So many issues can be caused in a developing mind, by being dismissed by parents.
Always listen to what a child is saying.
My dermatophagia is directly due to my parents and their influence over my development, I’m making great strides at curing myself of this though.
First step in fixing any problem, is recognising there is one.
I don’t believe I would have ever identified this problem and it’s cause without the use of psychedelics, but who knows?
Pretty much. Just take a good look at Andrea Yates. She killed her kids in the name of god with the excuse that she was saving them from hell. 
This is not always the case of course, and I think we need be wary of falling into the same trap of many religious apologists, who assert morality is impossible without a deity, or that atheists cannot be moral. In other words anyone who does not share their beliefs cannot be moral.
Since morality is subjective, then it is better to judge morality on what is claimed to be moral, and not what beliefs the claimant may or may not hold.
Everything you said was very, very insightful, so thank you very much.
My parents weren’t having strife at that time, but my mother had me from a prior relationship, and had remaried when I was perhaps 3 years old, and I watched the movie (alone) when I was around 5 years old . . . so your points seem to have a lot of validity.
Now the zinger… At times when the dreams seem to bother you in your current life, are those also paired with times when you are worried about relationships dissolving or issues with significant others? This may be a coping mechanism you leaned when younger that your brain and body simply do naturally and which you have been unaware of. We all have patterns in our lives and these pattern recur. They recur whether or not we are aware of them. I think awareness helps us to use them to our advantage. After all, if I know something is going on with me, I can more address it more effectively.
I don’t know why, but my tired morning brain, slid a ‘me’ into that sentence.
‘had memarried when I was perhaps 3 years old.’
I’m glad this wasn’t the case.
Thank you. I am also glad that this wasn’t the case.
As soon as I identified why I had Dermatophagia, I began to make strides against it.
Nearly a week of growth on my nails, and it is less of a temptation to chew everyday! too early to celebrate, but this is the most confident I’ve felt about this I have ever felt.
The human brain is a fascinating and deeply confuddling organ.
The picture that helped me identify my Dermatophagia and how to deal with my smoking addiction, I wonder if you can see where and how, from an outsiders perspective.
Of course not. It’s your brain, your interpretation, and your special meaning. It carries with it the emotional content powerful enough to make you change your behavior. That is an amazing thing. You could explain yourself for years and no one would ever grasp the emotional content of the message you tried to share. They might develop some of their own emotional content but your response and understanding is your own.
I wasn’t sure what Dermatophagia was exactly until I looked it up, and holy shit, it describes me and what I’ve been doing most, if not all of my life. I’ve been biting my nails and pulling my hair for as long as I can remember. The only difference is I’ve never had the compulsion to bite myself on the skin.
I do have a habit of scratching my head until it bleeds, which drives my wife crazy. I’ve had scabs on my head off and on for the last few years, probably since I was forced to retire in '15.
Whenever I’m feeling stressed, or depressed, or dealing with pain, I find myself scratching off the scabs until they bleed again. I find myself enjoying the pain.
I’ve made a conscious effort to stop pulling on my hair, I’ve lost more than enough already, but I’m still biting my nails, how else do I keep them maintained?
It is far more common than most realise.
I have a fidget spinner, every time I catch myself starting the behaviour, I pick up the spinner, and spin it once, I then watch and wait for it to stop spinning, before I carry on whatever I was doing before/during the picking/biting.
I used an example to myself, to ferment this practice to myself.
In the game Titanfall 1, you could manipulate your character in a specific jump pattern, called bunny hopping, to make your character move faster than the developers originally intended, this action became second nature to me, after over a thousand hours of playtime.
When they released Titanfall 2 this was no longer possible, so players developed a new way to bunny hop, which was drastically different. the issue was, if you attempted to bunny hop the old way, you ended up actually going slower than just moving normally. 
It took me a long while to break the habit of attempting to bunny hop the old way, but because of this, the game inadvertently introduced a punishment/reward mechanic, where you were punished severely for attempting to bunny hop the old way, and rewarded for doing it the new way.
I found, due to this I was forced into adapting.
The way I correlated this in my mind, is that if I caught myself chewing/picking/clicking joints, I would implement the punishment. which is waiting for the fidget spinner to stop spinning, the real life equivalent of being forced to go slower.
My brain works in funny ways, and this method worked for me. I have no clue if it would work for you.
There is also the added nuance, that this method occurred to me while I was tripping balls on psychedelics, so the associative memory is very powerful.
But, you’ve taken the first and second steps, first being noticing there is an issue, second knowing what the issue is and putting a name to it.
The third step, would be to start taking steps to stopping the negative behaviour.
Edited to add, I also had repressed memories released to me, which highlighted why the behaviour started in the first place, an abusive childhood, this is apart of why the associative memory is so powerful, maybe if you could get to the root of why and when you started having the problem too? (I don’t mean to imply your childhood was abusive, it could be a whole plethora of reasons, or none at all.)
My brother had a severe case and even sucked on his thumb at night well into his teens. I ended up a nail biter. I bite the nails on my left hand only. The nails on my right hand are used for playing guitar. (I’m weird.) I have stopped several times in my life but return now and again as well. No significant reason I am aware of. I generally bite them when I am very tired. This is also when I am prone to over eating. Perhaps its connected. Hmmm?
](Trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder) - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic)
Why are you pulling out your hair? Overview. Trichotillomania (trik-o-til-o-MAY-nee-uh), also called hair-pulling disorder, is a mental disorder that involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body, despite trying to stop.
Are these conditions related to self-injury disorders like cutting?
Yes. (and now I waste my time compulsively typing out 20 characters.)
I suppose I could do this…
After all, you are the sort of person that woud actually read it.
With this said, symptoms and pathologies occur on scales from simple habits, to compulsions, to life interfering pathologies. Many people live just fine with their little habits. Just as I live with my nail-biting, and most alcoholics live just fine with their addiction.
Yes, I did read it. It led me down a couple of rabbit holes…dang it! I need to cook dinner! I can’t chase rabbits all afternoon!
You may find this rabbit hole interesting:
Interesting conclusions: I should probably stop drinking my testostrone milkshakes for lunch.
Yeah, you might want to back off of the raw mountain oysters as well…
Edit ball is in your court
But I like raw mountain oysters… besides… What is the point of bull tipping if there is no snack involved?
