In the dictionary, you can find such a definition of dermatomania - it is an obsession to self-damage to the skin, hair, nails and lips. Very often you can see people who gnaw nails, obsessively scratch their skin or even tear their hair. There are many reasons why a person can suffer from dermatomania. Most likely, the reason is psychopathology.
Dermatomania can be divided into:
- self-inflicting damage to gain some benefit;
- self-inflicted damage due to strange beliefs;
- self-inflicting damage due to any action, for example, scratching;
- self-inflicting damage to get rid of psychological problems.
But all these groups unite one fact - all the person does consciously, of his own free will.
Onychophagia
Since childhood, a person has a habit of sucking his fingers , but over time it goes into biting the nails and cuticles. Biting nails is considered a disease that can be caused by a short-term psychological disturbance or stress. Most often this happens during a feeling of annoyance, irritation, and also when a person is very nervous. Such a problem most often arises:
- People who are indecisive, cowards and the like. In situations when something is obsessively demanded from them so as not to show their inconsistency, they can start biting their nails and fingers down to the blood.
- People on the contrary are strong, who, with the help of biting their nails, calm down their inner experiences, emotions and aggression.
Trichotillomania
People with such a disease pull out their hair and not only on their heads. It appears because of severe stress or in people with mental disorders. Most often, this problem occurs in women. They can see small bald patches on the head, pubic, eyebrows and eyelashes. Very often people who suffer from this disease deny its presence. Trichotillomania mainly occurs in people who suffer from schizophrenia and other serious brain diseases. The causes of this disease can be: childhood trauma, inappropriate education and ambition. Trichotillomania is often found in children and it appears mainly because of the fact that they thus punish themselves for any faults. There are even examples when patients start to eat up their torn hair. A well-known fact is that children who very often play with their hair, as well as the hair of their parents, may become ill with trichotillmannia in the future. To get rid of this problem, you need to contact a psychiatrist who will prescribe the required number of sessions and if necessary antidepressants. Patients do not agree that they have problems and often hide their disease.
Heilomania
People with this problem bite their lips and tongue. This problem rarely occurs in a person separately, most often it appears together with trichotillomania and onychophagia. People start to bite
The result
If you notice that your child is sucking his hair, you do not need to beat him and hold scandals, you need to find out what the reason for this problem is. The same applies to nails, our grandmothers advised them to smear them with mustard or pepper, so it would not be unusual for them to lick and bite, but this is not a solution, since the problem can be much more serious than you think. And it's best to go to an appointment with a therapist, suddenly behind this, innocent at first glance, the action is a serious problem or disease.