Trainwreck

I'm so sorry that your husband is not sympathize with your picking the way he should be. It's not fair to you, and you shouldn't put up with it. It's one thing to say "I believe in you, I know you can do this, and I'm here for you every step of the way." And quite another thing to try and turn your struggle into a petty habit, let alone call you out in front of other people when he should know this is something that is quite obviously humiliating to you. You may not be getting the support you need from him-- but keep in mind he won't ever fully understand it. I want you to k ow that you're not alone, and there are plenty of us that fully understand your struggle. Us skin pickers gotta stick together :) we can't let anything discourage us. I know we can do it!! We can stop. I also deal with my family members telling me to "just stop" and treating me like I'm a child who can't get over a temper tantrum. It's not that simple, and what matters is that we stop regardless. We'll know the mountain we had to climb in order to get past this-- even if no one else does. :)

It really pains me to see someone going through such a difficult time without any support or understanding from the people around you. I am so sorry, I know how hard it must be to be going through this all on your own. I pick my face, no where else on my body, but it's pretty severe. It looks like I just get bad acne or something, but it's all of course from picking. When I finally told my boyfriend (who lives with me) that the marks on my face are from me compulsively picking, and not acne, and how distressing it's made me, he was honestly very supportive, even though he didn't quite understand. He saw how in pain I was, though, and would try to give me encouragement and tell me I'm beautiful regardless of my scabs and scars. After an episode, I would sit in the bathroom, staring at myself, and crying very hard, and he would text me saying things to try to make me feel better, telling me I'm beautiful and to come out of the bathroom, it's so comforting and the support motivates me to try harder to stop. But my point is, you need to tell your boyfriend how depressed and alone this is making you feel and that this is the time he needs to support you most. No offense, but your boyfriend shouldn't be making jokes about you and your habits period, especially in front of people, and he kind of sounds like an insensitive d**k, to be honest. My mum has pointed out my scars in front of people and I would straight up tell her to stop because it's embarrassing, rude, and a real problem, and that would shit her up real quick. If your family and boyfriend truly care about you, they'll be understanding and stop criticizing you. You just have to tell them about the problem and explain it to them in a way that they'll understand. Compare how easily you quit smoking cigarettes to your skin picking. If you could stop smoking so easily, then you'd definitely have no problem stopping a minor habit, but explain that this isn't a minor habit, but a compulsion that you can't help doing, especially when stressed, which they're causing you to be. If they still don't understand or criticize you after trying to calmly explain things to them, then I would honestly just try to get them to see how cruel they're being for criticizing something you can't help. You need their support more than ever, so you need to make them see when they're being cruel and have them see that it's wrong and distressing you, even if it means crying in front of them. At least it would make them see how painful they're being to you. I seriously wish you the best of luck and hope things get better for you. *hugs*

My boyfriend ridicules this issue and says it´s just about stopping, just about not doing harm to oneself. I try to take it as easy like this... and sometimes it helps. But recently I´ve had some tough times and I´ve avoided going out of my house for a week and I just keep picking.. and I damaged my skin because I thought baking soda can help oily skin. No way. It ruined the ph and just get more pimples and the skin is weak. Anyway, I´m now trying to manipulate myself not to pick again by taking picture of my skin every day, without make-up. To prove myself that even if I have pimples, I look more normal than with all these scars and wounds and red picked areas. Today was the first day. And in three weeks I better be healed because I´m going on a holiday and I don´t want to look like this to my boyfriend... Try not to stay at a mirror... if you are starting to get frustrated and want to pick again, then grab a clay mask or any home-made mask, that makes you feel like you are dealing with it, but without picking and hurting yourself.