Thumb Pain for the past 4 years, no clue what it is.

So I have been dealing with this pain for the better part of four years now, and it’s getting unbearable.

When I was younger, I have a vague memory of breaking my right thumbnail on something, the memory isn’t clear. All that I know is that since then, I have had thumb pain/throbbing/swelling/ a sort of itching sensation. Ever since that day where I hurt my thumbnail, I have always had this sort of sensation underneath my thumbnail, and down into the cuticle, to basically pick at it. A similar sensation to picking a scab, but ten times as worse. When I was younger, I would cut my nail down to the cuticle just to get at it, and I would use sewing needles and basically insert them far underneath the cuticle into my finger. Whenever I would do this, my fingernail would of course bleed, but the itching sensation would stop for a while. I went to the doctors, and told her what I’m telling you. She told me that it was probably a wart or something underneath my fingernail, and that if I grow my fingernail back that it would subside. So I pushed through, and let my nail heal. The only problem being is that the need to pick at it never went away. This led to me using my teeth to basically push down on my nail, which would relieve the itching for a couple of minutes. This has now become habit for me. For a couple of years I did this, but recently it has started getting really bad again. I’ve gone back to the needle method to relieve the sensation, but it doesn’t last forever and I really hate having to stick a needle into my nail to make it feel normal. It also has oozed whitish, greenish pus on two occasion, including today. I have a memory of it doing this a couple of years ago. I have attempted to research a reason on my own, and for a while I couldnt find anything. Recently, I was reading into Chronic Paronychia. It kind of fits, as the pus means an infection, and if its chronic it could have affected me for years. I just dont know how much it fits, and if it would keep bothering me without showing too many signs of infection for years at a time.

I feel like it could be psychological, but I don’t have anything which stresses me out too much. I really just want the feeling to go away

Thank you for listening to my weird, crazy story, and I hope you guys can help me out

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