my experience

I have been skin picking since I was five, around the time my father left home in fact, I had been doing it for so long that I had no idea that it wasn't 'normal', my sister and my mum used to have to pin me down because I refused to wear plasters and bandages that would cover the marks. Since then I have become much better at covering the marks. When I was 13 I found out that my father, who I had not seen since he had left had died in a car accident, from this time I moved on from picking, to a combination of picking and cutting the skin on my arm with, pins, scissors and wire. I am now 17, recently I had disposed of the scissors in my room and have not cut myself since, though I still compulsively pick at the cuts on my arm, and bite at the skin on my fingers, lips and the inside of my cheeks. However I feel very glad to have found a site like this, it is a great comfort to find that I am not unique in this situation that I have hidden and felt disgusted about for so much of my life. Thanks for the support :)