Anxiety, Stress, and Lip/Cheek Biting

This habit makes me feel low on confidence. I have not let go this habit 100% but I am a lot better than before. Here is what I did:

Well I started doing this when I was 3 or 4! And haven't stopped since. I really want to stop this habit. I'm 15 now, so that's about 11 years of doing this! It's so annoying, I understand about the biting it to make the skin smooth. I bite when I'm nervous, then the skins rough so I do it again! Anyone got any tips, it would be very helpful! I'm scared of what could happen if I don't stop. Something else to add to my list of current problems!

Hello everyone! It's interesting to know there are so many other people out there who bite their cheeks. When I would tell people that were very close to me what I did, they would look at me like I was crazy! I became cognitive of this behavior when I was about 8 years old. Like other people have described in their posts, I mostly did this when I was taking a test in school or even while I was doing homework. As I became older, I intermittenly did this when I became deep in thought or I was trying to problem solve. Besides biting my cheeks, I also have a tendacy to pick at my eyebrows which also started when I was about 7-8 years old. I would alternate between the picking and the biting when placed in situations of deep though or my anxiety levels were high. The eyebrow picking embarasses me when it's time to get them waxed/threaded and there's a slight bald batch that I have to fill in. I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder in 1995 and both the cheek biting and eyebrow picking falls under the obsessive-compulsive side of things.

What has always worked for me was chewing gum, when I could; but what actually worked best for me was cognitive behavioral therapy. When I put myself in a position of being cognitive of engaging in these undesirable actions, I would stop myself instantly. Some inner thoughts (self-talk) that I used to think about to make me stop was that my dentist recommended that I stop biting my cheeks (I think possibly linked to oral cancer) and I would think about how dumb I probably looked to other people with my hand up to my mouth/cheek area biting on myself or my hand up to my eye brow picking and rubbing; as people often ask me if I have a headache....lol.

 

There's hope!!!

 

I have been doing this since I was about 12. I saw my mother doing it and picked up her bad habit. I am 44 and can vouch for the fact that it does cause premature wrinkles around your mouth so stop if you can! I guess I'll try chewing gum more often.

Oh my goodness, I never realized how many people out there actually chew or bite their lips/cheeks.. I do it alot and have got bruises on my face from all the pushing that I do when I do bite my mouth. I have found some cream that I recently purchased from walmart, a brand called scar zone, it is for bruises. I noticed that when I put it on and massaged it into my skin, I did not bite or chew my mouth at at all. I only did it for one day, but need to do it again. I have however noticed that I do it alot when I am stressed, which with everything I have going on these days, is almost everyday, but I have seen a therapist regarding my depression and anxiety and they have told me it is like an OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder, and I have been prescribed medication for it as well, I just hate to take pills. That is why I bought the cream, it is so much easier to put on the cream and walk away, it's like putting on makeup and going about your day. I started biting my lip when I was first married and we began to have problems, also I seen my mother do it for years while I was growing up, and so I continued to do it, so now I catch my kids doing it and i am afraid that if I continue to do this my grandkids will see it and they will begin to do it as well. I have bit my lip so hard one time a few years back and ended up hitting a nerve and had to go to the doctors and he had to take a needle and drain the abscess I encountered from biting so hard and hitting that nerve. I hope that one day I can stop biting because I am embarrased by the bruises on my face and try to hid when I am in public. I have actually had someone think that I had dirt on my face because the bruises are so noticeable.

omg!! i have been doing the exact same thing for years. And like many of you I thought i was the only one who did it( a least to this extent). I find myself doing it also when i am stressed, anxious, upset, and just out of habit. I too rub my tongue along my cheeck to feel for those rough spots and i bite them off and chew on it too until i swollow it or until it just dissolves. It has gotten to the point where the inside of my cheeks have become grayish in color and its gotten to the point where i had to do some type of research to see is this really serious and could it lead to something like cancer. I cant say that i have any recommendation for you all either, but i hope to stop soon because its become actually embarassing for me to all of a sudden realize that i'm poking the outside of my mouth in public trying to find the rough spots on the inside to chew off. My fiance tells me i look funny when i'm doing it. He always notices when i'm twitching my lips around as i'm trying to find something on the inside of my mouth to bite off. Ughhh! Its so frustrating to realize that i've done it to the extent that the inside of my cheeks look terrible!! Hopefully I'm give up this awful habit of mine.:-|

In a way I'm glad I've found people with the same problem! Only I don't want my cheeks to be smooth I want them to be rough so I can bite them some more! I enjoy bitin my cheeks I dont realise I do it sometimes especially while watching the tv and when I realise I tend to go to town on them even more! I'm quite a stressful person anyways and I think this is a comfor thing, I've been doing it for years now I'm 27! I used to bite my nails as a child and some how went to biting my cheeks! I didnt even want to stop i was doing it so I googles it I've always know I've done it and it's worse when deep in thought! Unsure how to stop it might be linked to grinding teeth somehow!

I have been biting the inside and outside of my lips and the inside of my cheeks since first grade. I would bit the skin off and (this is weird totally not cannibalism)  suck on the wound.  I have this big huge dent in the middle of my lips in the inside. Sometimes i would chew so much and soo deep that id cause damage to my lips...it would hurt sooo much and there would be lots of blood...when my skin would try to heal, the skin would be a light color yellow and a red line aroung the wound. I try so much to stop but i just cant. I know i do it but when i tell my self to stop i keep doing it. It sucks! When i feel the skin thats healing i would just bit it off. Im only twelve too.

I have been doing this since I started high school and have done it since for around 4-5 years. It is an stress thing for me and I understand totally about getting a smooth edge and this almost over whelming desire to do it, and tbh it feels good. I have tried to stop and it is mostly trying to keep my hands busy. One thing I tried was stress beads, like prayer beads, that I can click but it is not with me all the time. Also I have goo stuff that I squish between my fingers, and I have a Rubix Cube which really keeps me occupied and keeps both of my hands busy. It has helped slightly also my mom takes pictures of me when I'm doing it and I can see how engrossed and stupid my face looks when I'm doing it which helps too.

Hi...I do the same thing but only on one side and I have noticed that the skin on my face is more lined now and starting to sag (I'm 47!!)

I don't chew on my inner cheek, but I do chew my inner bottom lip almost constantly. I'm pretty sure I even do it in my sleep. I am not sure when it actually started, but I can remember doing as far back as age 10 or so. (I'm 22 now) Whether I'm cooking dinner or watching tv, I'm constantly chewing on my bottom lip, beyond the point of bleeding. I have tried stopping, but it never works. I know it's stress related, but I just don't know what to do about it.

I do this all the time to the point of having a mouth full of ulcers so bad I can't eat. One thing I found that does help to not chew your mouth lining is to chew gum. If I have gum, it keeps the chewing off the inside of my cheeks and ulcer free!

I do it when I can't breath through my nose, for some reason. I just can't keep my mouth hanging open like that so I start biting the inside of my mouth. And now it feels all swollen and I can't close my mouth without it hurting :(

Cannot believe I found this forum. Almost everything written here is as if it came from my own hand!!! I have this horrible habit too! The rolling of the tongue looking for any uneaven parts, the inside of my checks, but mostly the inside of my bottom lip, and I know exactly when Im doing it. I do however get very angry with myself once my lip starts bleeding, then I manage to stop for a day or two and everything is perfect, and it just takes a small spark of anxiety or stress and I'm at it again. I so much want to stop!!! So nice knowing there are others out there with this problem too!!

And here is another guilty one. Inside of bottom lip and cheek. I have been biting as well since I was about 6 or 7. I also bite off the tastebuds of the tip or the side of my tongue as it sometimes feels like the uneven parts are on there. It hurts for days after and is sooo hard to stop once I've started.