Incessant scratching and picking, a "stim"?

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For the longest time I have scratched and picked at my skin, all over my entire body, incessantly. Now I understand some people simply have acne problems, and would simply percieve my issue to be just that, but I feel it's a bit more than that. Constantly I find that my hands are autonomously scanning my arms, neck, back, and chest, for any inconsistencies to scratch and tear away from myself. All of my few friends and family that hang around me notice it, and mention it to me on a daily basis. I have hundreds of tiny little scars from places where I've sctratched and picked away the skin, leaving a rather unpleasant sight to see.
My skin is never done healing.
I used get punished for all of the extensive, and according to my parents at the time, disturbing scratches I had all over my body, but I never knew how to stop.
Could this behaviour be attributed to an ASD, and could it be considered a "stim"?

I suspect it is.

I can certainly sympathise because I'm constantly scratching at myself, not enough to break skin, but its everyday. I feel like I have ants crawling all over my body, and the itching is so intense sometimes I feel like I want to scratch my skin off.

Also if I have any kind of scab, I will pick at it all the time, even though I know I'll just make it worse. I just can't seem to help myself, and its very frustrating at times being unable to stop doing it.

I have a faux leather armchair that is cracking and peeling, so I'm constantly peeling bits of cracked plastic off that as well - there is hardly any faux leather left on it now

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Autistic dad to an autistic boy and loving it - its always fun in our house

I have Autism. My communication difficulties mean that I sometimes get words wrong, that what I mean is not what comes out.

It can be an autistic repetitive behaviour, it can also be associated with OCD and with other disorders or occur alone. It's called deratillomania.LINK

I have it too and have scars and constantly get told to stop picking. It sucks.

Just looked at that link, and thankfully I'm relatively mild compared to that.

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Autistic dad to an autistic boy and loving it - its always fun in our house

I have Autism. My communication difficulties mean that I sometimes get words wrong, that what I mean is not what comes out.

I resemble the guy in the very first picture, in fact I almost always look like that. Very enlightening, thanks for the info.

Yeah, it can be a stim. It's common though. NTs can have a problem with it, too.

I think it's one that you should probably work on redirecting because of the possibility of getting a skin infection. It might not be a huge danger, overall, but it could conceivably mean medical bills. Same with nail-biting or other repetitive behaviors that routinely leave you with minor injuries that break the skin. Not an emergency, not something you really need to worry about that much, but chuck it on the list of "things to find other solutions for". Plus, it'll cause scarring eventually if you care about that kind of thing.

I am in my 40s and cannot tell you the number of Dermatologists I have been to in the last decade. You nailed it for me when you said inconsistencies and I can't thank you enough for that. For years, I have been told that my arms/upper back were just "dry" or maybe I had "bedbugs" (what?) even though it was local to those areas - not all over. After having to treat every shirt that isn't black for blood spots every time I do the laundry (for as long as I can remember), this finally makes sense.

Recommendations in the past have been to use more lotion (felt greasy), dove moisturizing soap (felt slimy - not squeaky clean) and to just stop picking. Obviously nothing worked.

I am 98% scab free from picking right now, but a few years ago, went out in sleeveless and a friend asked if I had been in a wreck (like crashing a motorcycle) because of the years-old scars. Not like the guy in the open wound pics - healed, faint (but noticable) long 1-3" scars from picking.

Nothing can be done with past damage - but can anything be done going forward? Like benedryl cream or something?

I was just diagnosed AS 2 weeks ago, so am still learning about this stuff (and things like why Costco/HomeDepot give me vertigo from the stimulus overload). Thanks for any thoughts on this.

I will see if I can get a pic of my arms and post it.

Double posted thanks to the inane captcha that this software uses.

Alex - I am a web programmer. Call me - I can help you fix this.

Yep, this is a problem for me. I pick at dry skin, zits, scabs, and so on. I've avoided inflicting major damage to my skin, though.

I have a compulsive need to deal with zits, blackheads, ingrown hairs, etc.

Not sure if it's AS or a co-morbid issue, though.

Times when I'm extraordinarily stressed the picking will make holes in my skin about dime size to nickel size, and about a centimeter (give or take) deep. Painful, yes, but if the overwhelming stress is there I do it anyway, although I'm very keen on keeping everything clean and avoiding infections. I have a tattoo that covers my entire right bicept, and because I've picked at my arm so much it's faded where all the scabs became scars, causing it to look somewhat tattered.
I was once standing in line someplace, with the back of my neck being a disasterous mess, when the person behind me said, "Look, it's the start of the zombie apocolypse," which was followed by laughter from everyone else in their group. I'm very self conscious about it, but I've never been able to completely stop.