It's odd to see this posted in an OCD forum, as I never suspected that this could be a substantial reason for picking one's skin. My aunt has been doing this for months, and I could never figure out why she does it. She picks until she bleeds, and she has scabs all over her face and now she's moving on to her arms. We keep asking her to stop, but she doesn't. I never thought of looking at it in a way that she is picking at the dirty spots.

She also suffers from dementia and Wernicke's Syndrome, along with Bipolar disorder. Maybe she has OCD also? We've taken her to doctors who tell us that there is nothing wrong with her, and we've had her skin checked out. No matter how much we tell her to wash her face, she still picks. I'll have to have her checked out for that. Thanks so much for the input everyone!