Do you suck your thumb?

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I haven't ever told this to anyone yet but my ex sucked his thumb. It would happen late at night when he was watching tv and I'd come into the room and see him sucking his thumb in the glare of the television. The first time he did it I thought it was really creepy, but after awhile the shock of seeing him like that wore off. I figured it must be an Asperger's thing. Are there any adult males here who suck their thumb?

18 year old female who sucks her thumb here!!

I sucked my finger until I made myself quit about 10 years ago.

My parents were so happy. They had tried to make me stop. They had even covered my finger in this awful solution that tasted like earwax.

Is anyone else's finger/thumb deformed from sucking on it?

Take a wild guess.

I used to suck and bite on my finger up to the age of 10 frequently but then started sucking on pencils and pens. These days I have a partial denture and I bite on that frenquently without realizing it to the point of breaking them from time to time.

Paul

Every kid in my family sucked a thumb (or fingers).

I sucked mine until I was about 10 and then I got a plate for straightening my teeth - like it had any chance of undoing what my thumb had done. Except the plate stoped the suction between the roof of my mouth and my thumb - so the comfort value was completely neutralized - it's no good sucking up to something hard and plastic - well not for me. So I stopped sucking my thumb.

The lump on my thumb went away too. And my teeth look reasonably normal now - no thanks to the plate though.

I sucked on a pacifer till about 3 years old. Expert at that time thought it was
bad to allow a kid to suck on a pacifer (I born in 1970). But they seem to have
come full circle and now recommend a pacifer as much healthier than thumb
sucking. Because you allways have you thumb so its more harder habit to quit.

I sucked my thumb when I was a little kid.. before school age.

My parents used to put this foul tasting stuff on it to try and stop me, eventually i did stop, although I don't think it was because of the solution.

I really don't remember when I used to suck my thumb. My memory isn't all that good. I do chew things.

I like to bite my thumb knuckle (with thumb bent), but I try not to do it because it's supposed to be insulting some places (can't remember where).

14 and still do. I suck my thumb when I'm asleep or napping.

I think I have always sucked on stuff my whole life. I would suck on some of my items and I remember sucking my headphone cords and I used to suck on my hair and when I was 17 I got myself a pacifier and would suck on it too. I still have it but haven’t used it in awhile. Why do we suck?

I think we're hard-wired to associate sucking with calm and comfort. It's meant to help a baby get enough nutrition when it's still young enough to need milk... if sucking were a neutral thing, the baby might not get enough food; so it's associated with positive feelings.

Interestingly, fetuses have been observed to suck their thumbs or fingers--since this is before sucking is even associated with gratification of hunger; it makes sense that sucking, in itself, is comforting for the baby before and after birth.

Some cats will suck on things well into adulthood or even their whole lives; it's theorized that if they are taken away from their mothers too early, they'll be more likely to suck. Or they'll knead with their front paws when they're being petted; that's what they used to do when they nursed, as kittens. So it's comfort behavior as well as social behavior... generally the cats who do this are quite happy animals; they just have some kittenlike behaviors.

I actually never sucked my thumb at all; but I do eat to comfort myself when I feel sad. Naturally this is much more unhealthy than thumb-sucking--I'm overweight--so I'd probably be better off if I did suck my thumb.

So, how long before somebody mentions Freud?

....Oops, I just did.

I sucked my thumb till I was 7 yrs old. I remember saying it would make my teeth crooked. I ended up having to wear spacers, retainers and braces with the rubber bands, everything but the headgear when I was in highschool so guess it does make the teeth crooked.

I remember in psychology class the teacher saying how a lot of people still suck their thumbs as adults they just learn ways of hiding it. Also heard if you deprive babies of their sucking instinct by not breast feeding or allowing them a pacifer that in later life they will develop some other oral fixation, most notably smoking. Not sure if its true, but it seems to be with animals. I knew someone with a cat that was taken away from his mom too early. When the cat got stressed he would go suck the kitchen rug! Guess it was soft and furry and reminded him of momma cat. It was funny to watch till you forgot and walked on the rug barefooted and got slobbers all of your foot. I adopted an adult cat and think she wasn't weaned properly because she tries to suck on my arm.

I do suck my finger, it is more noticable with my family. My workmates notice more when I scratch my nuts