What can I do to stop picking at my skin

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I am so glad I am not alone with this! I am 33 and have been picking my face and arms since I was a teenager. It is such a horrible habit that I wish I could break instantly, but its extremely difficult for me, but I am so glad I found this site for mutual support. I can spend hours in front of the mirror looking for a spot on my face, or when I'm reading or relaxing I find myself rubbing my arms with my finger tips searching for something to pick at. When I am finished picking, I feel depressed and guilty that I practically demolished my face and arms. The only thing that has helped me out recently that I can share with you guys is to spend less time in front of the mirror ( I know this is very hard for us girls!). For example, when I'm brushing my teeth, I avoid looking at my overall face in the mirror. When I wash my face, I take a quick glance in the mirror at a distance and walk away. However, when I use the mirror to put my makeup on, I don't get the urge to pick. I realize the type of urges underlying this problem is individualized, but for me, the mirror is my weakness- I get right up close to the mirror to search for any spots before bed or first thing in the morning. Another trick I recently tried is when I do give in to the mirror to pick, I try to limit myself to 'two picks' only-- I know this may sound silly and strange, but instead of messing up my entire face and arms from picking at every little spot, I tell myself 'okay, I have the urge to pick, BUT I can only allow myself two spots to target and that's it, no more!' That way you satisfy the urge (unfortunately) to a certain degree and your face/arms don't look as bad as before! With this trick, I don't feel as guilty, I actually feel slightly stronger because I managed not to go crazy on my face/arms and I had the strength to only pick twice-- For me, it's a step in the right direction (baby steps lol), but its still very difficult to avoid my usual full-fledged picking. Hopefully one day, I can go from picking two spots to one, then none. Like I said, I know its hard to stop picking and my tricks may not be beneficial to some or most, I am just sharing what has helped me so far.

I am a 20 year old female and I dont really know when I started picking... I know that it just started with certain parts of my face, then i would irritate my skin so much that i would move on to other parts and eventually started getting acne all over my face, which of course was horrible but also a god sent... I as well can spend waaay too much time in front of a mirror... It gets real bad when I crawl right onto the counter and get really close to the mirror. In the last year or so, my obsession has spread to literally my entire body besides my back, and that is only because i cant reach it... Oh and I suppose not my feet, but im sure i would if i could. I pick at my nails, the skin around my nails, my scalp, my face, my neck, my chest, my friggen boobs and nipples for goodness sakes, my legs and my private areas... I saw someone say that they have keratosis pilaris which is something that probably spurs part of the obsession, well, i have something sort of like it, its called folliculitis and its basically the same thing except i get really sore spots that scream at me to be relieved... I even get them on my butt.... I agree, it is really embarrassing, and i have been doing it for so long... in addition to chewing on the insides of my cheeks... I always feel like its some sort of sick self mutilation, but I have an extremely hard time stopping because basically, if i go in the bathroom, im doomed... if im bored, im doomed, if i cant sleep... well, im really screwed. I really love having clear skin and am amazed that I actually have fairly nice skin, but pretty much the only reason i break out or have noticeable issues, is because of me. Im so friggen tired of causing my own skin problems, besides the folliculitis. Unfortunately I cant cover my mirrors because i live with other people that have no idea about my problem... So i think im going to try wearing a rubber band around my wrist and every time i catch myself start picking, i will snap that sucker real hard and teach myself a lesson.... I wish all you guys luck... I know how it is... it sucks real hard... wish me luck too...

I'm 26 years old and have been picking my entire life! As long as I can remember I've had super short nails because I bite them off, then when those are gone I pick at the skin around my nails to have something to keep picking and I do the same with my toes. When I was younger I used to bite off my toenails if they were too tough to pull. I will sometimes spend hours sitting in the bathroom picking blackheads (or even if there are none) on my face just to have something to pick at and will sometimes do it till it bleeds. I also tend to pick the skin around my fingers layers at a time even though it hurts SO badly! This past summer I had a water bubble on my toe and picked that off and kept picking a little each day until it was red from such exposed skin and bleeding to where I had to wear open toed shoes because they hurt so badly. Once the weather got colder, I started wearing socks all the time and let it heal without thinking about it. Now, for the first time in my life I have real fingernails and I am SO proud of myself...BUT the skin around my nails has never looked SO bad! I also play guitar and to make chords with my left hand is the most horrible pain! I have to face it that I have a problem. I've been doing it forever and just accepted that is me but I know this is not normal. I can't help it. I am SOOOO addicted! I will even sit and take tweezers and try to find hairs that have folded over under the skin to be pulled out (like after shaving). Something is seriously wrong with me! What do people do to fix this disgusting habit that I feel like a prisoner with? HELP!

I'm 17. I've only been picking for 2 years. It wasn't bad at first just a maybe 3 scabs Then as time went by I would get a bump or an itch and I would pick it till it bleed. Some say it's a form of self harm. I don't believe so. It got worse over months. I had "bites" all over my arms,legs,feet,thighs from "misquotes". That's what I would like everyone to believe. My mom knew though and only my closest friends. They would catch me digging or picking and tell me to quit that. I always said I try but I just can't. I got them all over my scalp soon enough. I have them everywhere. I have at least 17 big scabs on my scalp. Those are my favorite to pick. I feel disgusting about it but honestly it's such a problem. After my first year of getting the scabs I started doing drugs. Pills, spice,real,drinking, I've done meth twice but never again. That's what people think the scars and scabs are now. They either think I'm crazy because they look like cigarette burn marks or they think I'm a meth head that likes to pick. Which isn't true. I still do everything besides meth. I had a bad years from age 6 to 15. My life was awful. I went through sexual abuse, mental abuse. I've seen my family members get arrested countless times. I've seen them seizure out almost overdosing and dying from drug abuse. I guess you could say it fucked my head up major. I'm bipolar, I have depression, and really bad anxiety. I think that's why I pick. My anxiety honestly. I've got sent to rehab because I almost had a heart attach from taking too many pills. While I was there I had to talk to countless therapist,doctors,and nurses. None of them really knew what to say when they saw me pick or all my scars. I know everyone notices them. I hate it. I hate myself because my skin was flawless before I started picking. Not even a pimple or anything. Now I look awful. No one understands unless they pick too. It calms me down sometimes or distracts me when I'm not comfortable. I do it at school all the time. Everyone watches me I try to quit it but I'll find my hand in my scalp a minute later picking once again. I have about 30 "burn marks" on each leg. I have only a couple on my feet. My arms are covered in them. People probably think I have lice when I pick my scalp. Great reputation for high school right. It's been making me more depressed lately just looking at my skin. I want help but no one knows what I'm talking about when I tell them I pick. They say drugs are why I pick. Bullshit. I picked a whole year before I ever did any type of drug. When I'm in my depressive state because of my bi polar disorder I will stay in bed for days and cry and cry I won't eat or drink I just sit there pick and pick I'll start digging or find something to get the whole scab completely off. I'm not satisfied until it's all the way off. I feel like I make people's skin crawl when they see me. It's sorta like an addiction to me. My scalp will be bleeding and I catch people staring at it when they talk to me. I just wish all my scars were gone and I never picked again. I'm not strong enough tho to quit it I guess. When I talk to people who cut hoping they would understand they even sometimes get a little grossed out. My mom understands she use to pick too& she was a bad alcoholic. She quit tho. I know she wants me to but it's just so hard. And what guy wants to be with a girl who is covered with ugly big scars and scabs all over body. My friends will say "quit picking" really loud at school then everyone looks at me. I feel like dying when people hear that. I don't like making myself bleed. I like knowing I got the whole scab off for some reason it makes me feel cleaner or something like that. I pick at infected hairs,bites,anything that's a little bump. Then by the time I'm done with it, it becomes 10 times the size it actually was. I knew other people picked. Just not a lot.

I have found that when I have the urge to pick, if I take my hands and brush my skin and scalp all over, the urge rapidly goes away and I feel comfortable. Hope this works for you.

Try to identify the cause of the picking. My counselor was so focused on it as an ocd symptom, but I felt strongly that it was a bad coping mechanism for stress and anxiety. The treatment for anxiety is different than OCD..they're related but different.