Regret

Hun, i so relate and feel for you lots. Im in regret atm and its ruined my day. I do exactly what you do. My email is shosho43@hotmail.co.uk. X

I understand you. Of course I do. Usually, I pick my arms and legs... The difficult part is when it's Summer. In Winter I'm covered with clothes, but when it's Summer (and I have to go to the beach - I'm from Portugal) I'm really ashamed. So big scars. And I'm regret, but I can't stop. Maybe one day (:

You have taken your first step....you found this forum. I am now on Day 4 of the 21 Day Challenge. I find reading this forum every morning helps to motivate through another day. Different things work for different people but I am putting post it notes each day I acheive success on my bathroom mirrors. My wife is also posting inspirational messages on the mirror each day for me, very helpful too. She also suggested putting a time limit on my time in the bathroom and some people find they need to cover the mirrors all together. I am in the same boat as you, picking until a dig a big bloody hole in my face, leaving me scarred and an emotional wreak. Changing years of bad behavior isn't easy but you can do it!

Keep reading throught the posts on this forum and you'll see you're not alone in this Theres loads of treads with tips on stopping picking. It's not easy but I really believe it's possible to stop. I'm on day 3 of my second attempt at the 21 day challenge. I've got a magazine page on my mirror with a big photo of a girl with beautiful skin to remind me what I'm aspiring too. It is really helping as my desire to look like that is stronger than my desire to pick!! Also I'm using Liz Earle cleanse and polish cleanser. Using it is quite ritualistic and I think having this ritual involving my skin is in some way replacing the ritual of picking. Excersising and focussing on looking as good as possible also helps as if I am working out to make my body look good it doesn't make sense to then pick at my face. I know you say you're avoiding being sociable and hiding you the area you've picked from you're family and I know from experience this is completely instinctive. But do you have anyone you could confide in about this? Maybe being open with your family would help as you could get them involved in helping you stop. If you find it really hard to talk about you could get them to read this site. Sometimes opening up to someone stops you feeing so ashamed. If you don't feel that is an option see if posting on here helps. By choosing to tell someone and trying to give up you might be able to gain some sense of control. It sounds like you feel it is controlling you. I have often felt like that too, but since joining this forum and posting openly about what I'm going through I feel more in control.