Anxiety, Stress, and Lip/Cheek Biting

Read Brian Lock by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. Saved my father of 64 years from continuing this habit.

Hi, I've read everyone's posts with great interest as I have had bad addiction problems related to biting my skin for over 30 years. I first started to bite my nails when I was seven. I loved how I could zone out when I was doing it and the pain when I got water on them made me trance out and forget all other thoughts - I loved anything that could change the negative way I felt. It was definitely my first 'fix'. My fingers used to go completely septic and I had to get them lanced at the doctors repeatedly. Towards the end of my obsessive biting - which lasted 14 years - I started to have nightmares that I was choking/suffocating on my own skin and nails. I eventually kicked the habit by flipping my obsession into a positive one - I preened my nails to make them look beautiful, manicuring and painting them a dark colour - this really helped. I had to have the desire and willingness to drop my negative obsession though, which in the latter years was giving me more stress than relief.
Since then I have had an addiction to alcohol - solved only by my willingness to go into recovery and attend AA meetings - which has saved my life. I have had an obsession with biting my lips for six years too. At first they used to bleed but now they never do - it's like they have become immune. Again, when I do it I can completely switch off and forget about everything. I find it relaxing. But now I want to stop. If you want to stop, my experience is that the only thing to cure my addictions has been attedning 12 step meetings and making my negative behaviour, eg. not picking or biting my lips, what's called: 'a bottom line'. This means it is something you agree, with a sponsor, not to do - no matter what. It would be considered a 'slip' if you did - like an alcoholic picking up the first drink, which does the damage.
My experience is once I start I find it almost impossible to stop and I spiral down - but the good news is - attending 12 step meetings has broken my addictions, got me well and given me the tools to cope with life without harming myself.
There is a Self Mutilators Anonymous network in the US which covers this addiction - check out the website - and they have emailed me the meeting format. I am thinking about setting up a SMA meeting in London. If anyone is interested, please post a response.

even I have this problem. Guys please try to stop this habit because my left jaw has a problem because of this habit. May be teeth clip would stop u from chewing

Yea I have the same problem.

Oh my god ! i thought it was just me, I can't belive how manny people posted till now. Anyway I really need to stop, couse I am really affraid of oral cancer. Until a found this forum I was affraid to tell someone about it , but now I have to tell my partner about it couse I'm sure he'll help me to quit or at least tell me to stop doing it when he''ll see me doing it.
And it's true I always do it in stressful situations and I don't even notice until is too late... :'(
Good luck to everybody , sorry that I can't help I wish I could ....

I stopped over two months ago. I bit my cheeks for 26 years and I wanted to post to try and help others quit. I bit my cheeks and lips raw when anxious, like most biters. For me, its social anxiety--I would do it on my way to a public place, or worse--in public, or merely at home thinking about other people and places.

Here's what I did:

When I felt the urge come on, I smiled instead--at others, at the room, at myself--it didn't matter, just as long as my mouth was busy. Smiling put my mouth to work, it gave it something to do. It also made me feel better about myself, cause I seemed happy, with all that smiling I was doing. Sometimes feeling better in a situation is as simple as that. When the urge got too powerful for smiling, I put gum in my mouth and chewed it like there was no tomorrow. Carry your gum with you everywhere.
All my biting urges were completely gone after 48 hours. It was the first 48 hours that were the most difficult.

I hope this helps everyone.

Wow, I thought I was the only one that did this cheek biting thing. I have done it all my life. My dentist says I have worn the enamal from some of my teeth. I also clench my teeth, especially when sleepong. I read on another site that chewing gum can help break the habit. It's a bad habit and I hope to break it some day.

i bite my chek to i started when i was about ten i have alot of stress and figured thats why i do it but i never thought it was this common i too find the skin with my tounge and bite it off i usually find myself biting as soon as my tounge touches a rough spot

ive bit my lip every spring to early fall. i seem to Quit when its cold out. i dont know why. i started and cant stop. im trying to stop but it really hurts. i want to bite but i dont want to bite. aany help.

Me too. There has got to be a way to assist in the 'killing' of this habit. I've been doing it for as long as I can remember and my boyfriend doesn't appreciate it and I don't like the way it leaves my mouth, the way it looks or the possible long-term damage I'm causing.

As far as I know, it is up to the individual to decide to stop. But, I feel I need some intervention beyone my own awareness because it's not working.

If anyone has any new information or treatments I can discuss with my doctor, let me know!

Just like all of you, I am a lip biter! I am a therapist, therefore you would think I would know how to handle my own problems. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Everytime I catch myself biting my bottom lip (inner), I do a lot of self talk. I will tell myself to stop biting and to focus on stopping the behavior. I have to admit it helps! Our brains are more powerful than our behaviors... we just need to train them to be this way!

oh my gosh there are other people like me!!!!! i always bite off/tear off strips from the inside left of my lower lip...and sometimes my right. it started around three years ago and i can't seem to stop....i do it mostly when i'm bored or nervous....
i used to bite my nails but i overcame it...so hopefully i can overcome this too!
heard it could lead to oral cancer, that stopped me from doing it for about 3 days, lol. still a scary thought, though.
anybody have tips on ways to stop? is there some sort of device i can stick inbetween my lip and teeth to stop me from gnawing away?

I, too, have lived my whole life with the urge to be constantly chewing on something. From the time I was a baby, before I could even speak, my mother recalled that I would often make myself bleed from the chewing to my lips, cheeks, fingers, and tongue. Over the years, she had brought me to many doctors who were all convinced it was a lack of an undetermined vitamin. So I was given many supplements and was subjected to many odd experimental ideas.... like putting tabasco sauce on my fingers before school, or being encouraged to wear gloves indoors in an attempt to ward off the temptation to chew. But to my parents dissapointment, nothing ever seemed to work. And over the years, they felt helpless as I would often be in obvious pain from all the chewing and damage I had inflicted to my mouth or fingers.
And now, I'm 32. I am married and have 4 kids. And sadly, not much has changed. When I go to bed at night, my jaws ache me from literally having been chewing on something every minute throughout the day. My molars are nearly destroyed, and my cheeks are permanently scarred. My tongue, cheeks, and fingers (and sometimes lips) are almost always raw. I have days where I am determined, at all costs, to stop the relentless chewing once and for all. I feel empowered and capable of making such a huge change until I catch myself and realize that I have been chewing for an hour and not even been aware I was doing it. And sometimes I wake up from my sleep and realize I had been chewing in my sleep. And then I feel defeated and hopeless for change if it can happen without even being aware of it. I feel like I'm a prisoner in my own body. I feel like I'm living with a constant war between my teeth and any tissue (in my mouth) that they can reach.
It's depressing because I would consider myself to be an intelligent, motivated achiever. Anything in life that I've been determined enough to accomplish, I have. I love to set goals and work towards them. But this chewing thing wins me every time. And it makes me especially sad because I see my precious 7 year old daughter being inflicted in the same ways. My husband bites his nails and, although not to the extent I have lived with, he also bites his cheeks. So, now seeing my daughter starting to experience the need to chew, I worry it is a hereditary "gene", still undiscovered. My daughter has found good coping tricks for these urges though. As strange as it may sound, she found that chewing on a wet paper towel relieves her urges and when it passes, has prevented an painful damage to herself. Some people have thought it odd that when I see her pressing her fingers against the outsides of her cheeks, (a classic sign of a cheek chewer) I remind her to get a paper towel. They think I may only be perpetuating the urges. But I guess, having lived with this my whole life, I have come to believe that it may be better to learn some coping skills than to waist your energy trying to stop the urge.. Anyway...other than this minor obstacle, life is great!

Hi there,
I`ve suffered the same thing.
Answer very simple:Visualize for 3-5 min before falling to sleep and 3-5 min after waking up that your inner mouth (cheeks,lips and tongue)is lined out with a very hard substance like cement.Make the visualization as real as possible:taste the cement,feel your teeth grinding against it-play role it as real as possible.In the last 30 seconds of the visualization,just feel your mouth,tongue and teeth totally relaxed....so relaxed....relaxed.
Very important,start on a monday and do this for 7 days---after that share your miracle with who-ever needs it.

Reading all of those comments was like torture. All I want to do right now is bite my lip. I don't even remember when it began but I can't stop doing it. I'm chewing on a toothpick right now to try to keep away the urge. I should try hypnosis l but how would I even go about that? I just noticed now how bad they've gotten. All I know is I need to stop because I don't want to have mutilated lips when I'm older that are all scarred. I'm hoping the damage I've done so far will heal. Will years of habitual lip biting heal or scar? this sucks. My boyfriend never even noticed it until I mentioned it a long time ago but he doesn't say anything/I stopped doing it in front of him/doesn't seem to notice it when we osculate. I do wonder also how no one else notices. It is a really obvious habit but I guess people tend not to notice insignificant things like a habits. It's just obvious to us cause we're aware we're doing it. I mean, I know full when I'm gnawing at my mouth but just keep doing it because I'm obsessed with doing it. I just have to commit and give it up. It's a weird thing to tell people about and ask for support with because it's an odd sort of thing.. sort of, I guess.. :? Good luck to everyone<3