It’s that time, time to spill it, time to get real… pun intended.

Oh ick, ticks not as in blood sucking parasitic bugs. No I mean quarks, issues, imperfections that make us perfect, you know, our ticks.

Oral fixation is a real thing, manifesting it’s self in different ways for different people. One way it presents its self to me is in the form of needing to eat, constantly. I am frequently fighting the urge to be performing that motion of hand to mouth. I am not a smoker so that fix is out (thank goodness I was able to steer clear of that habit, I’m not sure I’d be able to break it. Kudos to those who are able to stop.) Idle hands are trouble. I find my self subconsciously twisting my ring, picking at my nails, tapping my fingers against each other, twisting my pen, doodling…. etc.

Another manifestation of this fixation is biting; my lip, my cuticles, even my knuckles. Luckily my career in nursing has me elbow deep in some of the nastiest germs available. I’ve seen some things my friends. And the fear of infecting myself and spreading the germs to others has gratefully helped to squash the need to be gnawing on my fingers… for the most part. I have found that taking a nail file to get rid of any torn cuticles that might temp me helps. It is not uncommon for me to be seen with bandaged knuckles during a more stressful period, looking like I’ve been in a fight which has actually been my excuse in the past, jokingly of course. I’m not much of a fighter although I would like to get into boxing. Ah but I digress.

So what has helped you may ask? Some of you may know of the tattoo on the inside of my wrist reading Serenity. It mainly refers to the Serenity prayer. This prayer has helped me in many ways in the past but in this case it causes me to pause when I see it there on my person, and on occasion I have the sense to think about it and stop the hurtful action I was about to perform (hurtful to myself of course). Other little tricks are snapping the rubber band around my wrist, chewing gum – which actually doesn’t work too well because I simply end up with a sore jaw after cramming one stick of gum after another into my mouth (again with the hand to mouth bit)… ah lets see, oh yes drinking! Coffee (lots of coffee!), tea, soda, crystal light, needless to say I stay pretty hydrated.

This is an icky little habit of mine, one I am working to if not fix, then at least to control, and I’ve found a few tips. Why in the world would I be telling you this? Because in reading I have discovered the vast majority of us have ticks, issues, little goofy quarks that we may feel the need to hide and therefore make worse. Oh and sure, you can still hide it, or we can talk about it, or you can google it and discover you are SO not the only one. In the company of other weirdos, maybe we will not feel so odd.

Oh and if you are thinking of titling this little issue of mine with some sort of medical acronym, don’t bother. We’ll save that post for the future. 😀