Natural Remedies
For the compulsive finger picker, the best course of action to stop the habit is:
- Treat the physical side-effects — the damage to the fingers, skin and nails. This includes both mechanical damage to the skin as well as nail fungus and other infections made possible by the damage.
- Recognize and treat the psychological cause of one’s picking with a therapeutic treatment plan — such as cognitive behavioral therapy.
- Also treat the psychological cause of picking with natural medications and therapies.
This last step is often either A) overlooked, or B) used on its own without the other steps in the treatment plan. For instance trying out some vitamin B8 on its own, without also treating infections resulting compulsive finger picking is less likely to be a successful approach than a holistic approach.
On that note Vitamin B8 — chemically known as Inositol — has been shown to be a very promising natural remedy for the psychological disorders associated with compulsive skin picking (dermatillomania), trichophagia, dermatophagia, and compulsive finger picking.
Other uses of natural remedies in the treatment regime include other Vitamin B compounds such as Vitamin B5, and essential oils — both of which treat side effects of nail fungus and dull nails.