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Stop Picking for 1 Week
I am new to this forum but I have frequently visited this site to help stop my dermatillomania. I realized I had dermatillomania in February of this year. It is now August. I have stop picking successfully for about a month at a time, but then I fall back into skin picking. My boyfriend is coming down to visit me in 10 days and I am determined to not pick my face for the next 10 days. I will reply to this forum every day to document how I am doing! I just picked at my skin last night. That is the last time. I am fed up with trying and then failing when ultimately I have all of the control in the world to stop. Right now I have inflamed red skin all over my left cheek. I have a few red spots on my forehead and a scab on my forehead that is healing. I believe that in 3 days it will go down. But I need to stay strong and let it heal. The red spots will probably scab over. Today is the hardest day to get through because I just picked so it seems awful and like it will never heal. I need to think back to the times that my skin has healed though and realize that it can and will happen. I would love to hear any success stories because that will be very helpful! It inspires me to stop picking! Thank you everyone for sharing your stories, it has truly been helpful. I will continue to post on this thread to publicly and honestly let you know how I am doing. Also if I begin to feel around for bumps to pick I will go on this site to post instead of picking. Thanks guys!!
Today I have found that my cheek is healing. The first night after picking I put aloe vera gel on, but that didn't seem to help me. I woke up the next day and the sores were still painful and stinging. I find that just after picking it is best to dry out the sores so that it is no longer painful then once it has scabbed over keep the moisturizer on to soften the scab and let it fall off naturally. The moisturizer tends to prevent scabs for forming for me though if I use it right when wounds are open. Last night I cleaned the sores with sea breeze and used acanya as spot treatment. Today the sores no longer hurt and are still a bit red, but more like dry patches of skin. I typically use the clarisonic on a regular basis but I have avoided using it on my cheek since it would just create bigger open wounds. However, tonight I will begin using the clarisonic again to gently take off dead skin and I will continue to apply acanya because the scabs are just surface dry red skin, not big scabs. It is still awful looking, but I believe it is healing. Today is thursday, hopefully by tuesday I will be healed up enough to go outside without makeup on since I will be lifeguarding is is nice to get some sun!
Some things that have helped me when I am home are washing the skin with cold water as often as I can and leaving the water to dry on its own. I found it helps accelerate healing. For bed time avene cicalfate helps with red spots and scabs. If they go brown, cape fear's kojic works wonders. Some foods that have helped me speed healing a good deal are citrus fruits (vit c), spinach & carrots (vit a), fish (zinc), oatmeal (helps hydrate skin internally), and drinking water as often as I can. I have diet sensitive skin and find it both heals and prevents better when I eat these foods. Number one challenge i've had is keeping skin staying hydrated, the foods help a great deal, though having more wet skin minutes in the day has worked well for faster healing times and fighting dryness. It can be cumbersome though at least it's free. Many blessings Stay strong much love
thank you so much! I will definitely keep those tips in mind. I've been doing much better with skin picking! The sores on my cheek are now gone and I am left with slightly pink skin and one tiny remnant of a scab left on one of them. It has been 6 days since I picked at them. Almost done healing! Today I also popped out one black head that was protruding out and needed to be out and I almost went in on my skin and almost started the crazy unnecessary picking. I felt it coming on. But I stopped myself! I pulled myself away from the mirror and took a NAC pill. I can do this! It is very hard, but I refuse to let this take over me anymore. I want clear skin on Friday and I believe I can do it! I am never going to have pore-less skin, but I can have the best skin possible for me. I need to back away from the mirror and stop searching for perfection. Ignore the minuscule bump! Let you skin do its thing!