I need help! New to site

Welcome Tweezert! I feel for you so much. Reading your post was like a punch in the stomach, I felt as if I wrote it myself cause I've had the EXACT same problem for 15 years and thought I was the only one. I'm 31 years old and my picking began with plucking out my eyebrows, literally digging them out, then it escalated to the rest of the face and body. So I'm pretty confident that what triggers me are mainly ingrown hairs (always had a bunch of them). I've stopped picking at my body about 3 years ago and healed. Now I'm trying not to pick at my blemishes on my face even if it's hard, cause I tend to get whiteheads and cysts deep within the skin and suffer from PCOs, so before my period my skin gets so much worse. In the last months I've been pretty succesful though, but I still didn't manage to find a way to STOP digging out my eyebrows! I never magaged, even when I was on the pill and my skin was pristine I was always picking at my eyebrows. It's horrible: I can literally see them even if they are only a teeny tiny point under the skin, and dig them out with my tweezers creating bloody sores and terrible scabs and then scars. And it's a shame because I have very big beautiful eyes which are my best features. :( My parents verbally abused me and treated me like a freak for years, while my husband is much more supportive and loves me anyway, but can't really understand why I do it (heck, neither do I! All I know is I can't "just stop"!!!). I feel very lonely because this kind of picking is pretty rare even on the dermatillomania sufferer: many just pick at their pimples but don't touch their eyebrows. The thing is I get super deep ingrown hairs all the time and I know it's MY fault: of course the hair can't get out from the thick scar tissue I've created!! It's a vicious cycle: ingrown hair --> digging the hair --> wound --> scab --> scar tissue --> ingrown hair I hate this... I'd like to be able to figure it out and simply STOP caring about these freaking hairs!! I've plucked my eyebrows so much during the years that I have lost my natural arches and now they won't grow back, they look horrible if I don't draw them everyday. I'm always caking on makeup to hide the sores and scabs but it looks horrible. I'm trying to stop picking and I can manage to leave the deep whiteheads alone, but not the hairs. I'll never stop trying, but it's been so long I can't even remember my life BEFORE picking at my eyebrows. I'm feeling hopeless. -_-

Seriously this is what I do too I currently have three to four red bloody scabs under my right eyebrow and two under my left. I gave up my tweezers last night when I realized this that it was a serious problem I not only do this to my eye brows but do it to my whole body and recently picked off two moled from my skin I dont think its okay for me to do that. I also pick ingrown hairs off my boyfriends skin and face...and he works with wood all the time so he constantly gets splinters and like the thrill I get from getting the splinters out is unreal. Like its kind of a high feeling. And it just feels so relieving to pick at something so long than finally get it. I need help too :( just readibg ur guys posts makes me want to pick up my tweezers which my boyfriend has finally confesgated and tweeze or pick something. -danielle :(

I need help...I'm 16 and its destroying my social life and being generally happy.. I have no idea what being happy is anymore. It all started in year 8/9 i don't even remember how? when the hairs didn't come through I started to dig and dig in my skin to get this hair out. When the hair came out it felt like a relief or like like i've done myself proud. I feel self conscious almost all the time. please reply

Hello everyone, I have the same issue. I am now 20 and have probably been doing this since I was 13 or 14. Under my eyebrows, and a little in between them, I have a little scar tissue which now causes my eyebrow hairs to become ingrown if I do not pick at them. I wear considerable amounts of concealer to cover them and I can't remember the last time I have left the house without it. I'm really disappointed in myself because I feel as though I could be much prettier without this skin issue. I feel very alone! There is not much on the internet for this. Very thankful I found this. Have any of you found a way to stop the picking and to heal the skin? I was deciding on just throwing away my tweezers (or limiting my use of tweezing to once a week, for ~10 minutes), using plenty of gentle exfoliating scrub to help soften the scar tissue, and to use neosporin or scar-diminishing cream. I know this would take a lot of self-restraint and I was hoping this could help.

I have read a few of these posts. I have the same problem. I am on adderall XR and I believe that the skin picking is a consequence of the medication. If you are on this medication or anything similar, this may be the cause. Any type of stimulant medication may cause this. Skin picking is actually listed as a side effect of adderall in the pamphlet the pharmacist gave me. If this is your case, i suggest either understanding what is causing it (realize your not crazy or something) and cope with it (TRY to train yourself not to do it), or talk to your doctor about your concerns. He/She may be able to lower your dose or something. I NEED my adderall to really function during the day so I am in the process of trying to train myself not to do it. Also, if you drink a lot of caffeine or are taking over the counter diet supplements (which contain a lot of caffeine) it may cause you to be fidgety and scabs and hairs may be where you focus your energy while fidgety. I noticed I do it more when I am not busy with something else. Like when I am watching tv or something. If none of those seem to match you, you may definitely want to see your doctor because it could be a sign of OCD... it is a compulsive type action. I hope everyone can figure out how to deal with this. I understand it is a seemingly small thing, but it affects our appearance and can cause emotional and confidence issues (not to mention risk of infection if the skin is broken). Good luck to everyone.

I do have exactly samething...we both are in same shoes.. sometimes i do control myself not to give dem scar also tried to figure out wat causes it..mostly wen im down stressed out. And have thoughts on my mind i found myself lost while i tweeze ..then finding my eyebrows got bleeding already so try n talk with someone while ur doin or interest with somethn..i know its so hard to deal:( also i learnt one drug dat makes impulse go away from pluckin.maybe we pple like us can try hope it works ...here d name is N-ACETYLCYSTEiN

Hoooooly crap. I thought I was the only person in the world with this problem! I've done many google searches but haven't been able to find much relating to eyebrow digging (for lack of a better term). I know I'm a tad bit late to this conversation but I thought I'd share my story.

I started picking at ingrown leg hairs when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I'm a woman who has been cursed with my dad's thick Italian eyebrow (yes, singular) and I started to become super self conscious about in it high school and that's kinda when the eyebrow plucking thing started. I'm 33 now and unfortunately, not much has changed. It's actually worse now because I have so much scar tissue from years of digging that my hairs can't break through the skin which means more digging to get them out. Which leads to more scarring, and so on. If I didn't have ingrown hairs, I wouldn't need to pick! But because I pick, I have ingrown hairs. It's a vicious cycle that I don't know how to stop.

The area under my eyebrows usually heals fairly well with minimal visible scarring (I'm really pale and my scars usually fade over time). But the area in between...my unibrow...The scarring is so bad that I don't know if it will ever heal or look "normal" again, even if I do stop picking. The skin is so raw and rough looking that it's getting harder to hide with makeup. Sometimes the skin is so raw that it hurts to put makeup on but I do anyways. I don't remember the last time I left my house without concealing my shame. I'm so self conscious about it that whenever I talk to someone face to face, all I can think about is how they're totally looking at my scars and judging me, or whatever. No one has ever came out and asked me about it but I'm sure they want to.

I really want to get laser treatments to help reduce the scar tissue or electrolysis to stop hair growth but I'm too embarrassed and ashamed of my problem to talk to anyone about it. I've tried all kinds of over the counter products like Mederma, vitamin E oil, Aquaphor, etc. and Neosporin (which usually does help prevent infections), but nothing seems to really help the scarring and obviously doesn't address the underlying issue (whatever that may be).

Anyways, I'm glad to know that I'm not alone with this godforsaken problem. I wish you guys the best of luck in your recovery!

I'm a tad bit late to this conversation too but wow, I relate to every single one of these previous posts!!!!! For me it started with the "unibrow" plucking and digging, scarring, and ingrown hairs, and repeat and repeat. I do not know the trigger to the start of the whole eyebrow plucking fiasco but I started doing this at a time when my face was literally blemish free because I was on acne medication. However I came off the acne medication because I was trying to get pregnant. Well, I started to break out :((( and now not only do I dig at the scar tissue by my eyebrows but I have been "digging" out the pimples as well. My once blemish free face has now become the looks of a battle ground, with both fresh wounds and very thick, ugly scars. I have seen both my PCP, derm doc, counselor, got back on my acne medication and some other OCD/depression meds, and now I'm doing this online therapy which is going alright. Besides this big "problem," I am a what most consider a normal 29 yr old woman, my life is normal, Im married, have a good job, live in a nice neighborhood, etc. Have always been somewhat shy and not the most self confident person but I just can't figure out why I do this to myself. I would say I have a mix of dermatillomania and acne excoriee. I have as well gone after some of the fresh scars to make them flatter yet it only makes them redder and deeper. I've basically turned the problem over to God's hands now, not that I haven't been praying to him all along to help me but now I've really come to accept the problem is bigger than me and so is He. He give's my body the power to heal the wounds I create, I believe with prayer and his Grace and Mercy, he'll heal my mind as well. If anybody wants to talk, I would love to hear how things are going for you. I've responded to a couple other forums but never get responses so I will just keep trying :) Just respond to this forum and we can get in touch that way. Prayers for all of you, no matter what you're all beautiful and you're all loved.

I would like to respond to "what is wrongwithme" since you have a most recent post. Sweetheart, is you read my above note, I've seen almost everyone I can about this problem, I've even left a pamphlet out at my workplace for others to read and understand what I'm going through and I tell you what, it was the BIGGEST relief by doing that, by letting everyone know all the truths, laying it out all on the table. I have learned i can't tell every stranger why I look like I do but doing all the things I can to get help and having people tell me they care and offer help makes me feel good. Also, I don't want to push religion onto anybody but if you read the word of God and read some daily devotionals, it's amazing how much the words lift your spirit and can make you face the world. It's other people's problem if they want to judge but I will always accept them.