9 Tips for Managing a Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior From People Who Have Them

November 08, 2017

 

Hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting—living with a body-focused repetitive disorder (BFRB) is no easy business...

I talked to several of my friends from the BFRB community to gather their best strategies for dealing with their behaviors...

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9. Use a gadget.

“Acceptance + mindfulness + fidgets. I don’t think I could have stopped [hair] pulling without all three of these. Once I got a jump start on the acceptance part, I learned that fidgets played a big role in the recovery of many, so I slowly built up a collection of hand candy. I keep some fidgets in my car, on the back of my couch, in my nightstand, and at other trouble spots in my house.

The Keen [bracelet by HabitAware] was next.... it played a huge role in my recovery for two reasons: awareness and tracking. I didn’t realize how automatic my pulling was until I had the bracelets catch me every time. And I hate to track, as valuable as it is. But Keen has a little button on it that you can push when you do perform your behavior and you can look at the summary whenever you’re ready. With Keen I can track my behavior with minimal disruption to my life.” —Laura, 32

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