[lovethesun]

Hi everyone, my 8 year old daughter has been pulling out her eyelashes and eyebrows. I think this has been going on for several months. I did not realize she was doing it until recently when I noticed that she had no eyelashes left. I calmly talked with her to find out when it was happening and why. She said she gets feelings that make her want to do it and she always does it when she's reading a book ( so maybe it's out of boredom). I tried offering her a rewards system promising things to her if she met certain goals, all of which involved not picking the eyelashes and eyebrows. I also set up a system where I checked her eyes and asked her if she picked them every day, in other words policing her and making her feel accountable to me for it. None of this worked because I noticed her eyes were red the other day and she sheepishly admitted she had picked them again.....even after discussing rewards and everything. I feel so hopeless with this and very scared. I'm afraid someday this could turn into a dangerous addiction or lead to self cutting or something else. Not to mention I also feel embarrassed for her as she looks funny without eyelashes and only half her eyebrows. Has anyone else dealt with this mental health issue? Does it ever go away?

[TishaBuv]

Google skin picking and OCD. I've read a little about picking as a symptom of that.

[jbuttz]

I pick my eyebrows. I pick out odd looking ones like grey ones, too long and one's that appear to be bent. It makes me feel better about myself

[coyotee]

Whether you try to help her out of this habit yourself, or perhaps find professional help to help you work through it and understand it, I really hope you will continue to try to get a handle on it. I would think you would have a better chance at removing the habit now or at the very least finding a healthy coping tool early on while she's young, while this is still a relatively new habit.

It's a tough one though. I have had this issue, and still the need to pick arises every once in a while and I get flung back into old habits, but it's much better now, I don't do it nearly as often as I used to. But even after a lot of time thinking about it, I don't know exactly why I do it/why I did it. I have a few ideas as to why, but even all those reasons added up doesn't completely explain it..