Face picking... Trying to stop AGAIN. Help and suggestions welcome

I just found this site, and I'm hoping to gain strength here from all of you who I share this problem with. I just finished a 3 hour picking. It's after 3am, I have to be up around 9. I am 37 and have been picking for a good 30 years...almost my whole life. I sometimes feel like I'm going to go completely crazy. At times I even feel suicidal, like it makes me so miserable I want to end it all, or like I might one day accidentally pick myself to death. When I am able to leave my face alone for a while and my skin clears up, I examine the "perfection" of it, and find myself literally picking myself apart again. The cycle is vicious. It's not all about flaws and perfections though, I suffer from terrible anxiety and depression, and this has always been one of my rituals in dealing with it all. I have mentioned it to my therapist, but he's not trained in these types of disorders. So he listens, but I don't really get a lot of help there (not with this anyway). I'm glad I found all of you. Maybe this can be a start to real progress and healing. I want to join in the quest. Thanks for letting me in.

Recent dark scabs gone, will try and leave the rough flakey skin alone now and am going to stand back from mirror, so don't start mucking about with clogged pores/ little blackheads. Thats the plan anyway. Looking less red raw anyway

Don't anyone feel discouraged. There will be good days and bad. We can make this. I had a tempting day yesterday. My skin is so dry which makes me want to start picking but I've still been able to hold back. This is my longest stretch ever, I think now of I let myself down I have to come here and let you all down... I can't do that :) for people in therapy on here, this is a disease and it is important that your therapist knows how to treat dermatillomania. It is too hard to talk with someone who doesn't understand. Just know we are all here for each other. One day at a time.

Just washed my make up off for the day, started to squeeze and stopped myself. Yeah!

So it's been a few days since I checked in, and I must admit I slipped up. i had company over and instead of embarrassing myself and explaining why myirrorsnare covered in black bags, I took them down. So of course when they left the temptation was too much and I popped a white head. Luckily it was ready and I didn't hurt myself but it made it easy to start again. I did okay until today and I picked again. Just one spot and it wasn't major, I was able to walk away. I put some medicine and a mask over the spot and covered the mirror again. I guess injust have to keep it covered for as long as it takes. Starting over again. Hopefully the spot I picked won't get huge and I can try to get over this again.

I am so happy to have found this forum...it's comforting to know there are other people out there with this problem. I've been contemplating seeing a dermatologist and a psychologist but I just don't have the money to pay for something on going like that and if i can keep my hands off my face my skin isn't that bad. It's so frustrating how I can wake up in the morning looking perfectly normal but by the evening I look horrible. I pick at any spec of something on my face...it'll start with one little thing but at least thats really there and then before i know it im just picking at my pores, at stuff thats not even there...and all because i want my skin to look perfect and in the end it looks so much worse. I hate even going out in public after I do it, even with make up...I just feel like everyone can see it under the make up and even if they dont that i look fake with all the concealer. I end up in a miserable mood and just want to hide out in my house and wish i could hide from my husband too. I like the idea of mirror covering im going to have to try that...I went on vacation about a week ago and because i wasnt in my own house I didnt pick once and my skin looked the best its probably ever looked...but of course as soon as i got home i destroyed my face again. My husbands going to think im crazy covering the mirrors esp since he will still need to use them....I hope this works! I really want to stop doing this to myself. It has me so depressed and I've never felt so out of control over something in my whole life, I think thats what's really hit me lately...is how i feel like i just can not control this no matter how hard i try

Day 9: I started to pick for a moment because I am very anxious- who knows why, but while I'm attempting to pick in my little makeup mirror, which I'd normally never do, it fell and shattered! Karma. I have to keep trying, I can do this... Ugh

I'm new here, I've always know this was a somewhat common problem, albeit not common enough that my skin doesn't look terrible compared to my peers, still I've never really dealt with any negative emotional feeling about myself over it...I just really wish I could stop. I'm tired of looking terrible. I am wondering about this mirror covering, I have tried in the past to cover my mirrors or write messages on them in lipstick (STOP! DON'T PICK, etc) But invariably I will have to put makeup on. Which means I will have to wash my face and get close to the mirror. So I am wondering, has anyone ever tried cutting their nails off? I love my nails and would hate to lose them, but I feel like if I couldn't gouge my skin so badly, and so vigorously I might be less inclined to pick, and on the occasions when I do pick I cant do as much damage. Maybe this could be a helpful addon method for those of us who literally cant avoid mirrors (I wear contacts I have to have a mirror daily and often thats when I get to picking, arrg). Thanks for being here everyone :)

I pick and pick and pick....I hate it and find it almost impossible to stop. I finally googled it last week and realized for the first time that I'm not alone in this destructive behavior. I remember picking in grade school and having scabs on my chin for long periods of time, but around 12 I stopped. I didn't pick again till I was about 27, I am now 38 and still have not been able to stop. I believe I am ready to put this behind me once and for all. I am so glad I found this site, I need the support. Tomorrow will be my first day using some of the technics I have learned to try and stop....I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you...

15 days in, I haven't forgotten to check in! So far only one slip up since last check in- popped a whitehead properly and left it alone immediately so I'm not super let down. Hope everyone else is doing well. One more trick I've seen trying is sleeping with the humidifier on, it seems to keep my skin happy so I dint have dry skin to pick! See ya next week!

hoping for day 1...