I would say, this isn’t really stimming and could (at least in my case) probably be included in self harm (which is just a consequence of nobody giving a shit about us). In my case, I started having ingrown nails, which I had to fix (by cutting them out).
I mean, the lines are pretty blurred! For myself, I only categorise something as self harm when feeling physical pain is the primary objective of what I’m doing. Exercise is often painful, but the pain isn’t the main reason I’m doing it, so it’s not self harm. Likewise, when I pick my skin, the goal isn’t to experience pain, but to have a non-pain sensory stimulus. The fact that it harms my body is an unfortunate side effect that my lizard brain deems to be worth it sometimes. Same with overtraining when I know I have arthritis (because the mental health benefits are still worth it to me).
For me personally that’s a somewhat helpful way of framing it, sorry if that’s not the case for you! Made it easier for me to quit intentionally causing myself physical pain. Also made it easier to be compassionate with myself about the skin picking and nail biting when I slip up, because it’s more a force of habit and not a self harm thing. Also also made it easier to pivot to just rubbing my fingernails or clicking them together, because it’s sensory stimulation I’m after, not pain.
Tangential, but I haven’t figured out how to categorise causing myself pain to snap out of a panic attack. I usually slap my face or run very cold water over my hands, and the pain brings my feet back on the ground (metaphorically speaking).
Biting my nails and picking my skin :3
I would say, this isn’t really stimming and could (at least in my case) probably be included in self harm (which is just a consequence of nobody giving a shit about us). In my case, I started having ingrown nails, which I had to fix (by cutting them out).
CW self harm
I mean, the lines are pretty blurred! For myself, I only categorise something as self harm when feeling physical pain is the primary objective of what I’m doing. Exercise is often painful, but the pain isn’t the main reason I’m doing it, so it’s not self harm. Likewise, when I pick my skin, the goal isn’t to experience pain, but to have a non-pain sensory stimulus. The fact that it harms my body is an unfortunate side effect that my lizard brain deems to be worth it sometimes. Same with overtraining when I know I have arthritis (because the mental health benefits are still worth it to me).
For me personally that’s a somewhat helpful way of framing it, sorry if that’s not the case for you! Made it easier for me to quit intentionally causing myself physical pain. Also made it easier to be compassionate with myself about the skin picking and nail biting when I slip up, because it’s more a force of habit and not a self harm thing. Also also made it easier to pivot to just rubbing my fingernails or clicking them together, because it’s sensory stimulation I’m after, not pain.
Tangential, but I haven’t figured out how to categorise causing myself pain to snap out of a panic attack. I usually slap my face or run very cold water over my hands, and the pain brings my feet back on the ground (metaphorically speaking).