New Here!

Hi everyone! I am so anxious and hopeful since having found this website. Skin picking has been in my life for as long as I can remember. I never started thinking of this as a real problem until a year ago when my husband said "Don't pick at your face, it'll heal faster if you leave it alone." And I responded with, "I can't help it. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it!" And he understood me and never said anything about it again. Then recently, I was browsing the show "Obsessed" on netflix and I just randomly wondered if they featured someone with my maybe problem. And sure enough they did and it was then I knew that this is a real thing and I am not alone. Then I google searched more on skin picking and found this great site. I haven't begun trying to fix my problem yet but I really hope to try soon. I'm a mother of 3 kids who I had almost back to back and one of my children has cancer. My husband is a recovering addict and bipolar. So as you can imagine, my life has its stresses. I pick all over myself but my worst area is my face. I rarely ever get blemishes but when I do, they linger for months and I could turn something tiny into an eye sore. It's embarrassing and causes me to not look people in the face, have lower self esteem, not feel pretty at all, just not even care how I look, and many times I will get a blemish around my mouth (I put my hands around my mouth most- I don't have herpes but with the way I treat my face, people problem assume I do GAH!) and I hold my face differently, smile differently, whatever I can do to make my blemish seem less noticeable. I notice one of my children, who is only 4 (who has cancer) also picks at his skin. I want to help him not become a mess like me!! One of my hobbies is photography and people comment on pictures of me when I rarely post one about how pretty I am- and many of these people are old friends and whatnot who haven't seen me in a while- and it's nice to see these comments but if only they knew I edit the crap out of my pictures :-( I'm sure I have a 10 year high school reunion coming up this summer and I would love to have this more under control. One tip I will provide is the Aveeno Positively Radiant Tinted Moisturizer (has spf)- works wonders. It is like a light concealer, brightens skin and over time evens out skin tone. It really works, I've been using it for a year. I don't know if you men out there would use this thought because of the skin brightening part (it kind of makes your skin look fresh and glistening-y without feeling like a heavy make up)- but I definitely recommend this for the ladies. <3 Best of luck to everyone seeking freedom from this OCD!