Throw away.

I have a cluster of disorders that fall under the category of body focused repetitive movements. It's kind of like self harm, only less severe and the idea is generally not to cause pain but rather to fix an "imperfection." Essentially, I tear out any hair different than the others, pluck my eyebrows (they're not of equal length), my eyelashes (some darker than others), peel my skin (I'm constantly stroking my skin to look for lumps or bumps or scratches), biting my nails (it kills me they are not of equal length) and occasionally using a tac or razor blade to draw blood (unlike actual cutting, I hate the pain and blood is the end goal).

These habits developed so slowly that I never realized how abnormal they were. It's like being born blind; you don't realize it until someone points it out. For me, I realized this was unusual when I lost most of my hair and all of my eyelashes at 15 and realized, "Hey wait... most people don't do this." (I was a teenager so my peers were pretty quick to point it out. For a teenage girl, losing hair and skin was pretty rough since appearances meant so much. I'm very glad to be past that stage).

It's been hard, but I've made progress in the last few years. I have all my hair and half my eyelashes back. The skin on my feet is no longer raw so I can walk comfortably. The scratching is still an issue but I'm working on it.

These disorders are very common yet very unknown. It's an interesting phenomenon. Here is a link for those who want to learn more about them.