Skin picking?

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Joined: 3 Feb 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 11

30 Oct 2011, 7:42 pm

I pull on my eyebrows when I'm thinking, but it's ok because they're super thick. I really pick at my face when I have acne and anytime I have insect bites on my arms. I want my skin to be smooth! I feel like I'm solving that problem, but I just end up with scars... and more acne. I used to bite the insides of my mouth really badly, but quit for the most part. I definitely think it's stress related. When my grandparents died I started picking bad at my temples. I would get these bumps and pick them off, then they would scab and I would just keep going. I couldn't stop. At work and at school I would have scabs in my hair and blood under my nails. Gross!

ECJ
Velociraptor

Joined: 24 Oct 2011
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 405

06 Nov 2011, 4:15 pm

I've been picking the skin on my lips, hands and soles of feet for as long as I can remember. I pick more when I'm stressed or over-thinking something.

ChessChick
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 2 Nov 2011
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 50
Location: Kentucky

07 Nov 2011, 12:00 am

I pick at scabs, blemishes, peeling skin, when my lips are chapped, pieces of skin on my fingers near the nails, things like that. I have always done it as long as I can remember. I pretty much do it because those things bug me, so I pick at them to get rid of them.

LadySera
Velociraptor

Joined: 1 Jun 2011
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 418

07 Nov 2011, 7:12 am

RandomNickname wrote:

.. Then again, i bite my nails and the skin around my nails.. Until they bleed. No idea why

I do this too. I always have. Then people tell me to stop biting my nails & if I explain that it's not the nail then they get really freaked out.

Sometimes I pull off skin if it's loose. There was a time that I plucked hair that should be shaved but then I read that leads to infections, clogging, etc so I stopped.

CocoNuts
Snowy Owl

Joined: 30 Oct 2011
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 171

13 Nov 2011, 7:19 am

Definitely do it. I think it makes me look very anxious (like all the rocking and finger flapping and leg moving) but can't help it. I'm working hard to stop popping my boyfriend's pimples XD

IdahoRose wrote:

I'm not sure why I do it, other than the fact that it feels good and I like seeing and feeling blood and pus coming out of my skin.

Same.

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JSNS
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 31 Oct 2011
Age: 116
Gender: Male
Posts: 73

13 Nov 2011, 10:50 am

It seems like a compulsion for me

CockneyRebel
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 118,141
Location: In my little Olympic World of peace and love

16 Nov 2011, 12:01 am

I'm constantly picking at the pimples that pop up on my arms. It got to the point at the beginning of the summer that some of those scabs were so bad that they hurt as much as the prickles of a thorny rose bush that I had to train myself to stop.

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DragonKazooie89
Deinonychus

Joined: 12 May 2008
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 391
Location: Northern Utah

16 Nov 2011, 6:20 pm

I pick at my skin AND pull my hair. I hate how scabs, acne and dry skin feel on my face and scalp so I have to pick them off or squeeze them as soon as I can in order to get rid of the sensation. It also doesn't help that severe acne runs in my family. As for the hair, I use to pick the hair off of my head because I liked playing with the root of the hair but now I pull my hair where it is less noticeable. I seem to do both the most when I'm bored or it bothers me..

Ollytheaspie
Blue Jay

Joined: 11 Nov 2011
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 93

21 Nov 2011, 6:08 pm

I bite bite and bite and I bite my skin too. :lol:

Azolet
Deinonychus

Joined: 3 Aug 2010
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 351
Location: Bababooeyland

08 Jan 2012, 3:26 am

Yes. I've been doing it since 6th grade.

IdahoRose wrote:

I have had a problem picking at acne and scabs since I was a teenager. It's mostly on my face, shoulders and upper arms, but I have little scars in other places too. I'm not sure why I do it, other than the fact that it feels good and I like seeing and feeling blood and pus coming out of my skin. (Though oddly enough, I am actually quite grossed out by seeing other people pop zits or pick at scabs.) I've gotten an infection once from it, but I still do it anyway.

By the way, there is a word for compulsive skin-picking: dermatillomania. It's considered to be a less-common cousin of trichtillomania (compulsive hair-pulling).

As gross as it is, that pretty much describes my experience with dermatillomania as well.

I'm actually pretty intent right now on finding a way to stop. My mom and aunt were freaking out about my skin picking this summer, and my aunt even told my mom about this hospital in Massachussetts that my cousin's friend works at, where they have a program specifically for treating it. (I don't think I'm THAT extreme, and besides, that hospital is hella expensive :hmph:

) That's not to say that I'm not worried about it myself, though - I'm trying to find any advice I can...

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hanyo
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 30 Sep 2011
Age: 50
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Posts: 4,302

08 Jan 2012, 4:39 am

I've done that before. Whenever I have a pimple or an ingrown hair I have to squeeze and pick at it to get rid of it. That's actually a small part of the reason I don't bother to shave any more. I'd get ingrown hairs and while they were fun to squeeze and pick at sometimes they would take a while to heal and I'd worry about getting an infection.

recycledwit
Tufted Titmouse

Joined: 4 Jan 2012
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 28
Location: Nashvillle

09 Jan 2012, 10:38 pm

My need to twirl/knot my hair and run it between my fingers was the first thing that made me start thinking I might be autistic, but it's taken me a while to notice other habits. I always wondered if my compulsion to pick and pick and scratch at my scalp and face were a part of my disorder. I also poke at the side of my fingernails (where hangnails appear) and dig underneath my fingernails because I'm obsessed with trying to keep them clean (which always seems to fail - I often say "I don't understand how my fingernails get so dirty!"). Often the latter goes hand in hand with the former, as I scratch at my scalp until I build up dry skin and then pick it out. Rinse, repeat.

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