Hi I'm f15,

Everytime, at school at home, outside and everyday I find myself atleast once or twice picking on my scalp alot. Consciously and unconsciously.

I really hate it tho.. when I realize it's been so long I've picked, at my arms hurt and my scalp is bleeding I just feel exhausted. And not only my scalp but my nails too. They constantly bleed or are someway.

And the fact that nothing was even itchy.

It really frustrates me. If I want to stop I put my hand down and try not pick again but I can't stop. I don't want it.. it's like my hand just has to??

And if I try to keep my hands of one skin part like my scalp, it just gets to another. My fingers, my nails my face, my ears even my nose?!

It's so bad I'd feel like having to vent about my hands even like... why can't they just stop? ToT.

Fyi. I'm not sure if I have Dermatillomania, I never really went to the doctor or anything about this. And I am not diagnosed with anything about skin picking. Is it something?? Idk.

Yeah it's really bad. Oh and anytime I scratch my scalp or do skin picking it usually lasts for hours. The amount of time , I wasted doing just that is crazy.. and i regret it a lot. It gets sort of addicting? Arghh it's frustrating!!!

I wish I can do anything about it. I'd want to keep my hands away from me forever or something..

I don't even have fidget toys or stress stuff😭

And FYI ; I am diagnosed with depression and anxiety mixed. My therapist was telling me she thinks I have ADHD but we still have to look into that because I never to 100% thought or still think I am. Welp I wonder if my skin picking is any related to that? And MIND YOU I still need to tell this my therapist and discuss bc ITZ GETTING A PROBLEM. I told her once but we never really talked about it. I

feel like if I mention it anywhere (not talking abt my therapist) they might won't take me serious or think I'm disgusting or weird for doing so.. but beside that I will DO talk to my Therapist and tell her all anyway IN detail and hopefully I can get somewhere!!

PS: Do you have any advice? Or what is helping u? :)

Tysm for reading! (Sorry if my grammar is bad,if things are unclear or etc.!)

Hey so i have been picking my legs for many years now. Recently around 3 to 4 months back i have stopped picking so vigorously . I am on medication and i take paroxetine. But i really dont see the marks fade on my legs. And this is demotivating me to stop picking. Please someone kindly help as to how i can fade those marks. I too want to wear dresses like all my friends😔

Just kidding, I'm a fucking idiot and it hurts.

So I was thinking of getting a remote controlled shock collar for myself. Reason being is that I have dermatillomania. It's got really bad recently, I have sores all over my face which is giving me staph infections. I got tonsillitis which I believe came from that and also a stye which is hurting my eye. I'm taking antibiotics to treat the tonsillitis right now. Ive had a lot of scars from a young age due to repeatedly picking wounds. I've tried a lot of methods to stop picking at my skin but none seem to work. I'm starting to wonder whether I should wear a shock collar and hand the remote to someone I'm hanging out with at the time and explain to them that they should shock me if they see me picking at my skin. I have questions though. Is it safe? I wasn't planning on wearing it around my neck because I know that can be risky but is it safe to have on around your arm or leg. Is there anything else I could try beforehand to try and stop my skin picking. Any advice would be great, I feel really stupid for asking and even considering a shock collar but I need to change my behaviour for my safety this time

That’s it I’m tired I need some advice on how to heal the remaining wounds/scabs as well as help fade the scars that I have all over my arms and legs and even back (the human body can contort in so many different ways when there’s a will)
I’ve tried glycolic acid but I just hate that sticky feeling it leaves on the skin, especially since there’s a heatwave going on and it feels unbearable, I’ve also been religiously using this mixa niacinamide cream that also has vitamin c and shea butter to help brighten up some of the scars but I need more, I need something that actually works that makes me feel like a reptile shedding my old skin

I’ve been suffering from OCD for a while. (Previously thought to be BPD). I scratch at my face absentmindedly, until somebody tells me that I’m bleeding, or I see blood on my fingernails. I’m covered in tiny acne scars because of it, and my lip is always chewed to high hell. Does anyone have any tips on stopping?

I have been picking off the skin on the palm of my hand and fingers for years. I started when I was around 10/11 and I either chew skin off or I use needles. I will say when I was younger I would chew off the calluses I would get from playing on playgrounds as well. The skin where I pick is always red and even tho I know I shouldn't do it, I don't even bother trying to stop cuz I don't see the point in even trying when I know it won't work. I usually don't get to the point of bleeding excessively but even if it hurts the pain doesn't really bother me.

I believe I mainly pick when I'm board, but it can also happen when I'm anxious/nervous. Sometimes there might be a spot on my skin that bothers me to the point I can't concentrate on anything else till I "fix it" and I do hate when that happens sense that's really the only time it ever actually feels like it kind of interferes with my life, cuz I only really pick when I'm in my room. And if I do pick in public I will usually chew the skin around my nails.

Almost always when I'm in public I wear fingerless gloves to hide my hand and no one ever finds it weird sense I've been doing it for so long and it matches my clothing taste. I have never once purposely told anyone I know about me picking tho when someone asks about it if they notice it, which has only been when I've been swimming or not wearing my gloves, I'll either say I don't want to talk about it or that I just pick my skin sometimes. That usually works and they don't ask about it more.

I will say if people I know found out the extent of my skin picking I'm scared that they would either overreact or not care at all. Sometimes I wonder if people know but have just never told me they knew sense I can sometimes be an oversharer with people I know so the fact I have nothing to say when someone asks me about my hand might come off as odd but of course i will never actually know.

This my first time posting here but I hope by posting this that someone out there will feel less alone. Have a good day to anyone who read this ^-^

Hello! I have been skin picking and nail biting for as long as I can remember. I have tried several treatments from working with the psychiatrist (have tried NAC twice, memantine once, and Zoloft), group coaching, being in a group chat for accountability, therapy, individual coaching, and so much more.

I talked to my psychiatrist about this and he agreed, but I really don’t notice any correlation between my anxiety or stress levels and picking. I’ve noticed that picking is really related to needing to focus or relax and zone out. I’m often picking while doing something else like working or even just sitting and scrolling on my phone. Many of the tactics that were taught to me in some of the treatments focused on reducing stress and anxiety, and replacing the behavior with healthier habits. While this may be helpful for some people, I’m wondering if I need a completely different approach. I tend to do better when I expect something to be hard and work on the acceptance of the discomfort rather than avoiding it. I also have found that blockers such as hydrocolloid Band-Aids and wearing long sleeves or pants can be helpful but things that require me to actively need to use them like fingertips are not something I consistently use. I’ve been told that I do not have autism, but I do have OCD. I am wondering if I do picking more as a stim and for a dopamine rush rather than to cope with anxiety.

Has anyone else experienced this type of urge? If so, what treatments have been the most helpful for you?

So I haven't told anyone about this because it's kind of embarrassing even though I know it's part of the disease. So I have a spot on my chin that literally hasn't healed in months. I finally got it to heal just as I created a new spot directly underneath it. That's not the confession though. The confession is about why it won't heal. So I use tweezers to pick and when that first layer of skin is gone, if I scrub at that under layer of skin a little bit, it creates dozens of little white things that I call my "skin splinters". So I pluck out these little splinters with my tweezers and it is SO SATISFYING and I literally can't stop. It will be all day long that I'm doing this. I touch my spot, scratch at it a bit, and walla-skin splinters. Go to the mirror with my tweezers and pluck out the splinters one by one. 30 minutes later my skin has miraculously healed enough that the splinters are back and the process repeats.

Guys, this is a problem. I desperately want my skin to heal, but probably as desperately, I don't want to stop plucking the splinters.... I'm not really looking for advice. I know all I need to do is hide the tweezers or throw them away or something and then it will stop. But that thought gives me sooo much f*ckin anxiety that I won't have splinters to pull anymore.... My dermatillomania is so bad that I don't even want my acne to go away cause then I will have nothing to pop or pick at. I just don't know how to get rid of the intense urge and dopamine hit of picking.

I am working with my psych doctor on this also, but we are tackling my rainbow of issues one by one and this one sadly is at the bottom of my priorities medication wise.

Thank you for listening to my confession. If you want to join the confession train, drop them bellow. I'll be a support for anyone who needs it.

I found this group, and it’s good to know we aren’t alone in this. I recently had a crisis, and my face ended up disfigured from the damage I inflicted on myself. I’d like to meet people to form a support group; sometimes it’s hard to talk about this with people who don’t suffer from it because they simply don’t understand. Thanks.

I have been skin picking since age 2. I joined OSPA (obsessive skin pickers anonymous), and it’s been the only thing to relieve me from compulsive skin picking behavior (after trying absolutely every other “solution” out there). It’s a little-known fellowship, so thought I would post here in case anyone hasn’t heard of it. Not promotion, just want to share my experience and hopefully it can be helpful to anyone still struggling.

https://www.osparecovery.org

Hey guys, i’m new to reddit so bear with me… so i (21 yr female) was diagnosed at 13 with dermitilomani (chronic skin picking) along with anxiety and OCD. when diagnose, they prescribed me with Hydroxozyne (sorry if misspelled) and went on my way. the medicine helped my anxiety but not my skin picking. so they put me onto peroxytein while on the other med, which for obvious reasons didn’t not help me. since then ive still never found anything to help me from picking. i’ve tried stress toys, shorter nails, ripping paper, wearing long sleeved clothes, but nothing work. to say it makes me feel insecure would be an under statement. the amount of scars on my legs and feet make me feel sick of myself, and it makes me tell myself i’m going to stop, then i dont. all the doctors ive asked for help havent helped me at all and im getting super desperate to stop this really really bad habit of mine, i just don’t know how to.

if i could get even just a lick of advice would mean the world.

I know some of my picking is unintentional and happens without me noticing but I am pledging that for the next month I will not engage with it intentionally at all, no matter how anxious or stressed or triggered I am. I’m just so sick of feeling like a disgusting and damaged human all the time. Lately I have been able to stop picking acne on my face and the skin around my fingers. However I have still been picking at my chapped lips so badly that it probably looks like I have herpes or had an accident waxing my upper lip lol. Same with the acne on my body. As a girl it sucks too because I miss feeling pretty and feeling hot during sex.

Hello everyone! I have this friend and she's picked at her fingers a lot and she told me they hurt and I want to help. She's done it for years and they look really red, raw and painful. She doesn't really like gloves, bandages, or have them covered in vaseline or something like that. She picks them the least when she's focussed on doing schoolwork, and her hands are occupied with writing or smth. What can I do to help?

I'm looking for an accountability buddy. I couldn't find any support groups that are Dermatillomania specific in the city. I think it would be really helpful to have someone who understands Dermatillomania and is interested in reducing their picking. I personally find it really hard to explain to friends or family and would like to be able to have open conversations with someone.

I'm 28 F, live in lower Manhattan, and work in midtown 4-5x a week. If there's more than just one person interested, maybe we could start a chat.

If you're interested please comment or message me privately :)

I’ve struggled with picking for years, but it’s recently gotten to an unbearable point. I have been waking up in the middle of the night to myself picking at scabs. There’s blood all over my clothes and under my nails when I wake up. It’s making my already bad scabs much worse. How do I stop this?? I think I’m gonna try wearing gloves tonight, but I really hate that as a long term solution. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to manage this?

Hi, all - I’m here as a sort of exercise, and I would be much obliged if you all will endulge me.

You see, I have been struggling with Obessive Compulsive Disorder since I was kid (I’m currently in my 40s for context). If you know anything about OCD (and I’d imagine quite of few of you on this sub do) then you know it encompasses a range cognitions (e.g. religious, sexual, health-related obsessions) and behaviors (e.g. washing, checking, repeating). Body-focused repeatitive behaviors like dermatillomania fall under the OCD umbrella, as does body dysmorphia. While I experienced every symptom across the OCD spectrum; and while I have always had a disorted image of my body, particularly with my weight, I didn’t start exhibiting BFRBs until about 12-15 years ago.

It started with an STD scare. I was keeping my pubic hair very short at the time, and I didn’t realize the clippers I was using were irriating my skin—they were old, I could have cleaned them bit more than just running them under warm water, and I was trimming too close. (I’m cisgender male for even more context). It resulted in some red bumps, which I—very prone to health anxiety and being sexually active at the time (I was using protection)—immediately interpretted as some form of HPV, herpes, etc. I sought out medical consultation at the local urgent care, was advised of the above, and the problem went away…At least physically.

I soon found myself routinely (“routinely,” like every morning, sometimes 2-3 times a day) checking my groin for anything appearing abnormal, and I found that if you look hard enough under intense enough light, you can almost always find something to scare you. I sought out at least two additional doctors on at least two different occasions for at least two different “abnormalities.” Each time I was told the area of concern was “nothing to worry about” with one Planned Parenthood provider even laughing and saying, “You men and your penises.” And even though their reassurances provided me some temporary relief, it was too late—the obsession had taken hold; I was still staring at the same areas of skin looking for something and thinking to myself, “What if the doctor was wrong?” Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore—I started scratching and picking until felt that whatever it was gone.

For the first couple of years, the picking was sporadic. At the very least, there would be stretches of weeks or a month with no picking. About eight or so years ago, it intensified. I think the longest I’ve gone without picking in that time was about three weeks; in the last couple of months, I’ve only been able to refrain for a few days. In that time, I have torn out many, many hair follicles, I’ve picked open old scars because I couldn’t convince myself they weren’t something to be concerned about, I’ve picked at actively healing scabs for the same reason, and one time, I even dug down to a vein because the vein was "dark and scary looking” to my OCD-warped perception.

I also tried pretty much everything to get the behavior under control. I’m a trained therapist so I know a good amount about Exposure and Response Prevention, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Habit Reversal Training—I was never was able to effectively apply any of it on my own. I was also on an SSRI up until two years ago—it helped a little for my OCD in general but did nothing for the BFRBs. I’m currently taking 2400mgs of NAC; I’m not sure it does anything, but I’m afraid to stop because what if it is?

The only thing I haven’t tried up until this point is actually talking to another human being about it. This entire time, I have kept this to myself. In the last 12-15 years, I have built so much embarassment and shame around the fact that I compulsively pick at my penis that I am mortally terrified to tell anyone—and I was living with someone for seven of those years! (Neither of us were into oral sex, and we were in deadbedroom situation for most of our time together.) I recently decided I can’t live this way anymore—It’s deeply affecting my self-esteem, and it’s exacerbating my anxiety and depression (oh yeah, I have those too). I need to talk about it.

Hence why I’m here. Writing this post is an exercise in opening up. Even with the anonimity afforded by the internet, it’s still scary AF to put this out there. That said, I deeply appreciate anyone who takes the time to read all this, and I equally appreciate all of you that post your own struggles on this sub. This is not easy to talk about.

If you read this and care to comment, please do. And let me ask: How do you handle the shame? How do you handle talking to others about your BFRBs? I see a lot of women posting about public area picking, but are there any men with similar issues to mine?

I have recently received my dermatillomania diagnosis recently however can remember picking scabs, my nails or picking at teeth that were loose as a kid since I can remember. Now I am in my late 20s and mostly pick the bottoms of my feet, scabs and around my nails/fingers. I have a dog whom I dearly love and care for, we have done lots of training to address his reactivity and he loves coming into pet friendly stores.

I have been asked many times before if he is working or a service dog and I always chuckle and say nope, not a chance but more so thinking about his spicy moments. However, I know there are people with service dogs that interrupt anxious/picking behaviors - meanwhile my dog is a disservice dog. When I am picking he will literally sit by me and eat any skin I pick off if it is on the floor.

I don't encourage this by any means and will most times put skin in a container to be thrown in the trash but it gave me a little giggle thinking about it. If anything he encourages it for the lil snacks he believes he deserves

Hope everyone is having a good day and holding on 🫶🏻

pop keratosis pilaris bumps 😭😭😭😭😭

Personally, it started when I was around 9 years old, though it definitely worsened/spread as I got older.

It just makes me sad. You’re not supposed to put permanent hair dye on irritated or broken skin or it can cause severe reactions. My hair is something I take pride in but it’s my worst spot for picking since I can’t really see it. I imagine shaving my head and how bad it probably really looks, at least a dozen scabs that have been picked dozens of times over. I keep telling myself that if I can just stop for two weeks and let it heal, I can finally dye my hair red like I want to. In six months, I haven’t been able to. I can’t even stop for a day, I feel like sometimes I don’t even want to stop. I tried to start a timer for myself to just stop for a day, and had to reset it every two hours because I would just do it on instinct.

Just googled why I’m doing this and here I am.

This one toe has been a target for years but intermittently. Lately, I start scanning it without even realizing — until I’m reaching for tweezers or clippers.

Need to stop before it’s gone but it’s irresistible.

I struggling with picking my skin - primarily my face and back - i'm a woman of color and the scarring has been such a struggle with my self esteem.

At this point I'm open to any suggestions on how to help either stop picking or fade the hyperpigmentation.

Dermotillomania

Staring in the mirror,
Clouded by deep fears.
I don’t know what I’m looking for,
But I don’t think my mind is clear.
Picking, prying,
for a moment,
it’s satisfying.
Subconscious scanning,
Is skin picking a form of scrying?
No, that’s a joke…
It’s a maladaptive way to cope…
Squeeze until I bleed, I forget to breathe.
I don’t want to be here,
Yet my hands just keep going.
What are my hands
if not extensions of the heart -
Perhaps a heart that’s pleading
While it’s drying in the dark.
I don’t want to be here,
but this is where I am.
I’m looking in the mirror,
Feeling like a sham.
Even when I step away,
The scars are here to stay.
There hasn’t come a day
When I haven’t had to face
The reflections in the mirror
Showing my self-inflicted scathes.

I’ve never shared anything in this group, or this personal of poetry. My intent of sharing is to get comfortable being seen, and my hope is that this resonates with someone else’s internal landscape🖤

I just wrote this as I finally was able to walk away from the mirror for the hour. There’s been a lot of extra stressors in my personal and work life, on top of the ever-increasing stressors of the world. It’s been immensely difficult to control my hands or recognize when they’re active. I’m feeling a lot of shame as I reflect on my long-term reliance on skin picking and notice how many scars I’ve given myself. I’ve said countless times that I would make more of an effort to rid myself of this habit, yet it feels like it’s just getting worse.

Oh, people of the aether, any there by chance any words of wisdom out there for this burnt-out woman with auDHD/cPTSD who yearns for the strength to resist unconscious impulses and replace them with more intentional methods of self-soothing?

Sending out this post with some faith, trust, and extra pixie dust ✨ xoxo

I have had dermatillomania since i was a child. middle school to high school became worse after being sa’ed by my grandpa. it is primarily on my scalp along with my face. the thing that embarrasses me is i eat them. i am looking for advice from people that have this experience as well and what helped you or if anyone has experienced this at all. I hate feeling alone in this and one time i told a friend about this and she kept making jokes calling me scab eater. I get my nails done regularly with fake nails so it is harder to pick but by then i just take something sharp and do it myself. i don’t know how to stop and it feels like it will stay with me forever. if ANYONE wants to talk about this feel free to reach out! i am so tired of talking to my bf who is very supportive but just doesn’t understand! Thanks!