I'm a woman and I pick my breasts! Does anyone else?

So nice (not sure that's the right word) so know there are more people like me. I am a 24 year old vet student and I have picked my skin for as long as I can remember. My picking definitely gets worse with anxiety, I was diagnosed with epilepsy at 15 and from then on I have incessantly picked at my face. In the last 4 years or so this picking has spread else where including my shoulders but mainly my boobs, this has worsened especially in the last year since my epilepsy reared its ugly head once more and I was diagnosed with a benign pituitary adenoma (all this as long as studying at vet school as made for a very stressful year!). My breasts are so scarred, to the extent that I dont want to wear a bikini anymore, they are covered in red marks, I often have scabs on them from picking (if anyone spots them I often blame them on my rabbits claws scratching me!). So I have decided that I am not going to do this to myself anymore!! I have had enough and need to take control of it! I have bought myself some well rated scar reducing gel and am going to write a diary every night (i usually pick when I get into bed, so if I can focus on something else I am hoping this will help). Everywhere I read they say that dermatillomania is not easily cured, but as frustrating as it is i KNOW it is a habit, and it is so self destructive, not only physically but mentally as well. I am determined to turn this around for myself, I have become so quiet and lost a lot of confidence. I feel like I am behaving the opposite to how a normal 24 year old should! Has anyone on here manage to control their picking? I want to stop and feel like a woman again! Hope that people on here can inspire each other to try and break the habit as hard as it may be!

Totally!! It's hidden (mostly) and it's a pore rich environment. One of my spots to pick. Thanks for sharing the pain.

I do to and everywhere. I'm ashamed and embarrassed. I don't see how anyone could love me. I know GOD does and family, but I'm talking about a guy. I'm a freak so....

I pick everywhere, including my boobs and my pubic area.. I have this ritual before I go for a shower I completely strip and pick EVERYWHERE! atm I have false nails on so I've resorted to pins and tweezers. It's so embarrasing expecially when my cousin knows I pick but she really doesn't know what extents I go to.

Hi! I have always felt like a freak because I also pick my skin all over my body, including breast. I am 19 years old. I honestly always knew there was something wrong but thought I was the only one with this problem. I also saw the episode of Obsessed on A&E about the woman who was a skin picker, but I felt like I related to the story and not at the same time. There are some guys who say I'm cute or whatever, but I always say I'm not. I totally get what you're talking about. You are so lucky to find someone who is obviously accepting you for who you are, no matter what you think you look like. I just feel like a freak. Does anybody else ever feel like everyone is staring at them when the walk down the street? It's like they're not looking at you but your scars, like your some kind of freak show. I also get depressed sometimes because of it. I get scared this will never end, but I try so hard not to pick and I do. Maybe coming to this will help.

OMG PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO THIS LIKE ME?? I AM SO IN SHOCK. i totally feel the same way. im 16 and i have been an obbsesive scalp pickerfor about 3 years, zit picker and popper, breast picker (i squeeze out the white stuff around my areola's) , i sqeeze the pores on my face and just pretty much i can get to. i even get really tempted to do it to other peopleolike my boyfriend but that makes me even more of a freak. it really worries me because i pick until things bleed and it just feels so good to me. i dig at school too. no one knows at all that i do this though, i would REALLy like to stop bc it is the most humiliatiing thing knowing i cant get my hair done without the stylists freaking out and i always hurt myself from it, and it hurts to brush my hair. i spend about 85% of the day picking especially when im nervous and i have anxiety and depression.,and when i get mad, i pick very agrressively and it hurts bad but i like it. is this similar to when people cut themselves? . please someone help:( :( :(

hi yes I am in my late 30's and have scars all over my breasts i squeeze anything that can be squeezed which then turns to scabs and then the picking frenzies begin so i know exactly where you're coming from. its so tough and people just dont understand and so even in the summer months i cover myself from head to toe including baseball caps to disguise my forehead. I thank god that for my husband who loves me regardless but he does get worried and upset as he knows how this condition affects my confidence and self asteem. I send you support strength and love and hope this site helps as it is helping me and i've only just found it myself. Its just so good to know we're not alone.:)x

Wow it is nice to know that I am no longer alone whith this disorder. And this type of picking. I have been picking since I was 11. And have been for the past 30 years. I have alvways picked my breast area for as long as I can remember. Basecally I pick everything. The tineast zit car triger picking. And once I start, I have a hard time stopping.:( I was diagnosed with severe anxiaty disorder and ADHD 15 years ago. 4 years ago I went to see a therapist for a problem I was having dealing with de diagnosis ofm y boys ( 1 has ADHD and the two others have Autism) and I starded to talk for the first time about my picking. In the course of a year I stopped picking. I felt better about myself and was Ok until this past march. After a week on a familly vacaton my stress level became surper high. So the picking began again. Il am hoping to stop again with some more therapy. Dealing with this disorder il tough. Getting to control it takes time, energy and a lot of love for yourself. Each day il a battle. But it can be won. I did it once I know I can do it again!

I've been picking my face for four years and the last few months i've started to pick at my chest aswell. I just started having counselling and taking fluoxetine to get rid of some of my anxiety and it seems to be better. Exercising seems to help as well. I just started a blog where I hope to post tips about what I find helps me to stop picking. http://ihavedermatillomania.wordpress.com/

So apparently I am not alone!!!!! I have been picking everywhere since I was 13 - face, breast, hands, feet, bikini line... I love it when doing it but right after I feel depressed. In the summer I wear long sleeves and avoid going to the beach. As for the breast, I managed to stopped the picking a few months ago, but it seems that the scars are too old and persistent to go away. And I did try everything - peelings (but the skin there is so thin that there are no skin layers to get removed from the peelings anymore), also tried good whitening creams - contractubex and elocon with artexan. Seriously the scars are not going away. Please help me and suggest something else if you found a solution. I was wondering also if there is a whitening laser or something that I could try... Really desperate as I am single and I don't feel like getting in another relationship until this is fixed!!!!

I pick my breasts too, as well as dry skin and pimples from my face. My breasts tend to slightly lactate every now and then, and I have a bad habit of picking out dried fluid and oil/ dirt or whatever it is that just sits in the opening of the nipple. I also pluck a couple hairs out. I think more women do this than you would think.

I pick my breasts using tools removing skin, pores, I have occasionally moved onto my underarms and groin. It's so embarrassing, the scars are foul and hurt. I'm 29 soon, I have removed my toenails since I was about six and I currently am missing two fingernails. Now these days I am a happy and generally mentally well person, I work full time as a learning disability nurse and despite still being on medication for the depressive illness I function pretty well, why oh why do I do this? Well my reckoning is of course, this is how I display my anxiety and difficult emotions and how I control the uncontrollable world around me. It's not pleasant for those around me to see, but do you know what, yes I pick, but that's just a small part of who I am. I have good months where I can heal and grow and then other times where I go hell for leather and can keep wounds I've made infected for weeks. I'm so glad i'm not alone, my tips are light fake tan, bio oil, distraction and all the alcohol gel you can buy! Try not to feel you need to tell loved ones the graphic details, it does freak them out but only because they worry.My main tip is accept it, try your best but when you indulge and then feel the disgust and guilt, be kind to yourself, it's not the end of the world, don't be ashamed of dating, don't let it define you, you're beautiful and clever and the right person wouldnt care if you had a steak stapled to your face xxxx

Wow I'm like the other women here- completely in shock that it's not just me. My mother picked at my face for years and still spends hours picking her face. I wore makeup to school in 4th grade and constantly got in trouble for it. I grew up pulling my hair out and it eventually stopped and switched to me picking my own face. About the time I got to college (and started birth control) I ended up being able to leave my face alone. I had begun picking a few spots on my breasts, but not that much. About last year, it really took off. I use tweezers to squeeze out whatever is in the pockets on my breasts. Unfortunately, I've begun to really worry this summer because the spots have started to become infected. I've tried wearing bandages over my breasts, but I eventually end up tearing them off and picking. However, I have great support. I have been sexually active for a while with multiple partners, but only my first had ever seen my breasts. It wasn't until my current boyfriend that I had the courage to show them again. Now we're not a cheesy couple (dating a year and a half and never even told each other flat out that we love each other), but when he saw my breasts for the first time, he told me he loved them because they were mine. You all are incredibly worthy of a partner who is understanding. I wish you all the best on your recoveries!

I've been picking my chest too! My mom and doctor made me feel like I was the only person who did this! I have white scars and I get little like dark black he's looking ones that are just blood from picking them, and sometimes they bruise. I am so glad that there are other people who do this! Well not glad but not alone lol. I can do this for a good hour, and I do pick at my legs and groin, and back, neck, face and arms and belly. I am embarrassed to have any intimate moments with my boyfriend as it is because of my body, and I make myself more self conscience with picking, it's a vicious cycle lol.

Hi, my name is Katlyn and I am 18 years old and I pick my boobs. I just have to say that I read everyone's stories and they truly had an impact on me. This only started happening this year, and I have to at least pick my boobs twice a day. I can't stop it. I am not as sever as some of you, and I don't pick my face or other places, and I just told my mom about it and she is going to help me stop before I ruin my body. I pick pimples, and I pick little bumps around my nipple, and I can tell it's hurting my body from the way it stings afterwards. I have big boobs, and unfortunately they hang so it gets sweaty under them and sweat forms pimples. It is an addiction, i have gone a few or so days without picking, i know i am lucky at catching this early, and i just want to wish you all luck!