autophagia
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Autophagia is the practice of biting/consuming one's body. It is a sub category of self-injurious behavior (SIB). Commonly, it manifests in humans as nail biting and hair pulling. In rarer circumstances, it manifests as serious self mutilative behavior such as biting off one's fingers. Autophagia affects both humans and non humans. Human autophagia typically occurs in parts of the body that are sensitive to pain, such as fingers. Human autophagia is not motivated by suicidal intent, but may be related to the desire to seek pain.
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
11 sectionsContents
- Symptoms
- Possible causes
- Psychological model
- Diagnosis
- Treatments
- Environmental modification
- Behavioral modification
- Living with autophagia
- Autophagia in rats
- See also
- References
Autophagia is the practice of biting/consuming one's body. It is a sub category of self-injurious behavior (SIB). Commonly, it manifests in humans as nail biting and hair pulling. In rarer circumstances, it manifests as serious self mutilative behavior such as biting off one's fingers. Autophagia affects both humans and non humans. Human autophagia typically occurs in parts of the body that are sensitive to pain, such as fingers. Human autophagia is not motivated by suicidal intent, but may be related to the desire to seek pain.
There has been medical research into the relationship of prevalence of autophagia as a symptom of mental disorders including obsessive compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, and Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “autophagia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.