Compulsive Toe Picking

The close sister of compulsive finger picking — and first cousin of compulsive skin picking (aka dermatillomania) — is Compulsive Toe Picking.

Its a safe bet that anyone who obsess about picking their fingers, and is unable to control the impulse to pick, is going to dig in to his toes and toenails if given a chance.

Here’s a weird scenario — check if it matches your experience:

Practicing yoga to reduce compulsive picking can be an effective natural remedy to the stress and anxiety that often lies at the root of why people pick their fingers. But imagine this — if half the poses you perform have you sitting on the floor within inches of your bare toes, you may find yourself practicing your picking instead of your relaxing yoga! And yoga was supposed to help…

One might hypothesize that the only reason finger picking — and not toe picking — is such a quiet epidemic is simply that the toes spend most of their day tucked away in shoes out of reach, while the fingers are always within easy reach.

Imagine it — it’d be a real trick to try to inconspicuously shake off your shoe and pull out your toenails for a quiet picking session under the board room table at a big work meeting. But picking your fingers right next to your closest colleagues in a high-stakes setting? No problem!

But as with finger picking — the same treatments are available to the kick the habit:

• Psychological Treatments — such as the very effective cognitive behavioral therapy
• Pharmaceutical Treatments — such as antidepressant drugs to treat underlying psychological issues
• Natural Treatments — everything from meditation to acupuncture