Anyone want to do the 30 day challenge together?

I am sorry to hear your family also suffers. That mustn't help relieve your stress. My brother also suffers anxiety almost to the point of paranoia, and my mum is a ball of stress, but dishonest about it. --- I started skin picking at 13, around the same time I stopped grinding my teeth in my sleep. A dentist once told me than teeth grinding can be a way to release stress. I must have been grinding since before age 8. You can be fitted for a mouth guard, or if you find driving the main time you bite your lips, maybe you should wear a store bought mouth guard that you fit at home, like the gloves. They are cheaper than having them made by a dentist. I think if you needed an excuse for wearing one at work, doctor's orders is always a good one. :) ----- I moved overseas when I was 19 for school, and upon returning home after a few years, my mother let out a high pitched shriek, which isn't uncommon for her, over something like food left out of the fridge or something, and like a bullet I could feel stress just flood my body. Enough that I had to take large gulps of air. While staying with her, I was also anticipating her shrieking at me for something, which would also flood my body with what I assume is some chemical response to danger. Haha I don't know. I've always been known as the happiest, bubbliest idiot who always sees the positive and tries to make everyone happy, and I think now, just because of having that distance from her, that a lot of it has stemmed from that relationship. When I told my parents about the picking and seeing a therapist, they couldn't even talk about it. They sort of ignored it. It was by far the most bizarre interaction I've had with them. And it also showed me that with all the courage it took for me to tell them, and take charge and responsibility for my problems, that they weren't going to help me get through it, or at the very least be caring. That was hard, but it's made me grow a bit. -- I've never considered anxiety medication. I don't know anything about it. I have heard about an anxiety scale which covers the initial feeling of anxiety till it reaches it's peak, then eventually fades away. The idea is about being aware of the scale while in the anxiety attack, trying to talk yourself in enduring it till it passes. -- I have a sheet somewhere I can send you. I might start to carry a bag with me that contains gloves, the anxiety scale sheet, maybe a sheet on specifics like what to do on a trip to the bathroom to avoid picking, or driving the car, anything else that would prevent me picking. An emergency kit that I could have everywhere.