i feel like i am all alone

Honestly I had no idea that skin picking was so common until I started looking for images of 'picked over skin' to deter me from doing it. I've been picking something or another for many years now and it has only gotten worse as I've gone through college and that--its a traveling obsession for me . . .it was just my cuticles for a while, then face and lips, arms, head, back, ingrown hairs in general . . . there is no end to it. Now I'm at a place where I sort of rotate between all of these mentioned. I don't want to do it anymore either. You're certainly not alone on this--I mean, they created a website just for people like us. If you look around the site, talk to people--I think that you'll find that people pick themselves largely out of stress--a stress that you take out on yourself physically instead of allowing it to manifest itself in other more negative or positive forms. One picks in substitution of something else or as an associative behavior--I pick as a nervous/anxious means of procrastination, that is to say that I think about the things I have to do and the things I'm not doing (that I need to) when I pick. One thing is for sure--> skin picking is an addiction, a nervous addiction that one should treat as an addiction/compulsion. I tend to think that the person in general is a habitual being and that addiction and ritualistic practice is easily picked up as a thing of comfort and regularity. Something that you know for sure, if you know what I mean. I think that anyone who needs to stop an addiction needs to have some self reflection on a couple of things: What makes me do this?/Why do I do this? Why do I want to stop? --these answers will give you your cause for the compulsion and motivation to quit. Then you need to analyze your behavior to develop a plan as to how to go about quitting asking questions like: When do I pick? What do I think about when I pick? Who or what triggers the behavior? Finally: What methods of awareness will be most effective to help me stop? --This is a difficult one and will probably fail several times before you find a method that works well for you. There is, with everything, no magic/instantaneous solution to this problem--it all boils down to motivation and willpower, YOU will have to stop. Its a compulsion that begins in the mind and manifests itself through your physical self. You, indeed, are the one picking yourself and no one else. I have tried many methods personally to stop but only halfheartedly--I'll start with a plan and get distracted and tell myself that I'll quit after my test or something of that nature. I would suggest trying many methods to help you stop and seeing which helps the most--which is the best deterrent--these methods are personal and something that works for someone else may not work for you. However, these are some suggestions of methods to encourage you to stop picking: -ask someone you know (most likely someone you are close to) to remind you/point out when you are picking yourself -verbally tell yourself to stop when you feel the urge to pick or start doing so -keep a tally every time you pick to make yourself more aware of how often you do it -talk to someone or many people about this addition--try to figure out together why you do it -look up skin picking on the internet--read what people have written about their own afflictions, watch youtube videos, look at pictures--make yourself aware of how widespread and traumatizing this compulsion is -find something healthy to redirect your nervous energy on (a healthy substitution) -take the time to stop and analyze your situation and state of mind when you have the urge to pick or start to Just a couple of examples and perhaps you can try as many as you can to increase your awareness of your picking. Hope this note will be able to assist you in stopping. As a fellow picker--I really want to you stop, for all of us. If you can stop, we all can. Everyone in this community is here to support you in this endeavor and we all are very proud of you--we believe in you.