Myth: BFRBs are extremely rare.

BFRBs are common behaviors rarely discussed in the general public. It is estimated that 3% of the world’s population experience BFRBs. Due to the shame associated with hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting, cheek biting, and other associated behaviors, they often go unreported, undiagnosed, and misdiagnosed. If prevalence estimations are correct, if you put every person with a BFRB in one place, their population would be larger than the country of Brazil.