personality traits of skin pickers?

I'm an introvert, intuitive, thinker and judger (INTJ in the MBTI type indicator). I'm anxiety ridden, scatterbrained and analytical to the extreme. I appear confident and knowledgeable in public, even when being in public is the last place I want to be. I'm an all or nothing type of person. I either waste an entire day doing nothing except what needs to be done for survival or I'm working through without a break. I think, plan and organize well but seem to be incapable of putting things into action on a regular basis. I'm a control freak, but have no self-control when it comes to the picking/biting. I've come to the conclusion that the need for control is where the picking comes from. It all started after a semi-traumatic experience as a child that left me feeling out of control and unsafe. The biting relieves my anxiety like nothing else, save exercise.

I'm a 25 y/o female. Today is my first day actually having the guts to Google,"skin picking". I've been in denial for so long. I'm not entirely self-loathing. I am a little overweight, but I've been in shape before, and I have recently started a new routine. But I don't feel pretty anymore. I don't know what my problem is... other than I'm entirely self destructive at times. I've been picking, I guess, for a few years. It started when I was in the military, probably in 05 or 06. I can't say much else about it, other than I hate doing it and want to quit. If I can kick smoking and nicotine cold turkey, I should be able to handle this. This feels 10x harder. I just separated from the military in May... and moved to my husband's home state. I have no friends; they've all been left behind for the most part. I just started college and I find today's youth to be... I don't know. I want to say naive... but I know how bad it probably sounds. I guess I feel very misunderstood. And completely invisible. And jealous. And resentful in many ways. So... my problem has gotten worse. I've sought help with my husband, but he turns a blind eye. It's nice hearing you're beautiful, but it loses meaning when you no longer believe it. I just want help. I feel desperate. Sorry to unload... feels good to vent. Thanks.

Hi. I'm new here. I have been removing the inside of my lips and cheeks with the aid of the nuckle of my left hand ( i don't know why left since i'm right handed). I do it constantly and am unable to stop. It is excruciatingly painful. My traits: I tend to talk and talk until i drive the people around me crazy and they just want to kill themselves or me. I jump from one topic right to another one. I am a fast talker and can get many words said very quickly. I tend to wear out the person closest to me- my mom. I tend to make lists or write down intrusive or worrisome thoughts and read them to to mom or with the intention of reading it to a therapist. I hate my body, i weigh 158 kilos ( but am dieting and eating healthy now) and my boobs have totally sagged and are now very huge. I constantly think about this and talk non stop about having plastic surgery done once i loose the weight. I have never been in a realationship and haven't worked in 8 years. I hardly leave the house, only recently started going shopping. I hate spending money and constantly ask what things cost and check how much money i then have left. I have anger control issues, am always getting picked on and belittled by family members, they call me a whiner. I tend to get verbally agressive and have crying spells. I also feel unmotivated most of the time and prefer to just stay home in apposed to searching for work or excersizing. I go days at a time with no or very little sleep, tend to overthink things, worry about things like: having nothing to offer the opposite sex, nobody will want me, will think i'm wierd, or negative, or don't like to havefun and so on. I have severe feelings of being inferior, different than others. I spend many hours online on depression and ocd forums, dating sites which i never answer a single message, msn, facebook. I obsess about the same things over and over. I am always very bitter, extremely angry and negative in nature. Am afraid to date and have a man see this in me. When trying to fall asleep, my mind will wander on thoughts, usually not important ones. I f i gotta get up the next morning early i'll feel stressed and can't sleep, or if i gotta get somewhere at certain time also i feel anxious and check the watch all through the night. I read about the same things over and over. I over analyse things.

Im an eighteen year old female suffering from years of skin-picking. I also have acne excioree as a result of it. Generally an introvert. I am a complete slob and extremely unorganized, yet In my head I hold myself and my image to unreachable perfectionist ideals. I started picking when I was eight years old after a very close relative of mine passed on. My parents have been very aware of my situation and have exhausted all efforts to get me to stop. I've spent years coveering my bathroom mirror with paper just to rip it down on impulse and repeat the cycle. I've tried wearing gloves while in picking-situations (driving, watching television, in class, in bed) which have hardly helped, seeing that i always lose my gloves. I have been diagnosed with disorders such as depression, ocd, bipolarism and have been hospitalized for an eating disorder.

Wow! I just read through everybodys posts and I can relate to so much of it. Please don't take this wrong because I do care about people, I want everyone to be healthy and happy and to do the right thing. However I don't really LIKE people all that much, I know that sounds crazy but I am sort of crazy so it makes sense to me. I am the youngest of 3, my sisters are 13 & 14 yrs older than me and my parents were married 14 yrs before I came along. I was an accident, my folks were seperated but got together at least once. My Mom was going to abort me but she was afraid she'd die since abortion was illegal in 1963 and she was afraid she'd leave my sisters motherless. Her own mother died when she was only 5 yrs old. So reluctantly she kept me and later said I was the joy of her life. Her actions as a parent to me however say different. My folks were officially divorced by the time I was 4 but while they were still married they fought visciously and my dad beat my mom often and brutally. I unfortunately got to witness this on several occasions as a toddler. I was terrified of the dark into my teens. It was paralyzing, heart pounding, trembling fear, I had to have the hall light on and my door all the way open, it had to be flush against the wall, the closet HAD to be closed and never would I let an arm or leg dangle over the edge of the bed. I would gladly have slept with all the lights in the house on every night and the TV too. I often awoke during the night to a dark house and would sneak into my Moms room and crawl into bed with her, this happened almost every night. I never could go anywhere by myself if I had to be in any significant darkness, I would cry and refuse to go alone. I was sexually abused by my mothers boyfriend at 4 yrs. sex abused again at 5 from the babysitters teenage son, then again by the next new babysitter at 8, my cousin forced me sexually at 8 -12 yrs old when I was dumped at my aunts house in the mountains for the summer months. I had always been a cooperative, passive, submissive and painfully shy child. By 12 yrs I occassionally acted out agressively, physically hurting those that bullied or hurt me and if they only knew what I really wanted to do! So these are some of my reasons for not liking, nor trusting people, yet strangely I am openly telling my darkest secrets and torments to complete strangers. My worst trauma though was when I was 16, my dad was a crappy father and seldom around, I therefore desperately craved male attention. At 15 I fell deeply, intensely in love with a troublemaker of a boy, who was just a few months older than me. After 5 months of dating we had sex for the first time, within a year I was pregnant and terrified. I fantasized about getting married and having our baby but deep down I think I knew this was never going to happen. I decided I wanted my baby but was afraid to tell my mom because of her longtime boyfriend who was so cruelly critical and verbally abusive to me. I finally told a friend about the baby and she told me about abortion, that it wasn't really a baby yet, just some blobby cells and nobody would ever know. I didn't really want to do this, I loved and wanted my baby, but she convinced me to go to Planned Parenthood and talk to them, so I did. The woman there was such a bully, she told me how irresponsible I was, that I was completely selfish and not even considering the welfare of my child. What kind of miserable life would I inflict upon him or her and that the most unselfish, mature and loving thing I could do was not bring it into a world of misery. I have never felt so horrible in all my life, I was still putting my trust in those of "authority" those that apparently knew much better than I how to make a decent decision. After all, it was my fault, I was told, that I allowed myself to be molested as kid, so who am I to trust my own instincts, right? So I let this woman set up an appointment for me and the next day, at nearly 3 months pregnant I PAID a butcher to kill my baby. This happened 30 yrs ago this past August and I am still devestated about this, nor will I ever forgive those that convinced me to do this.I don't think I will ever forgive myself either. I am furious with my now dead parents at their selfish, stupid and thoughtless parenting, I hate and wish an eternity of hell and torment on that Planned Parenthood woman,on the entire organization, that butcher doctor and I hate myself for being weak and fearful and not standing up for myself and my poor innocent baby. When I got married and had children and knew what it was like to have a baby to love and protect, the horror and enormity of it all came crashing in more than ever. I picked a little bit as a child, a skinned knee or pick at finger nails or bit them but the face picking started in earnest when I was 16. I don't like to look people in the eye and turn away if I feel they are looking at me too close. I am not social, don't like crowds, I like solitude, quiet, the forest and mountains and animals fill a deep void. I never speak in public unless it is about animals and it's to children or seniors, I don't do well with peers. I hate my body, I feel inferior, stupid and worthless a great deal of the time but try to hide it from others because nobody likes a cry baby complainer. I don't have many friends and don't let people get too close, but when I open up it always seems like I over do it. Kind of like now. Hi, wanna hear my whole life story??? I have some OCD issues, I don't touch door handles, faucet handles, I won't use the hand driers in public bathrooms and feel like throwing my clothes away after I come back home from a public place. I used to keep a meticulous house but over the years things have gotten so overwhelming I can no longer keep up. I am all or nothing, so nothing ever gets done or cleaned, I have a tendency to cut out great articles, recipes etc for future reference, it was starting to become a problem so I had to quit doing that completely. I no longer subscribe to magazines, I can keep them all on the computer though without the physical clutter. I hate clutter, I don't like high pitched noises, beeping sounds, makes me want to smash whatever is making the noise. Well I could go on forever I suppose but I will be surprised if anyone can finish reading this excessively long post. Thanks for listening if you've gotten this far. No offense because this applies to me too, but we sure are screwed up.

I'm 23 and a new mom. I started skin picking when I was in the 3rd grade, shortly after my parents divorced and I was uprooted to a new state. I was the heaviest girl in my class. I had sores that looked like cigarette burns on my arms for several years. I got a scratch over a freckle that made it look like the loathed freckle had disappeared, so I began picking at other freckles. It got considerably worse in high school with acne. My face, neck, shoulders and breasts became (to me) horribly scarred, but I couldn't stop. I went to a counselor once in college, but she told me I was blowing things out of proportion because I had no scars to show her (I didn't tell her about my chest) - what was on my face looked like an ordinary breakout. It's incredibly nice to find people who understand what I'm going through and why I havn't been able to stop. The thing that has been bothering me the most about this compulsion (besides my complexion) is how my mind tends to 'check out' and I hardly realize I'm doing it until someone catches me and I 'wake up.' It's like I go into a daydream or something.

Okay so I have been reading everyones post and shit.. we should be our own research group!! We all have baseless fears and anxiety. We all strive for perfection because we are so broken. Alot of us seem to have racing thoughts and an inability to focus on anything but picking. I too have many other complusions which some of you mentioned like kleptomania, lying, day dreaming (i live more in fantasy then life). There seems to be a lot of guilty feelings that we cant control, and of course depression. Everyone is having an idenity crisis.. and not the normal kind which everyone has always written off our problem to, but serious crisis. We are all deep deep thinkers (too deep) which make us examine everything almost obsessively. I personally have a very addictive personality and always have. I also noticed that like myself, alot of you seem to think in worse case senarios. This thing that controls are life seems to come from a place of trauma (which is where Im screwed because as far as i know, though the doctors beg differ, nothing major has ever happened to me). I am so happy I found this site because for the first time in my life I realize I am not a freak and that other people think and live the way I do. Now.. what to do about it!?!?!?!