Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours, or BFRBs, are a group of behaviours that include hair pulling (called trichotillomania), skin picking (called excoriation), nail biting, and lip or cheek biting.
Individuals who experience BFRB engage in excessive, damaging, self-grooming behaviours such as pulling, picking, scraping, or biting their hair, skin, or nails, lips or cheeks. These behaviours often result in damage to their body, including hair loss, skin abrasions or lesions. The damage may be visible to others, which can cause anxiety and distress in itself. These behaviours occur despite the sufferer and his or her loved ones making extensive efforts to stop these behaviours.
A form of psychological therapy, called habit reversal training, can help children, adolescents and adults to reduce the frequency, severity and impact of body focused-repetitive behaviours.