Biting self.

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I bite myself when I'm stressed. I bite myself so hard I draw blood. How can I stop doing this. My hands and arms look awful and it's summer.

1. You have to have the will to want to stop

2. You have to tell your doctor about it, so he/she could prescribe you something which works for you. (I know you've tried various medications, mostly without much success).

By the way: how's University coming along?

Are you aware of when you are biting yourself or are you unaware?

It's easier if you are aware -- then I would suggest redirection (having something else to bite on) or making an effort to only bite protected skin (covered with thick sleeves, for example -- so that you might leave bruising but not draw blood).

If you are unaware of when you bite yourself, I would suggest trying to keep those areas of skin that you bite protected by wearing clothes with very long sleeves -- or making a habit of chewing on stuff, as a preventative measure.

I have the same issue with biting myself when frustrated. With me it's on my knuckles. For me to reduce this it took for me to realize that other people were noticing the calluses on my hands, and then I made a conscious decision to bite other things instead. Also, my health has improved and with it my tendency toward rage/frustration has improved.

I still sometimes catch myself biting my hands, but then I become aware of it. This also gives me time to realize that I'm frustrated and try to redirect my mind, which is beneficial for general mental health. Also, I think that biting other things is not a perfect substitute because the pain itself is part of the feedback that makes it a release. I've wondered if, like "squeeze machines", someone on the spectrum is ever going to invent a "pain machine" that can be controlled to self-inflict a gradually increasing amount of pain harmlessly to provide the sensory feedback to release frustration. I don't quite know how such a device would work, however, because it's dull pain at a sustained level of stimulation that works (pricking oneself with a needle, or giving oneself a static shock, wouldn't work, in fact it would probably make things worse).

Ever since I was a child. Today? Not so much…but I still do. The only thing that keeps me from doing it as hard as I used to is that I worry that someone will see my bite marks and take my son away from me…that's enough to make me hit the wall with my hand or bite myself just a little and scream without leaving any marks. I do smoke. I don't know if that is part of the reason. I need to quit. I can't. I am worried that if I quit, the biting will be much worse. Hugs. I get it.

I often bite my lips and fingers when I'm stressed. Though it seems that when I'm holding an object in my hands I'll pick it with my nails, wich is really a good alternative to me if this object is ,for example, made of soft plastic or rubber.

I bite my hands when on my computer or watching movies and I get a lot of bruises but don't draw blood so I don't mind so much. Most of the time I don't realize when I'm doing it.
It's not so much from stress but a distraction from sensitivities to clothing.
I don't think my teeth are sharp enough to break the skin and draw blood. Maybe they're worn down from age.
This sounds silly, but are your teeth very sharp, maybe you can have them filed a bit. It's probably better just to wear protective clothing. But you could still get bruises.

Is the biting about pressure input to your mouth, or pain input to your arms? If it's about pressure input to your mouth, I'd recommend rubber chewy sticks or chewy tubes. You can get them in a variety of shapes and sizes, and in various degrees of firmness from a lot of different places, including amazon. I have a purple grape scented chewy tube that I carry in my purse so I don't chew my shirts or pens, and I find the grape smell relaxing.

If the biting is about pain input to your arms, is there some other kind of sensory feedback you could replace it with, like pressure from a weighted blanket, or high impact force from crashing into things like sofa pillows or foam mats?

I bite my fingers when I'm in the middle of a meltdown; I've never drawn blood, but both my index fingers have callouses on them. I've been trying to redirect my energy from self-harming to other things like scribbling in colouring books and shredding paper, and it works for the most part.