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Hi. I’m Crissy and I suffer from Dermatillomania.
Hi. My name is Crissy and I suffer from Dermatillomania. I am only 14 years old but the skin picking started quite young; around 4-6 years old. It started as a habit but has now progressed into something more.
I had to self diagnose recently as I was frustrated with the constant scars and scabs on my face, back, legs, arms and chest. I told my mum but she didn’t believe me(and still doesn’t) and just told me to stop. From then on, I have been trying to get some therapy to no avail. Online therapy was not an option as it had an age limit of 16 and cost lots of money.
This caused my self-esteem to plummet but I am now hoping to get my self confidence back up. This is a hard battle that no one has to do alone. I want to raise awareness but maybe that can happen later in life!
Still struggling but I hope that when I’m older I can get some help.
Hi Crissy!
It is good that you diagnosed yourself at such an early age. I relate to your story - yet I am 38 and took a little longer to admit it and share it with my loved ones :-/.
This forum has personally helped me a lot, there are many interesting posts here and it is good to see we’re not alone in this.
You have plenty of time to work on it and there is so much info on-line too nowadays... keep it up and focus your energies on your passions/hobbies, avoid situations that trigger your picking (in my case, bathrooms, magnifying mirrors and strong lighting...), share all the info you find with your mother.
There are some ebooks you can find with chapters on how parents and loved ones should behave...
I shared it with my family, and not only figured it was genetic... (my sister also has had it) but also eventually they understood.
Above all, forgive yourself and be patient, once you admit it and feel the urge to change, it is half the way in my opinion. Remember you’re not your skin, and we tend to have a distorted view on it anyway...
I believe in some cases NAC can help too.
Anyway, all my best...!