Anyone from United Kingdom?

Hiya, I'm from South Wales in the Uk. I'm 34 and have had Dermatillomania for about 24 years. I only found out that it is a recognised problem about 3 years ago. I thought I was the only one who done it! It took me a long time to admit that I had a problem. I'm hoping that joining this group will give me the encouragement to quit this problem. I am also here to talk to others so that they can share their problems with me.

Hello, I'm also from the UK! I literally just found this site today as I thought enough was enough and decided to see if anyone else in the world suffered from this too. I am so happy to know that I am not by myself, and that alone has already helped me greatly. I posted this earlier but I thought I would re-post it here so you can read my story and hopefully we can all help each other get through this. Would be great to here from you both... HELLO EVERYONE. I can't tell you how alone I've felt up until now. I've been picking my face for 7 years now. It started when I was in secondary school and it has got progressively worse over the past few years. I have been in full time classical ballet training since I was 3 years old, therefore I have spent most of my life in front of a mirror. Last year I graduated from dance school and decided to focus on other career options. I also suffer from GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and I thought after graduation everything would ease up. However everything took a turn for the worse and I spiraled into depression. With help I am slowly getting better, however my skin picking has become out of control. I spend hours in front of the mirror constantly looking for imperfections. I use tweezers, toothpicks, pins, anything sharp I can get my hands on to pick deeper. I think that I am making my skin better. But after I have completely destroyed my face and the satisfying feeling has quickly worn off, I'm left feeling ashamed, embarrassed and empty. I then don't leave the house for days and if I'm forced to I don't dare look up or make eye contact with anyone. And the thought of bumping into anyone that I would like to look confident and happy in front of sends my anxiety through the roof, making it near impossible to leave the house even if I have something important on. At the moment I am trying to work through my anxieties and in a couple of weeks I am starting a group therapy course. I'm making progress in other parts of my life but before now I haven't told anyone or admitted that I need help with my skin picking. So please, please can you help me? Any useful tips or suggestions to help me beat this. Just knowing there are other people out there who are going through the same thing has helped me hugely already. I no longer feel alone. I want to beat this as I know I would feel free if I didn't have this constantly hanging over me. I know the first step to getting better is admitting your problem. I've finally done that so now I want to keep moving forward. It's really comforting to know that the people who will be reading this know EXACTLY how I am feeling. It would be great to hear from you.

I think I might have reached the point when I have enough of this. I do want to stop picking, but I don't think I can do it on my own. I'm juts not sure what help is out there for us. Have anyone of you talked about skin picking with your GP? Are there any support groups or anything like that available? Recently I've been thinking about hypnotherapy, but I don't know much about it..