Picking at Skin Questions and Poll.

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*****Gross-out warning*****

I have a nervous habit that I can't seem to stop doing. I get dry and flaky skin on my scalp and face for which I can't resist the urge to pick at and make it flake off. Sometimes I will pick at my face until there are red marks all over my face and they are very noticeable. People have commented about it. Recently I've been using lotions and that seams to take care of the condition quite well,

Another behavior is biting the skin on the inside of my mouth until chunks of skin come off.

Another issue is that I'm always scratching myself all over my arms and legs.

What I want to know is if this is a common behavior among Apies or people with autism in general, and if it's considered a stimming behavior. If not, is there a name for it?

One more issue is that I often get scars on me when sleeping. I keep my fingernails fairly trim, pretty normal, but I will find scratch-like scars on shoulders arms and sides of my torso and sometimes on my legs after sleeping. I've tried different blankets and sheets and it's still a problem - no protruding springs in mattress (new mattress right now) as the culprit and this has happened while sleeping in different beds over the years, so the only explanation I can come up with is that I scratch myself in my sleep.

I haven't been diagnosed with AS but I have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

This sounds like eczema/dermatitus

i had severe eczema as a child and I have mild eczema now, I still get red patchs on my face and flakes all over unless I follow a time consuming regime which involves lotions and creams that have caused me long term side effects, one in particular gave me herpes behind my ear.

I scratch my skin a lot, pick at scabs, bite flaking skin off my lips, rip my nails, pick at spots... it sounds disgusting, I know, but I think a lot of people do it. I used to get dry skin at the sides of my nail beds, and I'd pull it off. (I was a strange child and was always interested to look at a bleeding area of skin to see what my blood was like.)

I'm a picker. I haven't voted, do you only get one option?

I constantly pick at and tear the cuticles of my thumbnails to the point of acute pain.

Used to bite my mouth a lot until the dentist told me I might get sick from doing that. Now fingernails and cuticles and sometimes bite at my lips. Its like everything has to have a certain texture or it annoys me a little bit. If there is too much texture or little bumps that is "bad" or something.

My Dad nicknamed me Mouse due to my chewing. I also pick and I will pick at scabs and pimples, ect. I also chew on the inside of my mouth and my fingers. I have always chewed my nails to the quick and the sides of my nails (fingers) until they bleed sometimes depending on my anxiety level. I have a lot of scars. My daughter who is now 19 had a very severe picking problem when she was about 13. She slowed down and hardly does it at all with the help of a low dose of celexa but she is covered in really bad scars all over her legs and arms. For years she would not wear a shorts or short sleeve t-shirts....I got her some very expensive derm stuff that sloughs your skin off more quickly than normal so she is now able to wear tank tops and shorts. Her scars are still visible in areas where the holes were very deep but not as bad to where people would ask what happened to her.

i do all sorts of things like this

gross bad me

I pick, I refer to it as 'destructive grooming' and put it down to having BDD.

Mine is scratching, picking or squeezing at any sort of flaw; small spots, scars, blocked pores - I always scratch at my skin to find small spots as part of a continuous compulsive grooming, it's trying to get rid of these flaws. To go into more gross detail; if I've had full-blown spots I'll pick at scars to smooth it even if in public, at home even if boyfriend is here sometimes I get caught-up in squeezing blocked pores until my face is red and blotchy, I always bite at my cuticles...I worry that I do this more in public than I realise. Don't get me wrong to look at me most of the time you can't see I've been doing this, and I'm not as mental as I may sound, but I do this and on bad days this ends up giving me spots and thus scars, so I end up worse than I was to begin with, thus the 'destructive' part.

I don't think this is just BDD, and the associated mild OCD, but I remember reading that people on the spectrum can lack the social skills to understand this sort of 'grooming' is something to do in private...I think maybe this is common with all people, it's just for us it's something we do more often, like when sitting at school/college/work/transport/etc. so it's something we do more often, it's noticed by people around us, so it's a bigger issue for us and we notice it more.

You may have a specific skin condition to boot, making it worse again, and depending on your anxiety levels this may make it worse too - e.g. my 'destructive grooming' is more common when my anxiety is high.

I scratch my skin till it breaks in my sleep.