How can I quit picking my lips?
Breaking a habit needs consideration. Habits form early and to alter it require extra effort. Practice mindfulness and do relaxation trainings like colouring and drawing anything , deep breathing as to lower anxiety levels till you reach homostasis (internal balance). Keep a check on your actions and if the undesired activity occurs you must be vigil and quick to intervene. A few times you succeed preventing it will gradually mend it.
Here is some motivation: lip picking looks disgusting. You may not realize it, but people could be watching you when you are picking your lips, they won’t want to talk to you after that! If you set your mind into quitting for ONE WEEK, you can be done for LIFE.
I was an avid lip picker for three years, and it got to the point where I would feel anxious and OCD if I didn’t pick my lips at least once a day. I was so embarrassed when pictures were taken at how chapped and swollen my lips looked, so I decided to quit for good, and this is how:
I invested in a semi-expensive tube of chapstick (try one with vitamin E protection from The Body Shop) for $5. Normally I would never pay that much for a tube of lipstick… which is the trick. I slathered it on when I got home and soon enough, I was feeling the urge to pick. I was able to resist though because all I thought about was how I paid $5 for my chapstick and I wasn’t going to waste it! That day, I reapplied chapstick every 30 minutes. The next day my lips were looking great, but I still had the urge to pick. I did the same routine, reapplying every hour this time. For one week, I did this, applying the chapstick less and less. Sure enough, my lip picking days were over! The key is to find something, expensive chapstick, that you would ruin if you picked your lips. Then let your guilty conscience end your picking days once and for all!
If you are picking your lips, it is likely as a nervous habit or because they are very dry. Either way, if you continue to pick your lips, you will dry them out further, they will begin to look very unattractive as the dead skin shows from the lack of moisture and irritation, and you could even make your lips bleed. Thus, if you are picking your lips as a nervous habit, why don’t you try coating your lips with something that tastes bad to you, so you don’t pick at them through the day. You could also apply a very pretty or expensive lipstick, that way you will be conscientious of your lips. Plus, with a dark colored lipstick or a very liquidy one, you won’t want to get it on your fingers because it will be a bit messy. You could also sit on your hands when you are sitting to stop yourself from picking them and you could keep your hands busy.
If you are picking your lips because they are dry, you should apply sugar to your lips after you moisten them with water to give yourself a lip scrub. The lip scrub will remove the dead skin and smoothen out your lips. Then you could moisturize them with oils like coconut oil, olive oil, hazelnut oil, avocado oil, or a lip balm you like. I also recommend drinking a lot of water so your lips won’t likely get as dry naturally. You should try to moisturize your lips every night before bed as well, so they will be in a healthier, more moisturized condition. You should also avoid things that will dry your lips out or injure them, like licking them, biting them, wearing drying lip products, etc.
Picking your lips, whether you do it with your hands or your mouth, is a neurotic habit. When it comes to neurotic habits, you should try to figure out what has led you to take up the habit in the first place. When did you first start picking your lips? What were you feeling at the time or what experiences were occurring when you started picking your lips. With habits, you can try to accommodate the habit in the ways I mentioned above, or you could develop new habits over old ones. If you can’t stop picking your lips, then keep oils on them all the time to protect them from damage. Replace picking your lips by instead putting something healthier in your mouth each time you try to pick your lips, such as placing a water bottle in your mouth to stop yourself from having access to your lips, etc. I hope this helps 🙂
