Self injurious stims

Hello I didn't want to start a new thread so I found this older one. 

I am unsure whether what I am experiencing is a stim - because I guess I am still hazy about what that is, but this is the problem I am facing. 

Something on my body will itch and I will itch and itch it until it scratches all the skin off. Then it will scab up and I will absentmindedly itch that then it bleeds and it won't heal because I'm always scratching over it again and again.

I'm worried because I have a long history of intentional self harm, but this doesn't feel like that so much - I am itching almost absentmindedly a lot of the time. Or if I'm not itching with my fingers, I'll find I am rubbing my body part against a chair or table leg to get that same relief. It's very repetitive and I often don't notice I'm doing it. 

I can't think of anything in my environment that would be making me itchy - and this isn't new - It has happened for years but I only just got diagnosed so am now putting 2 and 2 together...

Any thoughts? 

You could try puting a plaster over the area that is itching so you can still get a degree of satisfaction from scratching the plaster but not actually making contact with the skin directly.

When has the current round of itching started? It wasn't after a trip to Paris by any chance?

www.bbc.com/.../world-europe-67010255

That's a good suggestion about covering the affected area with a plaster.

This is something I've taken to doing myself, to prevent me from scratching at scabs that feel itchy.

That's a good suggestion about covering the affected area with a plaster.

This is something I've taken to doing myself, to prevent me from scratching at scabs that feel itchy.