Are you a compulsive skin picker?

i do this too. i'll scour my face for anything, pulling hairs and acne. then my shoulders, upper arms, back, chest. or i'll sit and go over my thighs, picking out ingrown hairs, sometimes my knees and lower legs. i like to tweeze out thick hairs. sometimes i'll get going without tweezers, trying repeatedly on hairs until i get the right grip with my fingers/nails. then my fingers are sore. and i'll go at my ears, and my scalp... anything i can pick. i waste so much time doing this... but i can't stand leaving acne, i actually feel kinda satisfied when i get a pressurized splurting one. and when it's something i don't need a mirror for it's just compulsive, almost dissociative. at least i usually get myself to stop before going at something too badly that's visible to others.

I do this alot. I have alot of tendancies like that. I bite my nails to the point where they hurt and bleed, I scratch my skin alot. I also wash my hands and I need everything a certain way. I have to always sit totaly erect and have perfect posture too lol. Its really annoying to other people. I usually loose the abilty to know I am doing it.

I do this too!! It's my face, arms and legs especially... my mom gets SO distraught when I pick at my face, and having acne makes it SOOOO much worse. XP I've been doing better lately, but it's incredibly difficult to quit, and my mom really doesn't understand how hard it is.

I've been a picker for about 20 years. I also rock back and forth and wring my hands a lot (I have Asperger's syndrome). Those things, and the picking, are how I calm myself when I am worried or stressed out. I pick at my scalp and my ears and have scarring on my face because whenever I get a blemish I can never leave it alone - I have to dig it out. I also pick at my cuticles, sometimes until they bleed. I do these things mostly when I am alone, but once in awhile I will find myself picking at my head when I'm sitting with my boyfriend, if we're having a disagreement or are talking about things that are stressful.

Right now as I'm typing I keep pausing to pick at myself

Several posts mentioned kind of zoning out while picking - I do that frequently.

I've had several different Ts and pdocs through the years and have really never discussed it with any of them. I've been told I have obsessive-compulsive traits but not full-blown OCD.

Hi everyone!!

Normally I hang out in the dissociative disorders forum but I found this place and I had to say that YES, I am a skin picker. I have various scabs that I pick on my trunk and sometimes on my head and I pick till I bleed.

I think I do it out of stress, depression, anxiety, boredom...I just do it. I also pick my toenails, sometimes till they bleed.

When I was a kid I would bite my nails. My dad would force me to soak my fingers in chile oil to try and break me of the habit. Well, I don't really agree with his methods...I think that was a bit cruel. Especially when he didn't realize that his behaviors and treatment were the reason for my stress to begin with. But anyway, once I couldn't bite my nails anymore, that's when I moved on to my toenails.

I do have a history of cutting. I haven't cut in a while. The picking seems to relieve enough stress that I don't feel like I have to cut.

Just a tip. I recently discovered a NEW use for bubble wrap!!! I was very dysregulated and I wanted to cut, badly. I found a piece of bubble wrap in my closet and just sat down and wickedly went to town on it. This lasted for about 5 minutes till all the bubbles were popped, but once I was done, I was done. I didn't feel the need to cut, or the need to pick anymore for that moment!!

I think I'm going to go buy some bubble wrap and keep it handy for those real intense times.

Well, hope you all have a good day and take care!!

Oh my! I didn't realise there was a name for this either.

I too pick constantly. I usually pick my face, any blemish or part of my face that I don't think looks right. I'll pick out spots and keep digging at them until they get infected. I've had one raw area on my face (on the chin) since before Christmas. I just can't let it heal up. I've tried stopping, by cutting my nails off... but then I use other things to pick with, tweezers and pins etc. I've even been so desperate that I used the nearest thing available - a carpet tack

I'm a self harmer, too. I find it impossible to let self harm wounds heal, I pick at the scabs that form, it takes months for the cuts to go.

And I pull out hair, too... but not normally head hair, - I pick my eyebrows and eyelashes, and the hair that covers my arms and the top of my legs.

So, what is compulsive picking actually called, anyone know?
And I agree with the others who say they 'zone out' whilst picking... I totally do that. I can't leave my face alone... and often 'realise' that I'm doing it.

Hi CLErical!

The term for compulsive skin picking is "dermotillomania".

Wow....

And I thought I was alone!

I have picked for YEARS.

I mostly pick on my face. Though I will pick on my torso, legs and thumbs.

It started with my thumbs when I was little. I'd pick until they bled.

Then I moved onto my face and it's gone from there.

My mom doesnt like it even though she realizes that its a nervous habit.

I pick at myself to self-sooth when i am anxious and to stimulate myself when bored.

I usually pick at dry skin and pimples/blemishes. And i DO do it until I bleed.

I've developed some light discoloration of the skin where I've picked in the past, so I guess that qualifies as a scar?

And I also pull at my eyelashes. o_o

I dont use any implements other than my fingers though. I guess this is a good thing huh.

There's just something about the pop of a uh pimple that is SO satisfying. (ew did i just say that?) BUT ITS TRUE! Its satisfying!

I'm so weird....

u_u

But i'm glad to know I'm not alone!

I guess my question is... how do you STOP???

This morning I woke up to find that my mother had scrawled "Stop picking your face!" on a towel in my bathroom and "Be KIND to your face! It's a beautiful face if you just let it OUT!" in BRIGHT RED SHARPIE on my bathroom mirror. >.<

She's absolutely a tyrant about it, but her guilt trips and constant nagging don't help at all. What do I dooooooooo????

Do you have a therapist whom you could work with regarding this? That would be a good place to start to help curb your compulsion.

For me, I know I have an issue, but I've learned how to do it so others aren't aware of it. Like picking late at night around bedtime when pretty much everyone else has settled in for the night and they won't see me till the next morning. That gives my face about 8 hours for the picking redness to disappear.

I'm the same way. Sometimes I pick right before bed and when I come in the bedroom the lights are off so my boyfriend doesn't really see the redness on my face. I mostly pick when I am alone. Very rarely, I have done it in front of my boyfriend, and once in awhile when I go to visit my parents I have caught myself doing it in front of my mom. When that happens I will make up an excuse to go into the bathroom or bedroom where I can pick in private.

What an interesting topic! I have always been a picker, (pick sores especially and seem to get a lot of pleasure out of it) and read that this is a symptom of OCD. Maybe it has something to do with grooming?

Cybermember, I do have a therapist, but we are so focused on school and getting me ready for college that we don't have much time to focus on this issue.

Have any of you found ways to curb this need?

I constantly reopen old wounds.. I just don't like scabs, their kinda gross looking so i pick at them constantly. Cant help it, bite fingernails til they bleed too.

I cant believe their are others. I get ingrown hairs mostly on my chin and above upper lip.Its like it starts out with just a tweeze and all off a sudden its a major wound.I can spend hours in my bathroom . It feels like some sort of release. my family thinks im nuts. I hate myself for how bad its scarred my face. But i keep doing it. And try to hide out and on on on.

Any other pickers out there?[/quote]

I've never been diagnosed with OCD, but I not only pick at myself, but my b/f too, and it's not only while I'm awake, I do it in my sleep also. My b/f gets so mad at me when I won't stop, but it's like I can't, I mean I know I can, but it's hard to resist the urge. And it's not only the picking, I'm constantly rubbing his head, or playing with his hair. I twirl my hair all the time, especially when I'm stressed or sleepy. I have posted a thread here asking opinions about some of my other actions, and if I should see someone about this.

Probably. There is just something that is so satisfying in getting a difficult zit to pop. And something so gross in allowing a skin infection, however minor, to sit under the skin unaddressed.

I can't wear really short sleeves, shirts cut lower than my neck, shorts or skirts...forget bathing suits, forget summer clothes. I have scars from picking over most of my body and still I cannot stop. I even do it while I'm driving, which I know is ridiculous, not to mention dangerous, but I just cannot help it. I don't know what to do about it, but it's humiliating and disgusting and I want to stop. For the longest time I thought I was the only one so it's kind of comforting to see I am not alone in this.

I pick at my scalp a lot. There have been MANY times I've started doing it without realising.

Yep... I'm a "skin picker" too...

I think its an ADHD kinda thing....

There was a lady on Obsessed tonight that was skin picker. I guess I never really thought about it in conjunction with my OCD. I read about it and realized that when I am in therapy I am always pulling away and the dead skin on my hands. I have a skin condition that the skin on my hands is always peeling and so during therapy I am always "helping" it along. Also there was one time in therapy I picked at a scab and started to bleed. I remember telling Steve ummm I'm bleeding do you have a bandaid? I never saw that man move faster he gave me a kleenex and had me hold it on the area that I had picked the scab. I am always picking at something during therapy. I never really thought of it as being an OCD thing. Maybe I need to bring it up to my T when she gets back from vacation.

Jan

i saw that on obsessed too. it was a bit odd when she asked why is it so satisfying and he replied saying that it's because it takes you out of your life, you focus on that and time slips away. now that is true. i dont think of anything except my skin and time can get out of hand really fast, but i don't feel like i ever do it in that circumstance. i don't know.. i don't feel like "i'm sad" and my mind racing so i pick my skin to avoid that. maybe i just have never paid attention to why i do it. i know that its so much relief and satisfaction that i don't really get anywhere else, so maybe it's partially that too.

Yeah, I'm always picking at dead skin on my scalp. Even to the point where it feels as though I've made a little crater

I AM ALSO GUILTY OF THIS. I GET INGROWN HAIRS ON CHIN AND UPPERLIP THEY GROW SIDEWAYS SOMETIMES.AND I AM ON A MISSION TO GET THEM OUT .I CAN SPEND HOURS IN MY BATHROOM TRYING TO GET THEM OUT AND THEY SEEM SO CLOSE TO GETING BIG I END DIGGING A HOLE. I ALSO GET LOST IN THIS PROCESS AND IT RELIEVES SOME ANXIETY FOR ME.