Stimming: skin-picking VS nose-picking

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I answered yes to both...
For me, nose picking is a sensory thing. I can't stand having hardened clumps of snot in my nose and if I don't remove it, all I will think about is "there's something in my nose!"
Skin picking is a stim, but probably also related to my anxiety. I've started really picking at the skin around my fingernails/ my cuticles recently and one of my fingers is infected now. My family really wants me to stop picking my skin but it's so hard to stop. If anyone has advice, I need it!

I pick my fingernails, skin around them, and my lips. It's fun to meet other people who do this too - it seems like some people don't have the concept of skin picking. They notice my fingernails and I say "yeah I pick them sometimes" and they proceed to give me advice about how to stop biting my nails. I also clean out my ears, even though you're not supposed to do it.

But I do pick my nose... but only when I'm alone. I did it once in public by mistake a number of years ago and got called out on it by some Quebecker who seemed to be looking for someone to take their bad mood out on (obviously I am only guessing at what they were thinking, je ne peux pas read leur mind).

I blow my nose anywhere though, because it's so annoying to hear someone constantly sniffing. I want to buy a little container of kleenex and turn around and throw it at them.

EDIT: I don't really have any advice on skin picking, because i still do it. Sparkly nail polish can help a bit (picking the sparkles off). I went on a long-distance hike in 2016 and held trekking poles in my hands and didn't pick. I do think it's psychological though, for me... I have anxiety and that posture really looks like anxiety to me.

I'm experimenting with other forms of stimming that maybe I stopped doing out of the worry that it makes me "weird", in the hopes that I can find something that doesn't damage my skin, but gives me whatever I get from the skin picking. So far I'm only doing them alone though, but even as I write right now I'm rocking back and forth a little in a way that's comfortable.

Sometimes if I pick them too much, a fingernail will hurt as I'm trying to fall asleep. I find putting it next to my body helps (maybe the warmth) or putting a bandaid or piece of tape over it.

For my lips I have a few different lip balms and alternate through them. That helps. If I've just picked a lot, I have a really thick beeswaxy one that I put on.

<clank - sound of a very big penny dropping>
I've always struggled with nail biting, nose picking, biting the inside of my cheeks, and picking any skin blemish (which is really hard now I'm getting more Cherry angioma, and they bleed like mad when you break them).

Never thought of it as stimming, just a subconscious thing I cannot stop.
The only thing that has ever helped stop me nail bite is buffing and polishing my nails so that I notice their smoothness when I go to bite them, so I end up sucking them instead.

I do both.

I blow my nose with a tissue morning and night and afterwards I clean out my nose with the tissue on my finger. I never thought I'd be able to do this with a septum piercing but I've found that I can.

Picking, now that's different. I've picked my nails and the skin around my nails since I was 5 and I don't know how to stop this 40 year-old habit. Haloperidol slowed it down for a while but the effect wore off. On my ring fingers and pinkies, there is only half a nail. I've never seen anyone with nails as bad as mine. Truly.

Perhaps it's an OCD thing. A dermatologist suggested I take a supplement called NAC/N-acetyl Cysteine to help with my skin picking that's partly related to skin eczema. NAC helped my girlfriend with OCD before she started taking the seizure med Neurontin/Gabapentin. She switched because she has pain issues & Neurontin helps her pain a tiny bit. I've been on Neurontin for OCD for over 10 years now, we're both on the same dose. I imagine that my skin picking would be worse if I was not on it cuz stress does aggravate it some & I am less stressed being on Neurontin. I never tried NAC but I'm not sure how it would help with skin picking unless it's OCD related. Since I'm already on a med for OCD & my OCD is a lot better than it used to be, I'm skeptical that NAC would help my skin picking much. I think it would be much more effective if I could get my skin eczema better managed instead. If skin picking is OCD related, various ways to treat OCD might would help weather that's NAC, Neurontin, antidepressants(the most common meds for OCD), counseling, or something else. Unfortunately it may be a trial & error process & might take a lot of trying. I'm just tossing this out as possible ideas if anyone is interested.