Now I'm not one to throw a term around, especially medical ones. But today's post is talking Dermatophagia, and if you have absolutely no idea what that means then don't worry as I only discovered about a month or two ago that an actual term existed for something that I've been suffering with for years. Within this post, I'll be talking about what Dermatophagia is and 3 way's I'm approaching tackling this long-term problem. (This post contains the Rejuvenate hand mask gifted by Leighton Denny expert nails)


So what is Dermatophagia? It's not just a habit, but the compulsive obsessive behavior of biting and eating the skin from your fingers until they're left cut open and raw. Yep, sounds vile and to be completely honest when it gets really bad it can look pretty vile too. Not only can it generally lead to sore fingers, but also leaves you at risk of infections. There are many reasons why people develop it, and in cases and can either be a constant issue or triggered by certain things. In my case stress and anxiety, in terms of the way I present myself the only way you would really know that I'm struggling is through the state of my fingers. The more plasters, the more stress. So here are my 3 realistic tips;

1. Stress reduction activities.
Now I'm not a therapist, but having dealt with this for many years I've found a few tips and tricks to overcome it. The first being what they call stress reduction activities, if you struggle in the same way as me with a certain trigger such as stress then activities such as exercise can help a lot more than you'd think. When it comes to psychological things within the mind, you always have to try and find the route of the problem. The less stress, the less tendency you will have to take it out on your fingers. Personally, the best thing for me is making lists and going for a gym session. Once I visit the gym, when burning off calories it also feels like I'm burning off a hell of a lot of steam and then I can start fresh by distracting my mind with the important things that I have to do. Therefore taking your mind off destroying your fingers.

2. Plasters, plasters, plasters.
When you feel that you're about to start biting your fingers I find that popping some plasters on them stops me from doing so. when you hide your fingers or any loose bits of skin you're taking away the possibility of temptation. There are two different reasons of why plasters may work, the first is that every time you go to bite your fingers you may often forget about the plasters that you have on find yourself taking in a mouthful of them. Which let's be honest really isn't the nicest thing in the world. The second tactic is a little harsher, now I'm not saying that you should feel embarrassed about this habit. But if you are someone that doesn't really like to open up or show when you've hurt yourself, wearing plasters in public on your fingers may lead to a feeling of embarrassment which over time could lead you to overcome this habit. It sounds harsh. but personally, this tactic works a treat. Nobody wants to go out with plasters on every finger first of all, it looks slightly odd and can attract some funny looks and second of all its just plain  old annoying for yourself. 

3. Keeping your hands moisturised.



Now, this tip I actually picked up off Sophdoesnails youtube channel, she explained how if you have moisturised hands there's less dry skin to tempt you for you to pick at. When I was lucky enough to be gifted a sample of the Leighton Denny Rejuvenate hand mask, I thought I'd give this a little try mixed in with a little review of the product. First things first, I've never been much of a moisturising my hands kind of girl so it takes me quite a bit to get excited about this kind of thing. But excited is definitely what I got, the whole experience was a new and surprising therapeutically relaxing one. In this compact packaging you receive two gloves and two stickers that are designed to singe the gloves in at the wrist ensuring they don't fall off. Now you'll only understand this next reference if you studied Of mice and men for your English literature GCSE, but whilst sliding my hands into these gloves all I could think of what this quote...

"Well, that glove's fulla Vaseline' (Of mice and men, John Steinbeck)
Yep, if you know you know. Now I'm definitely not saying that this is what this glove is designed for, just trying to add a little light humor into this review as popping my hand into a moisturiser filled glove was definitely a new experience. But something that you get used to pretty fast thankfully. Now, these gloves stay on for 20-30 minutes, and whilst that doesn't seem like long this amount of time really make you appreciate the normal functions of your hands, and what I can tell you is that it's definitely worth it as my hands were practically glowing after taking them off and remained soft for a good few days. All in all the process was a very easy one and with the price set at just £6.50 I will 100% be popping out to buy some more. The perfect addition to a pamper night, and most definitely a great tactic to stop Dermatophagia. 
I hope that these three tips will do something in helping you if you suffer from this, as these little things don't seem like much but it's worth trying out a variety of things as one day you will find that perfect fit for you.