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Please help me!! These scars are ruining my life!!
I’m 15 years old and I’ve been picking my skin since I was about four years old. I’ve always been prone to mosquitoe bites and I’d just pick and pick and them until they’d be open wounds. As I got into my teenage years, I began to pick at pimples too. Now, I have over 200 scars on my body. My picking habit has significantly improved, however these scars make me extremely insecure. People always stare at them or ask about them. I HATE wearing shorts because of the scars on my legs, and bathing suit shopping is a nightmare because of the scars on my back and bikini line. I’ve stopped going to pool parties, and even avoid hanging out with people because of them. I wear jeans when it’s 90 degrees out and constantly feel the need to wear a face full of makeup to hide my facial scars. I just want to be a normal teenage girl. Any advice on how to get rid of these scars? Or manage them? I’ve tried everything from Mederma, to aloe Vera, and everything in between. Please help.
I would recommend trentinoin cream or gel. It’s a prescription from a doctors and it’s technically a retinoid I believe! I have been using it for 4 years...all through the time when my picking went from a bad habit to terribly out of control and now back to a more managed bad habit lol. I credit it for not having scars because I use it daily and it basically makes your skin turn over so fast that it heals and sheds and pigmentation doesn’t last long! It’s amazing and I will probably use it forever. You could start it now and hopefully still see improvements after a month or two even if your scars are older. And continued use helps. For current picked spots I have found that allowing the spot to have a good healing environment helps the most because then you barely have a mark to fade with the trentinoin! I suggest hydrocolloid bandaids. You can get them at any drugstore. You can cut them to fit your wound anywhere on your body and they speed healing without allowing a scab to form and help skin to regenerate quickly so you’re less likely to end up with a dented scar as well. I honestly think these two products have saved my skin (even as we speak)!
Skin peels. TCA or VI... perfect if you have a whiter skin tone. If you have darker skin than a dermatologist would know better. I have done many TCA peels over the years and they do help over time. It's a gradual process of burning off the top layers of skin, stimulating collagen, etc. It's a more rapid form of cell turnover...much like the tretinin the previous individual mentioned. It's just quicker and gets rid of the red/ brown hyperpigmentation very fast. Basically burns it all off. Your first peel is best to do at a dermatologist just to get familiar with the process.