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Acase , 06 Mar 2013

Nose picking and eyebrow picking

Hi, I am new Here . I'm 25 and have been picking since i was 14. I pick on my nose mainly everyday with Tweezerman tweezers because they dig out my blackheads better since they are sharp. I then pick at the scabs until they leave my skin raw and a bleeding mess and then continue to pop more blackheads from the raw area. I also pick stray hairs under my eyebrows to the point of them bleeding and are raw and red and scabbed over. I want to stop but it seems like such a viscous cycle that never ends. I rarely go out anymore. Even just to the grocery store. I am getting married in June of this year and cannot have this going on. Even when i put my tweezers away and my magnifying mirror, i get so desperate to pick that i use my nails. I just wanted to share my story. I'm glad I'm not the only one. My fiancé doesn't understand what's wrong with me and constantly tells me to stop picking when i lock myself in the bathroom for hours at a time. He is currently going to school in boston while I am in California and he wants to skype but i refuse since my skin is so horrible. I am on zoloft and lamictal (for mood swings) and still pick. I wear tight gloves on at night because I actually pick and rub my skin all night long while asleep that when I wake up in the morning, I look like someone punched me. I have actually reached over in my sleep and started picking on my fiancés nose and he wakes up with scabs! He has to hold my arms down for a good part of the night when we are together because I rub my skin constantly. I also have a consistent scab behind my right ear that i itch and then pick the scab when it's healing. It is a lot of fun to see the skin come off and to feel it rip off. However, i have caused infections there because of this and get welts and swelling and oozing. So gross. I wish i could stop. I have done therapy too. It almost seems impossible to stop when i pick at night and don't even know it or I am so into it that even if I am half awake when i do it, i don't stop. It's like sleepwalking but it's sleep picking. Lol i even do it through my gloves if I don't take them off all together while still asleep. I know I have OCD since i was diagnosed with it a while back but I can't live like this anymore. I just wish I old stop picking at my nose since that is my constant picking zone. I also just got diagnosed with perioral dermatitis. Lucky me!
4 Answers
Acase
March 06, 2013
In writing my first comment on here last night, I felt better already, even though I haven't had anyone respond. Just reading the other people's stories and comments have made me feel better that I am not alone. I see other people using this site as a sort of blog for how long they can go without picking. I have a wedding for my fiance's sister coming up on the 14th of March in Philly and I am trying to let my skin heal. Yesterday marked the first day of no picking or peeling off of scabs. I had read an article in the March Allure magazine last night and that led me to this website. I already feel better about not picking even though it has only been a day. The scabs around my nose and mouth are so tight, I can't barely smile. I don't think putting on aquaphor or neosporin is a good idea (although I go back and forth on this one) since it most certainly clogs up my pores. But letting my scabs clog my pores doesn't help either. Ugh. Since I have been diagnosed with perioral dermatitis, my derm told me to use 10x Sulfur that you can buy at Target. It is a mask that you keep on for 10 minutes and then wash off. I think it's working, but who can tell when I go and pick at my pores in the area that I have the dermatitis in?? I also have been using Tazorac (a form of Retin-A prescription) since I was 15 when I had milia on my forehead and chin. I don't miss a night of putting it on. This definitely helps with healing my picking scars but it can't keep up since I pick even while I have scabs still on my nose.
Flowerinafield
March 06, 2013

In reply to by Acase

Glad to see that you are doing better...I know how you feel because we are all seemingly 'normal' people that like to 'punish' ourselves, for whatever reason. One should take solace in the company of like minded. We are all here because we want to stop. I think the proper support is needed in all aspects of your life (future husband included!) Friends family etc. and it is my hope that you obtain such support here and elsewhere :)
Acase
March 08, 2013

In reply to by Flowerinafield

Thank you so much for your kind words! I appreciate them. I am going on Day 3 of not picking and my scabs from my previous picking episode are finally falling off. It is so hard though. Every time I look in the mirror, I see black heads and there are open pores on my cheek and chin. If I didn't have this wedding on the 16th coming up for my fiance's sister, I would already have picked like crazy by now. It is amazing how good my skin looks from afar however after not picking for just a few days. But I know when I get back from Philly, I will be ready to pick like crazy and frankly, I am looking forward to it. How sad...I just hope I make it till the 16th. Knowing me, I'll wait until 2 days before and go crazy and then cry about my lack of self-control and my red, crusty face. ugh
plasticina
March 13, 2013

In reply to by Acase

hi! I can relate to what you wrote. I pick at my nose too, and it makes me miserable. I've been picking a lot these last days, so I haven't been out of the house... But I made an appointment with some friends, to go out on saturday (the 16th!!), so I tried to convince myself not to pick during this week so my skin would look not so bad by then. Of course I couldn't do it :( I've just picked at my nose one hour ago (I was just gonna remove ONE black head, but then I saw others and...). As I write this I feel my nose burning and I can feel it red and swollen.. I wish I could end this bloody habit, but I've tried before and I never succeeded... this forum has given me a new hope though... Knowing that I'm not alone on this, and that other people suffer the same and are trying to stop and some of them even succeeding gives me hope. So what I'm proposing to do is: I'll try to pick no more until the 16th, the day you have the wedding, and the day I have the appointment with my friends. This way we can make it together, and maybe it will be easier! If I succeed that, I'll try to extend my no-picking-time until the 21st of march, 'cause there's a festival I want to go and I want my skin to look good. Well... maybe that will be impossible for me... but hum... Let's put this in something I could possible do: maybe I'll still pick the blackheads in my forehead ('cause I can hide it with the fringe), and if a whitehead shows up on my nose I'll pick it too, but I won't pick at blackheads on my nose (which is my major problem). Hope I can make it!

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