you when i went on anxiety meds that worked, i stopped biting and picking at my nails. Talk to her about it. Tell her you've noticed she seems nervous and agitated and try to talk through what's going through her head when she wants to do it. If she can't stop by herself have her wear a hair/rubber band around her wrist and pull on it to smack the skin when she tries to bite her nails.