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llama06 , 02 Nov 2011

Daily struggle...

I am determined to break this destructive behaviour. I've tried a couple of times, with varying amounts of success but then usually I hit a fairly stressful point in my life and it all falls apart again. So I'm going to keep a daily account of how I am doing. So far today I have not picked my face in the mirror. I have been picking at a couple of scabs and spots while i've been working though so, for the rest of the day, my goal is to try and keep my hands away from my face. Also, I want to break the habit of examining my skin in the mirror really closely. Even if I manage not to pick at it, this habit means that when I'm in a weak place, i'm all set up to destroy all my pores. So need to break that routine as well. Here goes...
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llama06
November 02, 2011
Oh and, to be clear, not picking includes not picking at my chest or destroying my legs with a pair of tweezers as well. Those have generally been areas that I move on to when I'm successful at not picking at my face. At the time I tell myself it's ok because i'm leaving my face alone but I'm going to crack this, I think those excuses have to stop. I'll probably start biting my fingernails instead! Oh well, I'm only human.
kgolden1234567890
November 03, 2011
I have had a LOT of luck with the amino acid N-acetyl cysteine, which is sometimes sold as N-acetyl L-cysteine, for my 11-year-old daughter who severely picks her skin (arms and legs). I'm hoping that everyone on this group will check it out. We started out at 1200mg each day, 600mg in the morning and 600mg in the evening. Then we worked up to 2400mg, 1200 mg in the morning and 1200 mg in the evening, within about 3 or 4 weeks. The study that was done in 2009 showed the best results were after 9 weeks of continuous treatment with this amino acid, also just known as NAC. We saw great results after 6 weeks. Please consider trying it. I am not a doctor, so please weigh out the risks for yourself. It has truly been a godsend. My daughter used to pick to the point of staph infections. She has scars all over her body. It works by regulating the URGE to pick. You can download the summary text of the 2009 study on this website - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19581567. The study was for hair-pulling, but skin-picking and nail-biting result from similar sets of urges.

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