I keep picking on every little bump on my face. Every zit turns into a wound.
Every coarse strand of facial hair gets picked at until the skin around it is red and sore, and I can spiral into panic if I can’t pluck it out.
I have so many blemishes I look like someone who does heavy drugs.
How do I stop the picking?
It’s becoming compulsive.
I can’t stop picking my nose just because it’s so much fun. But your predicament sounds painful. Sometimes a little pain feels good.
Discipline yourself to never touch your face.
I’ve struggled with dermatillomania since I was 10/11, and I still don’t really know. I’m at a point in my life where it’s no longer daily, and when I do it, I take control and can make myself stop. But I couldn’t tell you exactly how I got there.
I will say my control increased as I became more emotionally mature, and aware, and once I became more accepting of myself. It’s important to not be hyper critical, or at least realizing when you are.
How do I do that?
I had to do CBT for OCD when I was a kid. It was basically months and years of forcing myself to do a slightly more socially acceptable/safe compulsion rather than the one I wanted to do, and then a lot of mental discipline to force myself to go for the other compulsion instead of the one I wanted to do. Chewing gum is a great replacement for biting nails or chewing on your cheek until it bleeds. Wearing a spinner ring and spinning it instead of picking at your zits is a good one. There are loads of other ones, too, but those helped me a lot. Over time, you start to subconsciously reach for the replacement behavior instead of the original one.
Well right now ur picking automatically so when you catch yourself doing it immediately everytime force your hands down. Set a boundary like your chest and dont raise your hands above that boundary unless youre eating. If you have to scratch your face rub your face with your open palm nevet use your fingertips
I will say, the one thing that finally cured me of my picking conpulsion entirely was nearly losing my arm to a MRSA infection and having to have a very painful emergency procedure and dealing with the chronic residual pain. Every time I go to pop a pimple now, I remember having my arm sliced open with only local anesthetic and screaming at the top of my lungs and openly weeping in the ER. Makes me think twice.
I have been picking my entire life, bad habit. It turned into a compulsion about 5 years ago. I didn’t realize it was a mental health problem until last year when I was diagnosed with excoriation disorder a form of OCD. I have tried a number of different techniques and a bunch of medicines to try to stop it. I tried keeping my nails as short as possible. I tried putting on fake nails. I tried wearing a hat (I pick my scalp), I tried snapping a rubber band on my wrist, I tried squeezing a stress ball, I tried a fidget spinner, I tried will power, I tried wearing gloves. I also tried going the psychiatry route and my pnurse tried a bunch of different meds known to help with OCD, and specifically picking. Finally after nothing worked She tried upping my Topamax to 200 mg twice a day and after 2 months I’m happy to report I’ve gone from over 40 wounds to 7 wounds. The wounds I have left are the largest ones and they are taking awhile to heal. I still pick a little out of habit and because they are itching as they heal. But I am no longer compelled. I suggest talking to your pdoc about it and letting them help you with meds. I’m sure there’s something that will work for you too.
Yes I have this problem with blackheads. The solution was to buy organic muslin cloths
Because… Using that in the morning and evening helped me to sort of exfoliate so it was forcing the dirt out the pores.
Good stuff!
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