help I peel my skin off using tweezers !!!!

Hi Mrs Picker, I have the same problem with tweezers. I completely understand how you cannot stand having them under your skin! Those tiny little devil whiteheads- invisible, but feel disgusting because I can feel a little bump under my skin! I have a similar history as yours. I have found that giving my friends my mirrors and tweezers decreases the frequency of my compulsion. Also, every time I feel the need to scratch my face, I go wash my face with soap, and scrub without scratching, instead of using the tweezers. I usually don't do this becuase I never realized what a problem it is! I've just decided I NEED to stop and hope I can force myself to do so. Let me know if you'd like to talk more :)

I used to spend hours in the bathroom as a teen going at every little blackhead or whitehead. Sounds like the same thing as you. My mom would say STOP you're picking at nothing! You're creating blemishes that don't exist! I used to joke about having ocd. Now I realize I actually do. I use maybelline coverstick to conceal everything. I have a 45 minute ritual to get ready in the morning. My whole family hates it. I've done it every morning since I was probably 13, and I'm 20 now. When I get up, I pick at any blemishes that can't be covered with the concealer, pick off any scabs that I can.. because concealer doesn't conceal scabs! I use tweezers to pick off flakes from damaged skin. Then I put a moisterizer on and wait 15 minutes and then apply the rest of my concealer over the fresh wounds and then dry powder to blend it all in. I'm exaggerating a tiny bit, but no not really. My major picking episodes are at night, because I feel like if I pick my face to bits its okay because I just get in the shower afterward and then apply lotion and go to sleep and I don't have to deal with it until the morning. Most of the time though I have at least one scab that is too big and too deep and too fresh to cover up at all, which causes me to want to not leave my house, and when I have to go to work I try to stay in the darkest corners of the restaurant and when the sun finally goes down and isn't shining through the windows I get in a way better mood because I feel like my face isn't the showcase anymore. I still have this problem, but now I pick at my chest a lot more.. I take tweezers and pick at every single pore on my chest. I started doing this because my husband won't stand for me picking my face. He literally physically drags me out of the bathroom. I still pick at my face because I have absolutely no ability to control myself, but not nearly as much as before. I can't do my ritual at night because hes home and won't let me. If I come out of the bathroom with a red face we get into huge arguments. If he gets home from work and sees fresh wounds he gets pissed. He thinks I can control myself but I just like to have wounds on my face for attention or something ridiculous. Anyway so now I pick at other areas specifically my chest and it does't bother him as much because I can hide it. He just says I'm crazy. I'm glad I've gotten a tiny bit better about my face, but I still pick at it wayy too much and I hate it. My husband jokes around.. when I'm picking/popping something he comes into the room with a huge knife and says "here, just cut your face off." Anyway, I'm scared of finding new places to pick.. I'm starting to like picking at my toenails wayyy too much. And I know this can cause ingrown toenails which are painful. Not to mention that in the summertime my feet look horrible because sometimes my toenails are pretty much non-existant. I'm jealous of my friends who can go get pedicures together and such. So I just saw a doctor for anxiety and she put me on celexa. We'll see how this goes.. I hope it helps but I'm worried about the side effects. If I gain weight it won't be helping at all because my weight is one of the major things that give me anxiety to begin with. I feel like I'll never win. As far as my advice, theres a tool thats seriously called a blackhead remover. It has a metal hoop at the top and they use it at the dermatologist's office for actual blackheads. I love using it to pick at microblackheads and whiteheads-the ones you're talking about. This obviously won't help you to stop your compulsion, but for me it helps with my scabbing. Picking with my nails and with tweezers creates worse wounds than using the tool. It's not sharp so it doesn't carve chunks of your face off, it just forces the little sucker out. It makes the area a little red, but it goes away faster than a big scab. If you want to get rid of the anxiety that having the stuff under your skin gives you, talk to a doctor about therapy and possibly meds. Thats what I'm doing now.. Hope that helped a little.

I can so relate to this part of your post: " I pick at any blemishes that can't be covered with the concealer, pick off any scabs that I can.. because concealer doesn't conceal scabs! I use tweezers to pick off flakes from damaged skin. Then I put a moisterizer on and wait 15 minutes and then apply the rest of my concealer over the fresh wounds and then dry powder to blend it all in." I did that when I was in my teens and twenties. My face doesn't break out anymore and I don't wear make up anymore. Most of my picking is now done on my damaged leg. I've read that this could be part of an OCD behavior called Body dysmorphic disorder. The first time I heard this term, it was on a show about medical mysteries, and talking about people who wanted to have their legs amputated. I know realize that's how I feel. I've battled 24 years of pain after a car accident. Since then it's been one painful ailment after another and at this point, I would be thrilled to have my leg removed. I am so tired of being in pain. Another thing that I just realized, is that my father may have this same problem. He always insisted on squeezing my pimples himself and he would have (first) my mom and then my step mom squeeze bumps and pimples on his back. I've never told these things to anyone before.

i dont pick my face but i use tweezers to pick the skin off my feet. thats when i knew it was getting serious....when i started using a 'tool'....