Nervous Bad Habits

[Kas_Can_Fly]

So I've always known biting my nails has been a bad habit - but I've never cared, it doesn't do anyone any harm and nails really creep me out. In the past few years I've noticed it getting worse, bleeding frequently and gnawing down on to the nail bed so today I decided to google other nervous bad habits and boy, I do them all and then some! **Eeek!**

Some I didn't even notice I do until I read them and others I didn't even realise were to do with nervousness/anxiousness. So here I am going to list some of my nervous bad habits and I encourage others to do the same, if for no other reason because I'm curious! (These don't include hypervigilant things like jumping, flinching, moving out of the way too much, scanning faces etc)

• Nail biting obviously but also all the skin around them.
• Hair Pulling - while not like trichotillomania, I vigorously rub my hair (I have very short hair) back and forth nervously all the time all the while pulling on it pretty roughly, it's like I'm trying to pull it over my face to hide behind but its only an 1.5-2 inches long.
• Chew the inside of my cheek and lick and bite my lips.
• Crack joints.
• Touch my face - again rather than picking at skin -although now and then, this is more trying to hide behind my hands and I almost always have at least one of my hands around my face.
• Clench my jaw - never notice my self doing it, but always seem to get jaw ache!
• Chew gum, I used to do this but now I'm too self-conscious to chew gum - I feel very nervous about doing it for some reason.
• Chew pens and pencils or tapping them up and down a lot
• Crossing and uncrossing my legs/Fidgeting and shaking my legs a lot when sitting
• Apologising constantly for no reason
• Asking if people are ok all the time, even straight after they answered to which I usually then apologise for.
• Nervous laughing
• Clenching my hands or pulling fingers
• Holding my shoulders and if at all possible curling up, sitting with my knees up to my chest (do this at home when ever I'm down stairs, at the docs/therapy etc)
• Rubbing my neck
• Pacing
• Breaking leaves off as I walk by them (when I'm out at least!)
• Tearing paper with my hands but not off into pieces, just semi torn strips
• Chewing the corner of my phone cover
• Chewing up polystyrene cups into hundreds of little pieces but keeping them all in the bottom of the cup.
• Folding paper/leaflets/information given to me etc.
• Flicking my thumb back and forth or flecking all of my fingers and twitching them
• Checking my phone for no reason but as if I've got a serious purpose to (such as people actually messaging me - I have only 1 rather technophobic friend!) :rolleyes:
• Clenching and unclenching my calf or flicking my foot up and down methodically.
• Rub my arms for no reason
• Scratch (my neighbour/T/Doc must think I have fleas!)
• Stuttering or talking way to fast and rambling or all three.
• No eye contact.
• Sudden toe claustrophobia!

Well... I suppose I should stop trying to think of any, because no one else will have any different ones. The only nervous bad habit I don't have is smoking, or drinking actually if that's actually a nervous bad habit....

Boy, I'm crazy!

 

[Ryn]

Wow, I read through these thinking "check, check, check..." on almost every single one. :p You are definitely not alone.

I could add a lot of things, but my worst thing at the moment is biting things when I'm nervous - I have lots of little white (embarrassing) scars from biting the skin on my arms over and over. I also bite my wrists, hands, fingers, knuckles, inside of cheeks, lips, nails, and skin around my nails... and of course if there's a pencil or something to gnaw on I will.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I do a few of these too. Thank you for the list. I used to bite my nails like you, but now I have long nails which I go to get done once a month,

I shake my leg and my family is always pointing it out to me.

I smoke and I drink occasionally. I know I have to quit the smoking, but it is a really great stress reliever to me.

Thank you for posting this.

 

[y5L]

I do a lot of these, too. Especially biting inside my cheek. I do that constantly! I am doing it right now, actually!

 

[Fadeaway]

Oh gawds yes to many of them. And go ahead and try to take any of these habits away from me. Over my dead body. I get oddly possessive over some of them.

I was able to give up cigarettes and nicotine using the e-cig, but I have to have my e-cig constantly. I need it in my hands and I need the hand to mouth feeling. Drives my husband nuts because I can go into a panic attack if I can't find it. I rely on it that much for comfort.

I bite my nails, but I have much more control over it now than I did when I was younger.
I can literally pop every joint in my body even my hips, shoulders, knees, wrists ect.
If I have a pen or pencil in my hand, I chew on it with out even thinking.
I bite my lips and inside of my cheeks.
I rub my skin all the time, especially on my face or shoulders.
I always have to be doing something with my hands, and have something in my hands to fiddle with. As the anxiety rises, the more destructive to the object I become, I have ruined some perfectly good books that way by bending and tearing pages much to my dismay.

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

• Flicking things so they tap between my index on middle finger (like a debit card, my phone or the thumb of my other hand.
• Commenting on random things like a bird outside the window or stuff to take attention off of me.
• Rubbing my hands together until skin comes off.
• Pressing on my eyes till it hurts and I see lights/patterns.
• Offering drinks/food/windows open/closed/ to move in case I'm in the way/anything to help others. This one may not seem so bad until you realise how much I do it :S

 

[Fadeaway]

I tend to repeat my self over and over. I know this one drives people nuts, they will tell me, "You just said that." But sometime I just feel the urge to say it again. I don't know why.

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

@Fadeaway I also am protective/possessive over my nail biting but less over the others, though rarely do people say anything.

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

Earlier I walked into the kitchen downstairs and up to my sister and then apologised for no reason, we were equally confused. Though on afterthought I may have been apologising because I forgot what I was going to say, which reminds me:

• Forgetting what I'm saying (every few seconds/sentences often straight away after being reminded and needing reminding all the way through a conversation)
• Trailing off and walking away randomly!
• Suddenly changing subject (often because I have no idea about what I was talking about it what the point was).
• Saying "so yeah" and continuing a previous conversation, often that I was having with them days work even years earlier and/or what I had with different people.
• Err, I did have another one about talking, like stuttering but I forgot it...

 

[Go Hungry]

Sighing a lot.
Cracking joints almost constantly.
Tensing up the muscles in my legs or hands or forearms in response to bad memories, or good memories, or any thought that crosses my mind.
I touch my face a lot, often dragging my thumb along my jaw or down the side of my cheek.
"Checking" my cellphone to pretend like I'm reading texts when if fact I just don't want to engage the people nearby.
Making strange hand signals or placing my palm outward to fight off painful thoughts.
Gnawing on pens. I don't like the taste of pencils.
Drinking lots, and I mean gallons, of soda and tea and water and coffee every day. Basically I just never stop being thirsty. My kidneys are in amazing shape though. :D
Pacing.
Rubbing my eyes.
Smoking. Like a train.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

@Go Hungry I do a lot of pacing too.

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

@Ayesha yes pacing must be my #1 form of exercise! Thanks everyone for your replies it's great to know I'm not alone in this!

If anyone else has weird or quirky nervous habits or just plain ol' regular ones please feel free to share. You know what they say; "admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery". Now I'm not sure I want to stop (nail biting can be a simple life saver for me!) but being aware has certainly changed my view on them and made me more aware. :)