Body-focused repetitive behavior impacts your overall personality

General
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Introduction

Are you also biting your lips and nails repetitively? Your loved one has interrupted you several times. You want to stop doing so, but you felt helpless regarding this issue. Since it does not have a visible, direct physical, or psychological impact, many of us tend to overlook it.

It is an unusual and persistent self-grooming habit resulting in vandalization of a specific body part.

Note: But it is not something to ignore; it’s a way to evaluate and make us aware of what’s going on in our interior as well as exterior health.

Body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) is associated with atypical neurological feedback mechanisms, perfectionism, and affect regulation, not a normal nervous pattern.

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These behaviors easily reveal a lack of confidence, anxiety, or psychological disorders; the person feels embarrassed and very difficult to gain motivation to restore normalcy.

Types of BFRB

  1. Trichotillomania: irresistible wrenching of hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes.

  2. Onychophagia: chronic, compulsive biting and chewing of fingernails.

  3. Dermatophagia: the compulsive biting, chewing, and nibbling of the skin on the side of knuckles and fingers.

  4. Bruxism: grinding of the teeth and clenching of the jaw over a long period of time.

  5. Cheilophagia: continuous lip biting.

  6. Rhinotillexomania: a compulsive nose-picking problem.

  7. Excoriation disorder: frequently pricking, scatching, and pointing at acne, scabs, and alleged imperfection.

  8. Morsicatio buccarum: masticating the inner lining of the cheek over a long duration.

  9. Trichotomynomania: repetitive cutting and shaving of one’s own hair with hair-cutting tools.

  10. Onychotillomania: habitually pulling, scraping, and picking at fingernails and toenails over a long period.

  11. Joint popping: repetitively popping and cracking the joint of the knuckle, finger, or other joint structure.

What research says about BFRB

:black_small_square: Coping mechanism: for dealing with boredom, frustration, depressive disorders, stress, anxiety, and nervousness; owing to doing so, it releases endorphins and makes a person feel a sense of happiness and pleasure, which further calms down from such adversities. The study suggests BFRB is highly associated with people who have a history of psychological disorders related to impaired emotional control.

:black_small_square: Dopamine feedback: by making it a part of a habit due to a feeling of satisfaction, it exacerbates the condition.

:black_small_square: Brain structure variation: Some researchers also believe BFRB occurs due to a communication gap in the basal ganglia, which is responsible for impulse control, motor regulation, and habit formation.

:black_small_square: Genetics: generational traits related to emotion, anxiety, etc. transfer from parents to offspring.

Anyone is struggling with this problem.

Share your thoughts and experiences and how you tackle BFRB with us

MBH/PS

1 Like
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I have seen people constantly chipping their nails and sometimes side skin of fingertips to the extent that it starts bleeding.

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Yes this is something which we get to see in many people around us. Nail biting, scratching the head scalp, scraping the skin beside the nail these are common problems that we used to see. I think this is something related to brain psychology also , it becomes habitual that is why we kept doing it unknowingly.