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skin picker
I'm 25 and have been picking my skin for about 8 years now. I used to do drugs and thats when it started. I used to think i saw meth crystals in my skin and i would try to pick them out. its sad. now its a nervous habit that i can't stop. My husband and rest of my family that knows about it hate that i do it. But i can't stop. I hate that I can't stop. I hate myself for doing it. A few years ago my husband and i were experiencing marital difficulties and i stopped for over a month. Then BAM! I started up again. Now I have a new baby and I don't want him to know me as a skin picker. HELP! Has anyone stopped? How did you do it?
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.