25 days' commitment

hi basta. just sending a little note of encouragement and hoping that all is going well. know that setting goals is effective in lots of ways. i am working on principle that every day i dont pick is great and when i do pick i target areas that are going to cause me least distress. i have done it loads around my hairline and this started years ago and did result in losing lots of my hair. awful. i had beautiful long shiny hair (people told me this after i had lost most of it which wasnt exactly helpful!). did grow back but happened again. v traumatic as the very feelings i was trying to avoid caused what i feared to happen. ie i looked 'different'. now fortunately my hair is long again and i am able to leave scalp, etc alone working on a hideous distress vs habit ratio. (for the moment anyway!). i am also working hard to find positive things - sounds as if you are too. like the idea of the nails. Anyway i just wanted to check you are ok and sending you positive vibes and to everyone else with our predicaments. we may have different areas we pick but we all have the same thing in common. we want to stop. this site is like a friend of the most understanding kind, loyal, supportive, empathetic, etc. bye for now, sarah

Day 19: I am very happy that I've still not picked since that episode. I came to the same conclusion too - any day is good. Have recently read a saying "Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat." It makes lots of sence for me. I have bought Murad's pomegranate exfoliating mask, exciting if it will do any good.

hi basta. how did the new face treatment go? guess 13th january is looming close - hope you are feeling positive about your challenge. yes the quotation you mention is true! important to remember this in the weaker points of our picking. i am doing well and have only had little scratches here and there but compared to how it has been in past, i am doing brill. boyfriend is away this w/e (climbing Snowdon in uk) so i am going to see friends and having sleepover will be so much easier! am v conscious that i dont have the 'shame' feelings that have accompanied me for years. so great and no coincidence that it is since posting on here and also the final pick i did was so bad. best wishes

It's been really up and down for me for the past 5 days. Got to day 5 or so and then started picking again. Tried to start again but haven't found the resolve in myself to really go for it. I rationalize picking at the small things. I felt like I had actually made some progress..and then I regressed again. Every day is a new day. I will keep my goals attainable and shoot for today - the rest of the day - to be free from picking. This means from now until I go to bed at night. It's really that much of a struggle. I am so ashamed and have no one in my day to day life to share this with. I have a dermatologist appointment tomorrow and am dreading what he will say...

Day 21: Yesterday I picked again :( every single pore. My biggest mistake was to have the mirror out. Now it's in the closet again and I'm hoping to never fail again (:))))) This is so exciting with the dermatologist!!! Please write about it tomorrow! I'm going to see one on the 24th of January. After these 25 days I'm going to make a new challenge. So far I have been able not to pick for 8 days in a row. So the plan is to make it 80 days!

Day 22: the day went really well - I didn't touch the skin at all. I'm having high expectations to myself and my skin now.

Day 23: I didn't pick today, it feels wonderful :) I hope that one day it'll be natural for me not to pick.

well done. can tell by your last entry that you are excited. i do think so much is habit and cracking that is a challenge and it really sounds like you are breaking that habitual cycle. fantastic. seeing results of non-picking is great too and helps endorse the many reasons why it is so good to 'give up' picking. v pleased for you and best wishes.

Day 24: It's a fiiinaaaaal cooountdoooown!! :) I am happy today even though there are a couple inflamed pores. I I'll give myself a reward tomorrow, it is going to be a body scrub and a manicure. By myself of course :) It took a bit long time to decide what the reward will be because I just thought that the best reward would be to pick :( Initially I wanted to buy a cream, but it costs $100 and I just don't have the money this month. I have some samples of this cream and I expect there's enough for a couple of months ;)

Day 25: Here are the results: I am quite happy about this little project. I managed to only pick three times (sessions) during these 25 days. It's success! I am really determined to stop it for good, because I feel like I have been waisting my time destroying my skin and mood. It is still really difficult not to think about picking all the time and not touching the skin, but it's become a bit easier after these 25 days. Thank you very much to the girls who supported me here!!!!!! I will start a new 80-days' challenge tomorrow. I'll take a "after" picture when I come home and if I'm brave enough I'll put a link to a before-after picture here.

Here is the final picture of the skin. I can definitely see that the redness has reduced (even though I wasn't 100% pick-free) and that the blackheads became a bit smaller. It's really great to see that when I don't pick the skin gets clearer - and not the contrary as my logic (snd my manias logic) says. http://tinypic.com/r/4qq0qc/5

Best regards, Basta

congrats! skin looks amazing. 80 day challenge begins!