Has anyone met another "in person?"

That's definitely where I'm coming from. I wish I knew, in person, at lease one or two other people in real life, who struggle with this. It can't help but be frustrating to read how common these afflictions are and yet having come across so many people, I've never, ever met another person dealing with this same stuff. If it weren't for this forum I truly would feel like I'm a crazy person who is the one with these issues. I also wonder if it's why so many of us isolate ourselves from socializing because we can't help but feel alone when it "seems" like we're alone in this. I'm just surprised I haven't met anyone else....I wish I would. I wouldn't wish this affliction on anyone, believe me....I just mean, I wish I could see with my own eyes in real life another person like myself...and be able to talk to them, and them to me. To confide and let our guards down. It'd be such a relief.

Hello - I've been reading this whole topic with a lot of interest, but I do especially want to comment on this post. I actually do not think there are very many of us, statistically, in relation to other behavioral disorders, or OCD, or neurological disorders, etc. Also, when I see everybody's posts, it is clear that there are a few different variations of serious skin picking that seem to exist. The behaviors of a handful of people are nearly identical to mine, down to like 90 percent of the details we do the same exact things. But I think we are one subgroup of pickers, and then there are a few other subgroups. But everyone seems to belong to one or another pretty clearly. So if it's actually 4 or 5 different disorders, then we count even LESS statistically, right? Which sucks, I think. Because (although I identify, on a personal level, most strongly with any kind of picker, because of the way we are all treated and stigmatized in the same awful way), I think we might be classified under different categories. Like - I have compulsive, sometimes uncontrollable face picking, where I may lose two hours in a fast-picking trance that seems like 15 minutes. Only sometimes can I stop it. This happens if I am forced to not pick at all for a very long period of time, and the urge builds up. On a more regular basis, I feel the urge to pick or at least touch my face and feel it, and have to do that every few minutes to every hour or so, depending on how tense I am. So I (and others who are similar to me) maybe would be grouped into an OCD or maybe even Tourette's category? I'm not sure - that is only a guess and I am not a medical professional. But it seems like some subgroups could be classified as Anxiety disorders, some as body image disorders. . . i don't know. I feel like this could be what makes pickers so invisible (ha ha - I wish - bad wording) and marginalized in the mental health community, and invisible to the public. But, yeah - there actually may NOT be that many of us. Honestly I'm glad though, that there are any of us at all - and not just me alone! idk - didn't you say you were in the medical field? any thoughts? Am I just way off base here?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I would wish this disorder on absolutely no one, that simultaneously, since we know it exists, that I would like to meet in person someone else who does this. I live in Boston on a college campus, so you can bet I get my daily dose of everything from young girls being insecure breaking into womanhood, and young guys still at that adolescent stage covered in angry acne, and I've seen enough steroid use in my previous line of work to know when a man, or a woman, is juicing. That acne, and even them picking at that acne, I personally view differently. I think the average person probably does pick at their zits, pull out the occasional hang nail, and tries to squeeze out some of those nasty black pores. But what we have, what unites us, is that this has become our life. It's something we look forward to doing. The teenager popping zits is embarassed AT doing it. We go in search of MORE stuff to pick at, preferably with utensils. The difference is I do believe there are many people out there with moderate to severe acne. When I raised my question of wishing I could meet another person (mostly so I could cry on a shoulder that won't judge me as being a bad person,...and I know that's selfish of me),...but I do see people with acne, pustular acne, and so forth. But most often they try to take care of their individual "problems" and get on with their life. Many of us here I have learned are so affected by the trauma of this, the fact we inflict this on ourself, the fact we enjoy the trance we get into when we discover fertile ground, and the fact that we will go way beyond the call than "merely" popping a zit. It's almost a maniacal thing we share, followed AFTER by the embarassment and shame and guilt. I think the "average" person feels embarassment FIRST, before they pick, and that's why they pick it and remove it. We on the other hand, are less embarassed about a barely showing whitehead that probably no one else notices,...but to us we'll get excited about the prospect and even plan it out, how to dig it out this time, "so it'll never come back," and many of us have shown to get more and more aggressive as this disorder grows. Instead of growing out of it, as if it were a "phase" everyone goes through, take a good look around you, at work and school, on the T or the bus, and do you see people who have acne but are dealing with it, even if embarassed? Or do you see people who have shreded their facial features with pins and tweezers, and has holes in their skin and scars from wounds, and freshly picked scabs......the list goes on, but does that make sense to anyone? I've seen "acne" in multiple versions. But in my heart, I think that what we all here share isn't acne. Acne is the byproduct, acne is a symptom, acne can be a trigger or outlet. I don't know about anyone else, but this is unique for me in that I'll absolutely dig at my face (and other areas I mentioned), but if I wipe out and skin my knees or shins, I don't get excited, and I don't have any intention of ever picking at any scabs that may grow as a result of that. Somehow those wounds seem legitimate, so I leave them alone. The wounds on my face and upper body, I guess in my mind I figure, I created them, I know what I'm doing, been there done that, gonna do this. It's like night and day for me anyway. It's the behavior and actions taken and views of, the acne/zits/scabs/skin or whatever, that separates us. And for the record I personally, (this is just me, okay), but I would never go up to a person who I thought might be a "picker" and offer to help them or share with them.....I wouldn't even bring attention to it. This is a deeply personal issue, the embarassment runs through our veins. We want desperately to think no one else really notices, and even by offering comfort, you've acknowledged to this other person that they have a disease (regardless of if you do or not). I think that would be like a personal trainer going up to someone obese and saying to them,-- "I know you're fat and I know how you feel" (thanks for pointing out the obvious sins of my behavior that I cry myself to sleep with every night, and besides, no you don't know how I feel because I am not you, nor you me.),..."let me help you" (who the hell are you to tell me anything about my life)....."I've been there too" (I doubt it. I seriously doubt it). I know you didn't actually approach the woman and your restraint is probably what helped this woman the most in retaining some sense of dignity.