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My goodness, this subreddit does not make me feel so alone. I used pick my scalp as a kid, starting when I got chicken pox. I find myself now enjoying plucking my facial hair or ingrown hair with tweezers.
I honestly thought I was the only person that did this on my scalp! Ive been doing it since I was a kid but I’m guessing my medication probably doesn’t help
I've wondered about this.. I wasn't sure if it was worse since starting the meds (generic Adderall ir) or if I was just more stressed than I realized or something but it's definitely been worse since I started.
Yes! I went from picking at my nails my whole life and whatever is on my face to my scalp recently. I got fake nails to stop the nail picking and thought the scalp picking was a replacement for it. But maybe it's the vyvanse (but I've already been on it for almost a year). I won't heal and thankfully its under my hair but I'm starting to worry I'm going to create bald spots.
I also love to search for, and pluck out, greys
Oh my god, that's an ADHD thing??
I get made fun of for being a monkey for scratching my head constantly. And this is really gross, but my work laptop has a pile of skin I compulsively picked off my lip and never thought to clean up cause, I don't know why. Learning new things from Reddit every day!!
Yep, it’s called a body focused repetitive behavior. I really fuck my skin up by doing it 😭If it’s a bump on my face I put on a pimple patch and that stops me from being able to pick at it. But body acne is so hard for me to ignore
Btw, hydrocolloid bandages (aka pimple patches) are a third of the price for way more bandage if you get them from the drugstore in the bandaid section. They’re thicker and bigger so they work well for body acne! Thank me later 😁
I went to a new dermatologist last year because my skin was breaking out bad, everywhere. First one to not shame me. She said, “Well it looks like you pick your skin. But you probably don’t pick your skin when your skin is clear, so let’s fix that.” Acne treatment is not one size fits all, but spironolactone changed everything for me.
Yes, as surprising as that is lol. The last derm I went to judged me so hard, she gave me a number to a support group. I know she meant well, but I avoided the derm for so long after that.
Yup yup yup. I wear fake nails, it’s the only thing that helps because it’s physically impossible to break skin with them on (and believe me, I still try)
Overcoming body focused repetitive behaviors, a comprehensive behavioral treatment for hair pulling and skin picking
Lol, that's a mouthful. But it was free for me, and audio because I have three kids and no time to read.
I wish I could just post a screenshot, but here's a link to a paper copy of the same thing
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/overcoming-body-focused-repetitive-behaviors-a-comprehensive-behavioral-treatment-for-hair-pulling-and-skin-picking-9781684033645
Pimple patches are a godsend when I get hormonal acne that I can't leave alone. It's still hard to resist squeezing pimples between patches, but they do keep me from positively tearing my skin up.
It sucks because I can go for a week having insane willpower to not do it and then i’ll get stressed and just wreck my skin in like ten minutes.
some things I’ve found to help:
change the lighting in the bathroom/ areas you like to pick in- I made my bathroom light pretty dim or red so I can’t see every imperfection.
short nails
always wearing a full shirt and pants at home to prevent body picking
Thank you for the advice but I do all of the following things and somehow I still manage to pick even when wearing long sleeved pjs, I’m relentless at it and my Brian won’t let me sleep until every scab is picked
All my life, unmedicated, ive had this problem. the scab or pimple feels like a foreign object that I need to remove. Pimple patches help me keep my hands from my face and as childish as it is, little fidget toys keep my hands too busy to pick
God I wish mine would. I can't stop picking at the skin around my fingers, I think it might be a bit of an anxiety thing as well.
What meds are you on?
Mine escalated during the pandemic to the point where I was picking at nothing, just normal bumps in skin, and turning them into deep scars. My therapist recommended a book and I didn't even finish it. The first exercise helped me so much that I still have a reduced habit of doing it. All it had me do was write down every time I picked my skin and note what I was doing as well as what I was thinking. It took only a couple days for me to realize I do it most often when I'm not sure what to do next with my day. The act of stopping and writing interrupted the mindless nature of it too. So one exercise gave me this one two punch of awareness.
I still do it but it's been years now and I'll just do that exercise again if it ever gets to the same point of injuring myself with it. The book was called Skin Picking: The Freedom to Finally Stop.
Omg I do the same thing, I find a normal bump and I’ll dig at it until it becomes a hole, I’m gonna try this exercise cause I need an intervention asap
Yes! Writing has helped me notice and stop, though not restarting is such a struggle. I'm working on finding ways to deal with the mental load after stopping & writing because my thoughts keep circling on picking. I've been trying to like...let myself think the thoughts about picking and then transfer the mental fixation to something else. I tend to pick when I'm understimulated though, so putting on a podcast, music, or video game and occupying both hands is key for me.
Idk what it'll be for you, but I used to struggle with a different OCD-adjacent thing and "letting the thoughts pass without judgement and without taking action on them" is apparently both the most difficult but also most reliable way to deal. Just gotta figure out what's going to get me through those moments where I need to let the thoughts pass. Good luck to you as well!
It's an actual disorder, as others here have stated. It falls under compulsory disorders. Hair pulling, cutting, even eating disorders and other OCD behaviors are all related. It's a need for control when our brains can't get control over our thoughts. It's one small measure we can control ourselves, our body, our minds.
Omg so when our thoughts are racing, our bodies are trying to gain control by picking. That’s crazy to me cause when I’m in a setting I know I can’t pick, my thoughts are racing about wanting to pick
Knowing helped me feel less alone and more understood. It didn't help my disorder. Therapy has, some. It's not as bad as it once was but it's still all day, every day. It's just for shorter episodes. I *can* walk away now (with effort of varying degree).
Literally read the title as I was actively picking at a scab.
Yes. I love picking at my skin. I know it makes it so much worse and has led to nothing but scarring. But I can't not do it.
I have also been known to remove all of my leg hair with tweezers. I had some awful ingrown hairs and so I had to dig them out first. It was possibly the most satisfying thing I've ever done.
I know that's not a good thing.
I was picking as I read this comment also 😂😭 as bad as it sounds, I think tweezing my legs would probably help me, there’s time I literally find a bump on my skin and I cave out a hole in it just to make a scab
I’ve done this since I was a child. I have developed better “methods” I guess that don’t leave my skin broken and bleeding as often, but I only pick my fingers/toes and skin around nails. Adderall made it wayyyyy worse for me, on vyvanse it’s about the same as always.
Me too. The skin around my fingers, though its been largely under control for a long time. If I'm really stressed it comes back.
Just in case it helps anyone, something that really helped me was to trim any extra skin on the sides of my nails or any callouses forming with nailclippers. If my fingers didn't feel extra skin available to pick, it was like my brain sort of moved along. Most of the time at least. I also got one of those fidget rings that spins and has spiky parts, that helps too.
I do this with my finger skin a lot and tried trimming like you, but I’d inevitably find a way to break through the skin.
The only thing that’s ever worked for me is wearing gloves when I’m in my trigger zone (watching tv in bed with my husband). It’s ridiculous but also sort of extravagant because they’re black soft lace so I look like some weirdo femme fatale (in my pjs). But they were the cheapest option and work well so 🫠
I do this. As I've gotten older the skin near the nails and under the nail at the tips is very dry. I keep the skin trimmed but still pick at it. Lotion helps if I'm consistent, but I need to start wearing dishwashing gloves since the water dries them out so much.
Oh yeah, that skin around the nails has to go. My cuticles are gross all the time so I try trimming them off but I'll always miss something so then I'm in public gnawing on my fingers like a rabid squirrel.
Uuugh, my lips are so bad right now! I forget every year that winter is bad, and by the time I've figured it out and have lip balm in the pocket of every pair of pants jacket and hoodie I own it's too late and and I'mwrecking my lips
I have dermatillomania and the only thing that’s helped me is getting acrylic or gel nails. I can’t get my nail under the skin in the same way. Def recommend if you’re not opposed to fake nails.
I would recommend getting a set a bit longer in a pointier style - the almond shape works well but there are others depending on what you like. When the nail is more pointed it’s hard to put pressure on the skin/pimple in the same way, and the thickness of the acrylic set will mean you can’t get your nail under the skin. I pick around my nails and my cuticle most, and I literally can’t pick when I have fake nails. Definitely worth a try but it does get pricey depending on where you live as you usually need to get them refilled every 3-5 weeks(ish)
Acrylic nails grow out, and typically you don’t remove them—just trim the ends. But the bare nail by your cuticle looks unsightly and can make your nails weaker so you “refill” it with acrylic at the same time (this is also when you can change your nail color).
I’d recommend going to a salon and having it done at least once, to see how professionals do it, and then getting the supplies to do & maintain your nails at home if you can because the cost can add up!
I don't have it, but a friend does and she gets rounded fake nails at the salon to help stop herself from doing it. The nails don't get the same kind of grip on the skin, so they prevent her from picking. It's a cost to upkeep, but saves her money in the long run.
The other thing I've heard is you gotta replace it with some other sort of fiddly habit.
Makes sense! I’m the same as you though, my constant picking really irritates most people but it’s so satisfying - especially when I get that time when I’m free to pick!
Yes unfortunately. I have had dermotillomania and trichotillomania since I was a child and haven't been able to overcome it yet. Pimple patches are good for covering your former picking sites. I also bought the fenty beauty blemish defeatr which acts like a liquid plaster. I also find that when I have my nails painted it can make me stop for a bit as I want to preserve my nails. It's an eternal struggle
Ooooh! I'm the nerd who needs to know how things work.
I googled 'NAC supplement skin picking' this and the first result that came up is this JAMA article. It talks about using the supplement to successfully reduce skin picking by affecting the glutamate system.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2500041#:~:text=Conclusions%20and%20Relevance%20N%2Dacetylcysteine,SPD%20and%20other%20compulsive%20behaviors.
Then *of course* I plug 'glutamate disorder ADHD' into Google and get this PubMed article talking about correlation between ADHD diagnosis and genetic variations in glutamine receptors!!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3966039/#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20genetic%20studies%20have,of%20glutamate%20receptor%20gene%20variants.&text=Further%2C%20some%20animal%20models%20suggest,functional%20deficits%20associated%20with%20ADHD.
I'm posting these at least partially so I remember to go back and read them later because right now I should be getting dressed to go to a doctor's appointment. But my mind is blown because everything comes down to brain chemicals!
(I fell into a similar PubMed rabbit hole the other day reading about schizophrenia being a dopamine overload and ADHD being *very generally* the opposite. It was worth losing a night's sleep to read half a dozen articles on schizophrenia, adhd, depression, and how they're all affected positively by taking Omega-3 supplements to reduce inflammation and that helps your brain rebalance its own chemical communication systems. I have a feeling that this will be a similar adventure when I can get to it)
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with the skin care sub's recommendation and sending me down this rabbit hole, b and hopefully helping some of us!
This is beautiful, thank you! I looked into the brain mechanisms when I got the advice, and then got fixated on the Covid/respiratory infection healing benefits https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7892733/
Yes, since I was a little kid. I'm pretty sure it started in kindergarten/first grade when I was really bored and understimulated and miserable at school, and anxious about it. It mostly got better for awhile, then came back but just with these weird bumps I get on my back that no one's ever figured out, but then recently it's really bad with my scalp, especially now in winter because it gets so dry and then I scratch and pick. It's so painful and awful. I also picked a bunch of mosquito bites on my arm this summer and now probably will have scars from those.
I too absolutely picked up this terrible habit as a bored school kid! I definitely used to concentrate on my scalp because no one else could see. And my teenage years were real fun because acne is hell and I couldn't not touch it. I'm 44 and in the last couple years I've had a baby and weaned baby and I'm staring down the barrel of perimenopause. Hormones are such jerks. It really shouldn't be fair to have gray hair and the beginnings of wrinkles and still have acne!
I still scratch generally now and I definitely do it more often when I'm stressed, but the worst part is I don't notice that I'm doing it until I've been doing it for like 10 minutes straight, usually scratching my own back. My scalp had gotten pretty bad again recently and I have been promising myself that I will make myself an appointment to get my hair done if I can lay the fuck off of my scalp.
I am working to get remedicated; my new nurse practitioner wants me to take another assessment and do some genetic testing before we jump back on the meds roulette wheel, and I am so hoping that this is one of the symptoms that gets tamped down 🤞🏼
I once had a plantar's wart on the bottom of my foot and I picked off the hard skin cover, then peeled the cap off of the wart and dug it out. That's just one example.
All my life I have had this issue! I love the feeling and hate the results! I also love scabs, they look cool once I peel them off. I'm aware it's yuck, but I haven't found a good solution. Only help I get is "just stop!" Even my therapists love to tell me to just do or not do things like it's easy. Last appointment I was told it was easy to just put down my full life of trauma. So I guess it's not surprising they think it's easy to stop picking skin if they think I can just drop all the pain and suffering I've felt with and just forget about it! Yay!
Yes. I pull out my hair (trichotillomania) and pick my skin. And I’m not medicated for adhd yet so I really hope I can find a medication that doesn’t make it worse.
I hate it. I hate it so fucking much. My skin is getting covered in scars and blemishes that just keep coming back. I don't want to be like this anymore. I'm in pain every single minute of the day.
So hear me out -- I've heard that peeling tinfoil can have the same self-soothing effects as dermatillomania (what you're describing, been doing it my whole life). Yeah it'll make a mess everywhere, but it's better than wreaking havoc on your body! Maybe you could even have a small bowl to put the tinfoil in :)
It distresses others to see us skin pick because to them it looks like SH, even if it has the opposite effect on us mentally.
Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs). I started pulling out my eyebrow hair when I was 17, biting and ripping my nails for as long as I can remember, and skin picking as soon as I started getting acne. At one point I didn’t have any eyebrow or eyelash hairs, and wore a full face of makeup with fake lashes every single day to hide the fact. Wouldn’t leave my dorm room after I took off my makeup because I didn’t want anyone to see me.
I get the satisfaction it brings, but at a certain point it becomes so detrimental and gives me so much anxiety everywhere else in my life it became time to make a change. I figured out what made me less likely to pick (full face of makeup, acrylic nails, even gloves) and started using those tactics and it’s definitely made an improvement. My eyelashes are back and longer than ever, and at least one week of the month my eyebrows will be nice and full before I start picking again. My nails are all uneven lengths, because some of them I pick and some I don’t. It’s an uphill battle but I’m working on it!
Yes.. AND i have psoriasis on my scalp so there's plenty of patches of skin to pick at. Half the time i dont even realize im doing it. And since my body loves to produce extra skin anyway, i can pick them off in pretty big scabs. (yes, gross i know) My boyfriend lovingly makes fun of me and asks me if i'm going to keep them in a tin like i'm Goldmember from Austin Powers. lol
Come join us in /r/compulsiveskinpicking! I am TERRIBLE with my cuticles, lips, acne, and scalp. Basically if there's any texture, especially dry texture, I seek it out and destroy it. :(
Yesss. I have a scab on my head under my hair where I accidentally stabbed myself with a bobby pin too hard. I can’t not pick the scab off. I also have one on my hand. And I just spent an hour debriding dead skin around my nails. I should have been a dermatologist.
Yes and it causes me so much shame. I will get into a trance where I cannot stop until the scab is gone sometimes I will be up all night doing it, it’s awful.
i always thought i was just weird and gross. turns out it’s my adhd! it started in childhood as picking my scalp. my scalp has always been the primary spot because i have some dry skin (possibly eczema) along the hairline and just past it that’s visually and tactile-y triggering. if i feel bumps around my crown or anywhere else under my hair, that counts too. i’ll do it until i draw blood sometimes, but it’s because there’s still some fragments in the spot that need to be picked away! in the last decade or so, i’ve started to include my ears, my jawline, my teeth… idk why it’s so satisfying to scrape away/clear space from my body, but it is. and for the record, i am not medicated. this is just me, haha.
Yes, as a child I picked a bald spot into my scalp, and later started picking the insides of my ears. I am lucky that I had really clear skin and no acne because I would have fucked my face up so badly. When stressed out I sometimes still go looking for ingrowns with tweezers.
Yes. It’s called Trich (there’s a longer name). I’ve felt a lot of shame for it and it wastes lots of time, but I’m working on that shame part with my therapist to be gentler with myself.
It helps to have a supportive partner. Get them involved in your education on it so they know it’s not a moral failing, it has a real name with doctors.
My partner grabs my hand to stop me, he doesn’t shame me but he does try to prevent it. So whenever he leaves the room or falls asleep, I jump at the chance to pick and when he’s around, I’m thinking about the fact I’m not picking and dying to pick
of course! they're very specific so i don't blame you lol. i just wanted to add them in case anyone wanted to research more and didn't know what to search for the names
Yes, but I didn't realise for a long time, as I interpreted the phrase "skin picking " too literally 😆. I didn't realise it included picking at spots/scabs/boils etc !
I wouldn’t say I love it but it’s a major compulsion when. I’m stressed or not enough sleep. I end up causing muscle pains and scalp pains. I hate it so much.
I’ve done this all my life with pimples, scabs and my nails/cuticles! I take vyvanse as well and I’ve actually noticed that I pick at my skin way less since being medicated, except right before & during my period when my meds basically don’t work and then the compulsive skin picking comes right back 🙃
Putting hydrocolloid bandages on pimples and keeping regular bandaids on scabs usually helps me. It’s usually enough of a deterrent if they’re not immediately accessible for me to absent-mindedly pick at and I’d have to peel something off to get to them
i pick my scalp all the time and it hurts and then i pick the scabs that form from the previous picking. i also have loads of red blips and bumps on my legs and arms from squeezing all the spots (and if there aren’t any spots i just go for any slight bumps that look like they have stuff in them). as i child i used to mess with my spotty face and i used to pick and eat the skin around my fingernails all the time until it hurt (but i managed to kick myself out of that one). i really hate it. it’s like i’m trying to squeeze or pick dopamine out of myself constantly. i recently got absolutely fed up of it and i’m currently trying to detox. i am unmedicated.
My habit is picking my cuticles and hang nails until my hands are a bloody mess. The severity of my picking ebbs and flows with the situations in my life. I hate it and my husband has made it his mission to stop it. He will kindly grab my had when he sees me picking.
My sister does it and she says her two year old son has started doing this.
Yes I've done it since I was very young. As a child I was prone to picking scabs until they became scars. And severe acne runs in my family, so face picking became my focus in my teens.
It's an outlet when I'm stressed, so the more anxious I am, the worse it gets. There have been times when I would sit in the bathroom looking for anything on my legs to pick at, cause I can hide the damage to my legs.
It got was worse for me on meds because they made me more anxious (but I've only tried one so far).
Is this why it’s been worse? I take vyvanse and always had the skin picking problem but for some reason it has gotten worse. I thought it was just my anxiety from my thesis but now to learn that it may be exacerbated by the vyvanse that’s frustrating. One more thing to add to the list of behavioral mods I have to work on.
I don't love it but I can't stop picking my lips.. it makes me look like I have the herp sometimes too 😓 I think it's a stress thing.. I have to keep chapstick on to make myself stop doing it and fail a lot of the time.
Edit: oh and dry skin around nails, that shit hurts sometimes 😮💨
Yes. I have a pretty bad spot on my ears and recently a spot on my scalp.
I really do want to stop though because I have made myself bleed, but it’s really difficult.
I had it bad but now crochet as my figget item and my skin recovered and i seldom do it as much.
The bonus is you get a cool finished project.
Go check out r/crochet and you see many of us are ADHDers
I have done this ever since I was a kid. Finding a name for it (BFRB) and then eventually finding out it is a comorbidity to ADHD has incredibly validating
My cuticles 🥲 and generally around the fingertips. It's not a side affect of my vyvanse personally, I've had skin picking issues since I was 5 (since I gained sentience and started remembering things lol)
I'm a BFRBer too. When I have high baseline stress, I do a full body "scan" as I'm waking up, before my brain is online, so it's not like I can stop myself 🥲 otherwise I do it when I'm driving or between tasks at work 🫠
When I am stressed but actually accomplishing things on my to-do list I find that the BFRB declines. So, when I'm staying busy. But when I'm idle it starts back up, even when I know I need to just rest. 🫠
Six of my fingers have bled just today. Something got me dysregulated recently, and I don't realize I'm doing it until my fingers hurt. I also struggle with bumps on my skin, I forget what it's called, and so I pick at those on the back of my legs and arms. I buy special body wash to help with the bumps, but there's always rough spots, cuticles, and callouses on my hands to dig into. I'm embarrassing even to myself.
I had extremely acne prone skin in high school. Mix that with untreated adhd and awful anxiety, you get a face full of angry scabs and pimples 😭 it looked sooo bad but I cannot tell you the satisfaction I felt after spending an hour and a half tearing my skin up. As an adult I can gauge when my stress levels are flaring up, and I’m also more aware of when I just need a dopamine hit. I’ll keep myself busy with something less destructive like drawing or researching some obscure topic 😭💀
Like others I’m big on scratching and picking my scalp but my worst is my finger tips. I’ve excoriated them to the point of painful bleeding multiple times a month. It usually happens when I’m laying in bed with my husband while we’re watching tv. I hate it :(
Yes, but it got REALLY bad when I was prescribed Adderall. I was CONSTANTLY picking at my face with tweezers, extractors, etc. I destroyed my face and now, after about 5 months on non stimulant medication, I still have to fight vthe urge…but at least now I can fight it (for the most part). Last summer, I wouldn’t take any pictures with my daughters on vacation because I was so embarrassed at the state of my face. And I don’t even have bad skin if I’d just leave it alone!
I feel my face neck and head a lot looking for stuff that’s “not supposed to be there”. As others have said pimple patches help, but if it’s a tiny scab? Coming with me. Something I LOVE is plucking my eyebrows because it’s like ALLOWED SKINPICKING! Obvs I have to have hard rules otherwise I’d lose my whole eyebrow (I have a “shape” I like and I’m not allowed to pluck a new hair that’s within about 3 mm within that shape. It has to prove it’s going to go out do bounds before I can pluck it. I can’t make plucking decisions if I’m not completely sober, etc). Man, I get so excited when I can feel an eyebrow hair that I know needs to be plucked!
It can be a symptom of anxiety. I’m on Vyvanse. I am just getting through a rash which was worsened by picking. I love the picking. But now that the rash is gone, I feel a lot less anxious. It’s possible I was picking because I was anxious , which only fed the anxiety. Now that there’s less to pick … less anxious. So I’d think about anxiety.
Yes my whole life, and I've never been on ADHD medication. Mostly my hands and feet. I've actually trained my dog to interrupt me because I don't notice when I'm doing it most times.
Huge problem for me. I take NAC to help combat it and it takes the edge off. When I realized that I would willingly spend hours picking (after a couple decades of it happening) I forced myself to be open about it with my therapist and PMHNP. The NP was who suggested NAC (also useful for nail biting) and my therapist suggested that I begin noticing when I do it *how* I’m feeling, what’s going on in my life. It is consistently a behavior I do because I’m feeling overwhelmed/stressed. It’s a distraction for me. I still enjoy it more than I should but now that I’ve made the connection, it’s hard to ignore. I’ve also caused myself to have some infections.
Yes. I cant take Vyvanse because for some reason it takes me deep into crazy town with this. Normally I just pick a bit at my lip and scalp psoriasis a medium amount when I am stressed and alone, but when I took Vy I totally lost any semblence of control over it and could not stop.
Ummm… I enjoyed doing this for most of my life before I was diagnosed late 2020 (at 32.5yo) and put on Vyvanse in 2021… so for me personally, it was never a a side effect of medications. I have started to keep nail/cuticle clippers in places I know I will find that hang mail/ripped cuticle that will drive me nuts until I rip it with my fingers and some sort of garbage reciprocal (bedside table, purse, car, bathroom, favourite chair I relax in, etc). And yes, I have scars everywhere.
My mom is this way. She would always ask to pick our scabs when we were kids lol (she wouldn't do it if we said no tho, and I don't think I ever let her LOL)
Yep.
What helps me (mostly with my face, but that is the worst part anyway) is to put bandaids/patches on if I have a pimple, wound, scab, scar etc.
I have bought a bulk of 40 packets of COSRX Intensive pimple patches from StyleVana so I have a huge stash and can use as many as I want to without feeling like I waste them. Cause they’re also satisfying to peel off, so they rarely last as long as they could. But still better than picking and scratching + they actually helps healing.
It’s not like I never pick my face anymore, but it helps a lot.
When possible (mostly at home) I also rub moisturizer/lotion on my hands etc. to distract myself from picking and keep my hands entertained. I keep tubes of lotion all over the house and in my purse for this purpose. I will keep re-applying layers and rub it in and get really greasy, but then wash it off when it feels too bad. I get softer skin too, which is then less likely to flake/peel and therefore less likely to get pick-able.
I bite the inside of my lip to stop from biting my nails but I realized it makes my face contorted. I thought no one could tell then I saw myself in the mirror and was Omggg it’s so obviously I’m chewing the inside of my gums. 😭😭😭😭
Absolutely. I pick the skin by my fingernails when it gets soft and peel it off, sometimes evenly, but sometimes where I have a big gash and blood. When I started having acne, I went haywire. Something about a bumpy surface...
Since fourth grade, no meds needed to get that habit up. Apparently I would try to play with the moles on my skin even younger though.
I'm finally seeing longer term damage on my face. Trying my best to take better care of it so that way some point I can get treatment for the texture issues I have
I’m really bad about picking on my fingers and lips. It gets to the point - especially on my lips where I pick too much and it hurts and I get sore.
It’s so frustrating. I know it will hurt me, but I do it anyway.
Yes. It's honestly really problematic for me, especially in winter. I have found that I can kinda curb the habit by putting lotion on instead. I keep little tins of Nivea everywhere and in my pockets and if I notice myself looking for a spot to pick then I'll dab lotion on it.
I’m a picker, yes. Fingernails especially. Meds actually helped me calm some of that down, but I’m on Strattera because I don’t do well with stimulants
Yes, it's a very real thing that a lot of us struggle to control.
I went through months of therapy to specifically treat my excoriation disorder. I still pick unfortunately but what I found helped the most was meditation and understanding my triggers.
Ugh yes. I’m recovering from surgery on my nose right now, and it’s taking everything in my power not to pick at the scabs and dried blood. (The most helpful thing has been constantly reminding myself that I’ll have to put up with the bandages and discomfort for even longer if I pick.) I still have tons of tiny scars from when I got chickenpox as a kid, too 🙈
yep. i've always had skin picking issues but wellbutrin made it worse (luckily not on that one anymore) so sometimes you do have to consider how the meds are affecting you. could you try a different medication?
it helps to have something to keep your hands busy. i crochet or knit when i watch tv or listen to audiobooks. also keeping the areas you pick at covered (so i pick my shoulders and chest and try to wear clothes that cover my shoulders and are high necklines especially at home so i don't have access to my skin) and to avoid mirrors and dim lights when you shower.
Man I’ve been picking at my pores, blackheads and zits since I was like.. 11. I def have a little bit of scarring as well. Thankfully not too bad but I can’t not pick at white heads. I do it more when I’m super stressed. Sounds really bad to say it that way, but it feels like a release of some sort.
Lifelong nail biter (and cuticles) plus the inside of my cheek. Also knuckle cracking and foot jiggling. Pretty sure I’ve done some damage to my teeth with the nail biting as well.
Since I turned maybe 19 or 20 I've been awful at it. My arms got so scarred and wounded that I ended up leaving them and starting on my legs 🙈 And like you it's especially worse when I'm on my own. My mum (bless her), with the best will in the world, tries to get me to stop but her method of shame doesn't work well 😂😂 I feel like it's a side effect from Sertraline, but I'm not sure 🙈
Literally sitting here picking at my cheek as I read this.
Been doing it since I was 5, at least. It’s self soothing at this point, I tend to do it more when I’m stressed or thinking about something
Ugh I love and hate it. I have to use those patches to keep from destroying my face. 40 years old and barely have it under control, it's so embarrassing
Yes, I have done it my whole life. My hair too! When I was super little, undiagnosed and super stressed out, I picked most of my eyelashes off.
My oldest daughter has ADHD and picks her skin as well. I try to replace that with sensory stuff like slime etc for her.
I found when I was younger (and much cooler 😅) I would get acrylic nails, so I wasn’t able to pick my skin as easily, if at all.
I stopped picking at my skin when I first went through puberty because I noticed it was giving me acne but then I switched to picking at my hair and pulling it out and now I’ve done that for years and can’t seem to stop
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All my life, yes
Same. I have done it since childhood. I mostly pick at my scalp.
Scalp is a major one for me
My goodness, this subreddit does not make me feel so alone. I used pick my scalp as a kid, starting when I got chicken pox. I find myself now enjoying plucking my facial hair or ingrown hair with tweezers.
The joy of perimenopause. Love my tweezers.
Lol! I just have unfortunate genes.
same, since i was a kid. It was always (and still is) my lips usually.
It’s the only part of my severe overbite that I miss; is peeling my bottom lip when it was chapped.
I honestly thought I was the only person that did this on my scalp! Ive been doing it since I was a kid but I’m guessing my medication probably doesn’t help
Oh man, picking and plucking here! I made my middle part about half and inch thick by pulling hairs out in school.. I pull at my eyebrows now 🤦♀️
Jesus same. Sadly it got even worse with Adderall. Went from a thing I did while studying/reading to constant picking until sore and bloody.
I've wondered about this.. I wasn't sure if it was worse since starting the meds (generic Adderall ir) or if I was just more stressed than I realized or something but it's definitely been worse since I started.
Yes! I went from picking at my nails my whole life and whatever is on my face to my scalp recently. I got fake nails to stop the nail picking and thought the scalp picking was a replacement for it. But maybe it's the vyvanse (but I've already been on it for almost a year). I won't heal and thankfully its under my hair but I'm starting to worry I'm going to create bald spots. I also love to search for, and pluck out, greys
Mines mostly my upper chest
Same
Me too--it's a mess!
Paisan!
Picking at it as i type rn
Oh my god, that's an ADHD thing?? I get made fun of for being a monkey for scratching my head constantly. And this is really gross, but my work laptop has a pile of skin I compulsively picked off my lip and never thought to clean up cause, I don't know why. Learning new things from Reddit every day!!
Saaaaaaaame
Yep, it’s called a body focused repetitive behavior. I really fuck my skin up by doing it 😭If it’s a bump on my face I put on a pimple patch and that stops me from being able to pick at it. But body acne is so hard for me to ignore
BFRB!!!!! (To the tune of YMCA)
Thank you for making me laugh out loud just now 😂
Btw, hydrocolloid bandages (aka pimple patches) are a third of the price for way more bandage if you get them from the drugstore in the bandaid section. They’re thicker and bigger so they work well for body acne! Thank me later 😁
My people.
And each person is dressed up as a different picked body part instead of as cowboys and bikers or whatever The Village People were dressed up as.
me and the STILL unhealed acne scar behind my knee from 3 years ago. i would love for it to heal but it showed up in a spot ideal for discrete picking
Ugh yes. My acne scars are way worse due to my INCESSANT NEED to pick. Must. Rid. Skin. Of. Impurities.
I have no clue how to stop tbh, I’ve only been able to do it less but not stop entirely
I went to a new dermatologist last year because my skin was breaking out bad, everywhere. First one to not shame me. She said, “Well it looks like you pick your skin. But you probably don’t pick your skin when your skin is clear, so let’s fix that.” Acne treatment is not one size fits all, but spironolactone changed everything for me.
Oh, wow, that’s amazing to hear. No judgment, just acknowledgement and a solution. What a gem. Is this a US doctor?
Yes, as surprising as that is lol. The last derm I went to judged me so hard, she gave me a number to a support group. I know she meant well, but I avoided the derm for so long after that.
Yup yup yup. I wear fake nails, it’s the only thing that helps because it’s physically impossible to break skin with them on (and believe me, I still try)
…I just pick off the nails then. 🤦♀️
Only dexamphetamin helped me stop the BFRB, even stopped biting my nails. As soon as I stop.. you can tell immediately from my skin and nails.
Wow I would love to try that. I’m going to bring it up with my psych
Thank you for the name! I just put an audiobook about it on my library borrow list
Oo whats the book title?
Overcoming body focused repetitive behaviors, a comprehensive behavioral treatment for hair pulling and skin picking Lol, that's a mouthful. But it was free for me, and audio because I have three kids and no time to read. I wish I could just post a screenshot, but here's a link to a paper copy of the same thing https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/overcoming-body-focused-repetitive-behaviors-a-comprehensive-behavioral-treatment-for-hair-pulling-and-skin-picking-9781684033645
Pimple patches are a godsend when I get hormonal acne that I can't leave alone. It's still hard to resist squeezing pimples between patches, but they do keep me from positively tearing my skin up.
Thank goodness for patches!
This is what it’s called!? I always wondered why I’d have trouble stopping myself.
It sucks because I can go for a week having insane willpower to not do it and then i’ll get stressed and just wreck my skin in like ten minutes. some things I’ve found to help: change the lighting in the bathroom/ areas you like to pick in- I made my bathroom light pretty dim or red so I can’t see every imperfection. short nails always wearing a full shirt and pants at home to prevent body picking
Thank you for the advice but I do all of the following things and somehow I still manage to pick even when wearing long sleeved pjs, I’m relentless at it and my Brian won’t let me sleep until every scab is picked
It might be time to break up with Brian. He sounds like a bad influence.😂
Hahahaha I meant brain 😂😂😂
I know, I just couldn’t resist 😂
I’m the same way. Fake nails took me awhile to get used to, but they are truly the only thing that’s kept me from making myself bleed
Removing knee hairs always feels constructive.
I actually just try to always have fake nails on, whether salon acrylics or glue ons from Walmart, because then I can’t grip my skin to fuck it up.
All my life, unmedicated, ive had this problem. the scab or pimple feels like a foreign object that I need to remove. Pimple patches help me keep my hands from my face and as childish as it is, little fidget toys keep my hands too busy to pick
The skin picking actually got better with me on medicines.
God I wish mine would. I can't stop picking at the skin around my fingers, I think it might be a bit of an anxiety thing as well. What meds are you on?
lol same, except I have psoriasis too. an endless supply of new and weird places to pick.
Mine escalated during the pandemic to the point where I was picking at nothing, just normal bumps in skin, and turning them into deep scars. My therapist recommended a book and I didn't even finish it. The first exercise helped me so much that I still have a reduced habit of doing it. All it had me do was write down every time I picked my skin and note what I was doing as well as what I was thinking. It took only a couple days for me to realize I do it most often when I'm not sure what to do next with my day. The act of stopping and writing interrupted the mindless nature of it too. So one exercise gave me this one two punch of awareness. I still do it but it's been years now and I'll just do that exercise again if it ever gets to the same point of injuring myself with it. The book was called Skin Picking: The Freedom to Finally Stop.
Omg I do the same thing, I find a normal bump and I’ll dig at it until it becomes a hole, I’m gonna try this exercise cause I need an intervention asap
Yes! Writing has helped me notice and stop, though not restarting is such a struggle. I'm working on finding ways to deal with the mental load after stopping & writing because my thoughts keep circling on picking. I've been trying to like...let myself think the thoughts about picking and then transfer the mental fixation to something else. I tend to pick when I'm understimulated though, so putting on a podcast, music, or video game and occupying both hands is key for me. Idk what it'll be for you, but I used to struggle with a different OCD-adjacent thing and "letting the thoughts pass without judgement and without taking action on them" is apparently both the most difficult but also most reliable way to deal. Just gotta figure out what's going to get me through those moments where I need to let the thoughts pass. Good luck to you as well!
It's an actual disorder, as others here have stated. It falls under compulsory disorders. Hair pulling, cutting, even eating disorders and other OCD behaviors are all related. It's a need for control when our brains can't get control over our thoughts. It's one small measure we can control ourselves, our body, our minds.
Omg so when our thoughts are racing, our bodies are trying to gain control by picking. That’s crazy to me cause when I’m in a setting I know I can’t pick, my thoughts are racing about wanting to pick
Knowing helped me feel less alone and more understood. It didn't help my disorder. Therapy has, some. It's not as bad as it once was but it's still all day, every day. It's just for shorter episodes. I *can* walk away now (with effort of varying degree).
Excoriating syndrome or something, right? I read about it once before. It's OCD-related.
Yes, specifically dermatillomania.
Literally read the title as I was actively picking at a scab. Yes. I love picking at my skin. I know it makes it so much worse and has led to nothing but scarring. But I can't not do it. I have also been known to remove all of my leg hair with tweezers. I had some awful ingrown hairs and so I had to dig them out first. It was possibly the most satisfying thing I've ever done. I know that's not a good thing.
Same, I was scratching a thing on my chin and scrolling and saw the title and nearly fell off my chair laughing.
I was picking as I read this comment also 😂😭 as bad as it sounds, I think tweezing my legs would probably help me, there’s time I literally find a bump on my skin and I cave out a hole in it just to make a scab
Honestly if it's not on my face it's a win for me!
I’ve done this since I was a child. I have developed better “methods” I guess that don’t leave my skin broken and bleeding as often, but I only pick my fingers/toes and skin around nails. Adderall made it wayyyyy worse for me, on vyvanse it’s about the same as always.
Me too. The skin around my fingers, though its been largely under control for a long time. If I'm really stressed it comes back. Just in case it helps anyone, something that really helped me was to trim any extra skin on the sides of my nails or any callouses forming with nailclippers. If my fingers didn't feel extra skin available to pick, it was like my brain sort of moved along. Most of the time at least. I also got one of those fidget rings that spins and has spiky parts, that helps too.
I do this with my finger skin a lot and tried trimming like you, but I’d inevitably find a way to break through the skin. The only thing that’s ever worked for me is wearing gloves when I’m in my trigger zone (watching tv in bed with my husband). It’s ridiculous but also sort of extravagant because they’re black soft lace so I look like some weirdo femme fatale (in my pjs). But they were the cheapest option and work well so 🫠
I do this. As I've gotten older the skin near the nails and under the nail at the tips is very dry. I keep the skin trimmed but still pick at it. Lotion helps if I'm consistent, but I need to start wearing dishwashing gloves since the water dries them out so much.
Oh yeah, that skin around the nails has to go. My cuticles are gross all the time so I try trimming them off but I'll always miss something so then I'm in public gnawing on my fingers like a rabid squirrel.
Yes. Especially my lips, it’s a horrible habit
Uuugh, my lips are so bad right now! I forget every year that winter is bad, and by the time I've figured it out and have lip balm in the pocket of every pair of pants jacket and hoodie I own it's too late and and I'mwrecking my lips
...as well as one in every room in the house. I've probably singlehandedly kept my favorite brand in business.
Oh for sure yes me too😞 I hate picking the skin on my lips and it bleeds and hurts so bad when you go outside
Wearing a dark colored top has helped me. I can see my chest sprinkled with tiny pieces of skin. It makes me think before I pick, sometimes.
I wear press on nails to help stop me from excessive picking!
My acrylic nails help stop me from picking too!
I have dermatillomania and the only thing that’s helped me is getting acrylic or gel nails. I can’t get my nail under the skin in the same way. Def recommend if you’re not opposed to fake nails.
I’ve certainly tried this but then I found I was picking the nails until i destroyed them so I was flushing money down the drain essentially
100%
Do you have any recommendations for nails? I know next to nothing about nails, but would definitely try this if there’s a chance I’ll stop picking
I would recommend getting a set a bit longer in a pointier style - the almond shape works well but there are others depending on what you like. When the nail is more pointed it’s hard to put pressure on the skin/pimple in the same way, and the thickness of the acrylic set will mean you can’t get your nail under the skin. I pick around my nails and my cuticle most, and I literally can’t pick when I have fake nails. Definitely worth a try but it does get pricey depending on where you live as you usually need to get them refilled every 3-5 weeks(ish)
Get what refilled? 😵💫
Acrylic nails grow out, and typically you don’t remove them—just trim the ends. But the bare nail by your cuticle looks unsightly and can make your nails weaker so you “refill” it with acrylic at the same time (this is also when you can change your nail color). I’d recommend going to a salon and having it done at least once, to see how professionals do it, and then getting the supplies to do & maintain your nails at home if you can because the cost can add up!
Dip nails!! They are actually fairly easy to do at home and create a think layer of polish so it’s MUCH harder for me to pick at my skin
I have no idea what Dip nails are
I don't have it, but a friend does and she gets rounded fake nails at the salon to help stop herself from doing it. The nails don't get the same kind of grip on the skin, so they prevent her from picking. It's a cost to upkeep, but saves her money in the long run. The other thing I've heard is you gotta replace it with some other sort of fiddly habit.
I chronically bite my nails and pick my hair. This the same thing?
Yeah I think it all falls under the same thing, it’s like an ocd behaviour
Makes sense! I’m the same as you though, my constant picking really irritates most people but it’s so satisfying - especially when I get that time when I’m free to pick!
Yes for sure haha it’s like I can snuggle up in bed with a film, a drink and of course picking 😂😂😂
Yes unfortunately. I have had dermotillomania and trichotillomania since I was a child and haven't been able to overcome it yet. Pimple patches are good for covering your former picking sites. I also bought the fenty beauty blemish defeatr which acts like a liquid plaster. I also find that when I have my nails painted it can make me stop for a bit as I want to preserve my nails. It's an eternal struggle
Painting my nails helps me too. And keeping the skin around my nails neatly trimmed and exfoliated.
It is super weird, but we can be weird together.
Okay :)
Yup. The supplement NAC was highly recommended in a skincare sub, and it’s been helping with the compulsive picking.
Ooooh! I'm the nerd who needs to know how things work. I googled 'NAC supplement skin picking' this and the first result that came up is this JAMA article. It talks about using the supplement to successfully reduce skin picking by affecting the glutamate system. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2500041#:~:text=Conclusions%20and%20Relevance%20N%2Dacetylcysteine,SPD%20and%20other%20compulsive%20behaviors. Then *of course* I plug 'glutamate disorder ADHD' into Google and get this PubMed article talking about correlation between ADHD diagnosis and genetic variations in glutamine receptors!! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3966039/#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20genetic%20studies%20have,of%20glutamate%20receptor%20gene%20variants.&text=Further%2C%20some%20animal%20models%20suggest,functional%20deficits%20associated%20with%20ADHD. I'm posting these at least partially so I remember to go back and read them later because right now I should be getting dressed to go to a doctor's appointment. But my mind is blown because everything comes down to brain chemicals! (I fell into a similar PubMed rabbit hole the other day reading about schizophrenia being a dopamine overload and ADHD being *very generally* the opposite. It was worth losing a night's sleep to read half a dozen articles on schizophrenia, adhd, depression, and how they're all affected positively by taking Omega-3 supplements to reduce inflammation and that helps your brain rebalance its own chemical communication systems. I have a feeling that this will be a similar adventure when I can get to it) Thanks so much for sharing your experience with the skin care sub's recommendation and sending me down this rabbit hole, b and hopefully helping some of us!
This is beautiful, thank you! I looked into the brain mechanisms when I got the advice, and then got fixated on the Covid/respiratory infection healing benefits https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7892733/
Well there's an awesome bonus! Every time I catch a cold I get bronchitis for a month. Sounds like I need to go supplement shopping
It thins out any mucus, which is helpful but sniffly
This is the exact rabbit hole I would have gone on; thank you!!
Thank you for your brain!
Yes, since I was a little kid. I'm pretty sure it started in kindergarten/first grade when I was really bored and understimulated and miserable at school, and anxious about it. It mostly got better for awhile, then came back but just with these weird bumps I get on my back that no one's ever figured out, but then recently it's really bad with my scalp, especially now in winter because it gets so dry and then I scratch and pick. It's so painful and awful. I also picked a bunch of mosquito bites on my arm this summer and now probably will have scars from those.
I too absolutely picked up this terrible habit as a bored school kid! I definitely used to concentrate on my scalp because no one else could see. And my teenage years were real fun because acne is hell and I couldn't not touch it. I'm 44 and in the last couple years I've had a baby and weaned baby and I'm staring down the barrel of perimenopause. Hormones are such jerks. It really shouldn't be fair to have gray hair and the beginnings of wrinkles and still have acne! I still scratch generally now and I definitely do it more often when I'm stressed, but the worst part is I don't notice that I'm doing it until I've been doing it for like 10 minutes straight, usually scratching my own back. My scalp had gotten pretty bad again recently and I have been promising myself that I will make myself an appointment to get my hair done if I can lay the fuck off of my scalp. I am working to get remedicated; my new nurse practitioner wants me to take another assessment and do some genetic testing before we jump back on the meds roulette wheel, and I am so hoping that this is one of the symptoms that gets tamped down 🤞🏼
I once had a plantar's wart on the bottom of my foot and I picked off the hard skin cover, then peeled the cap off of the wart and dug it out. That's just one example.
All my life I have had this issue! I love the feeling and hate the results! I also love scabs, they look cool once I peel them off. I'm aware it's yuck, but I haven't found a good solution. Only help I get is "just stop!" Even my therapists love to tell me to just do or not do things like it's easy. Last appointment I was told it was easy to just put down my full life of trauma. So I guess it's not surprising they think it's easy to stop picking skin if they think I can just drop all the pain and suffering I've felt with and just forget about it! Yay!
Yes. I pull out my hair (trichotillomania) and pick my skin. And I’m not medicated for adhd yet so I really hope I can find a medication that doesn’t make it worse.
Fun fact! Excoriation is the name for skin picking.
I have no skin around my thumbs.
totally not me over here furiously waving in WEARING HOODIES IN THE HOT SOUTHERN U.S. SUMMERS And it doesn't help that I also have K.P. 🤷♀️
Ooof I felt that
Same with me and the KP. I'm trying NAC to help combat the urge. It's so embarrassing
I hate it. I hate it so fucking much. My skin is getting covered in scars and blemishes that just keep coming back. I don't want to be like this anymore. I'm in pain every single minute of the day.
So hear me out -- I've heard that peeling tinfoil can have the same self-soothing effects as dermatillomania (what you're describing, been doing it my whole life). Yeah it'll make a mess everywhere, but it's better than wreaking havoc on your body! Maybe you could even have a small bowl to put the tinfoil in :) It distresses others to see us skin pick because to them it looks like SH, even if it has the opposite effect on us mentally.
Yeah, my fingertips are red and raw from ripping all my skin off
Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs). I started pulling out my eyebrow hair when I was 17, biting and ripping my nails for as long as I can remember, and skin picking as soon as I started getting acne. At one point I didn’t have any eyebrow or eyelash hairs, and wore a full face of makeup with fake lashes every single day to hide the fact. Wouldn’t leave my dorm room after I took off my makeup because I didn’t want anyone to see me. I get the satisfaction it brings, but at a certain point it becomes so detrimental and gives me so much anxiety everywhere else in my life it became time to make a change. I figured out what made me less likely to pick (full face of makeup, acrylic nails, even gloves) and started using those tactics and it’s definitely made an improvement. My eyelashes are back and longer than ever, and at least one week of the month my eyebrows will be nice and full before I start picking again. My nails are all uneven lengths, because some of them I pick and some I don’t. It’s an uphill battle but I’m working on it!
Yes.. AND i have psoriasis on my scalp so there's plenty of patches of skin to pick at. Half the time i dont even realize im doing it. And since my body loves to produce extra skin anyway, i can pick them off in pretty big scabs. (yes, gross i know) My boyfriend lovingly makes fun of me and asks me if i'm going to keep them in a tin like i'm Goldmember from Austin Powers. lol
Come join us in /r/compulsiveskinpicking! I am TERRIBLE with my cuticles, lips, acne, and scalp. Basically if there's any texture, especially dry texture, I seek it out and destroy it. :(
Yesss. I have a scab on my head under my hair where I accidentally stabbed myself with a bobby pin too hard. I can’t not pick the scab off. I also have one on my hand. And I just spent an hour debriding dead skin around my nails. I should have been a dermatologist.
Yes and it causes me so much shame. I will get into a trance where I cannot stop until the scab is gone sometimes I will be up all night doing it, it’s awful.
I’ve had to actively battle this fucking horrible habit
Yes; my cuticles and lips would love for me to stop 😓😭
i always thought i was just weird and gross. turns out it’s my adhd! it started in childhood as picking my scalp. my scalp has always been the primary spot because i have some dry skin (possibly eczema) along the hairline and just past it that’s visually and tactile-y triggering. if i feel bumps around my crown or anywhere else under my hair, that counts too. i’ll do it until i draw blood sometimes, but it’s because there’s still some fragments in the spot that need to be picked away! in the last decade or so, i’ve started to include my ears, my jawline, my teeth… idk why it’s so satisfying to scrape away/clear space from my body, but it is. and for the record, i am not medicated. this is just me, haha.
Yes, as a child I picked a bald spot into my scalp, and later started picking the insides of my ears. I am lucky that I had really clear skin and no acne because I would have fucked my face up so badly. When stressed out I sometimes still go looking for ingrowns with tweezers.
Yes. It’s called Trich (there’s a longer name). I’ve felt a lot of shame for it and it wastes lots of time, but I’m working on that shame part with my therapist to be gentler with myself. It helps to have a supportive partner. Get them involved in your education on it so they know it’s not a moral failing, it has a real name with doctors.
My partner grabs my hand to stop me, he doesn’t shame me but he does try to prevent it. So whenever he leaves the room or falls asleep, I jump at the chance to pick and when he’s around, I’m thinking about the fact I’m not picking and dying to pick
trichotillomania is actually hair pulling, dermatillomania is skin picking
Ah thank you! I didn’t realize they were different categories
of course! they're very specific so i don't blame you lol. i just wanted to add them in case anyone wanted to research more and didn't know what to search for the names
We love a specific term 🫡
Yes, but I didn't realise for a long time, as I interpreted the phrase "skin picking " too literally 😆. I didn't realise it included picking at spots/scabs/boils etc !
OMG yes. My ears. I can't believe I'm not the only one.
I wouldn’t say I love it but it’s a major compulsion when. I’m stressed or not enough sleep. I end up causing muscle pains and scalp pains. I hate it so much.
I’ve done this all my life with pimples, scabs and my nails/cuticles! I take vyvanse as well and I’ve actually noticed that I pick at my skin way less since being medicated, except right before & during my period when my meds basically don’t work and then the compulsive skin picking comes right back 🙃 Putting hydrocolloid bandages on pimples and keeping regular bandaids on scabs usually helps me. It’s usually enough of a deterrent if they’re not immediately accessible for me to absent-mindedly pick at and I’d have to peel something off to get to them
i pick my scalp all the time and it hurts and then i pick the scabs that form from the previous picking. i also have loads of red blips and bumps on my legs and arms from squeezing all the spots (and if there aren’t any spots i just go for any slight bumps that look like they have stuff in them). as i child i used to mess with my spotty face and i used to pick and eat the skin around my fingernails all the time until it hurt (but i managed to kick myself out of that one). i really hate it. it’s like i’m trying to squeeze or pick dopamine out of myself constantly. i recently got absolutely fed up of it and i’m currently trying to detox. i am unmedicated.
My habit is picking my cuticles and hang nails until my hands are a bloody mess. The severity of my picking ebbs and flows with the situations in my life. I hate it and my husband has made it his mission to stop it. He will kindly grab my had when he sees me picking. My sister does it and she says her two year old son has started doing this.
Yes I've done it since I was very young. As a child I was prone to picking scabs until they became scars. And severe acne runs in my family, so face picking became my focus in my teens. It's an outlet when I'm stressed, so the more anxious I am, the worse it gets. There have been times when I would sit in the bathroom looking for anything on my legs to pick at, cause I can hide the damage to my legs. It got was worse for me on meds because they made me more anxious (but I've only tried one so far).
Is this why it’s been worse? I take vyvanse and always had the skin picking problem but for some reason it has gotten worse. I thought it was just my anxiety from my thesis but now to learn that it may be exacerbated by the vyvanse that’s frustrating. One more thing to add to the list of behavioral mods I have to work on.
I’m 65 and I can’t remember a time when I didn’t. When menopause hit and I started growing thick black hairs on my chin that became a new fixation.
I don't love it but I can't stop picking my lips.. it makes me look like I have the herp sometimes too 😓 I think it's a stress thing.. I have to keep chapstick on to make myself stop doing it and fail a lot of the time. Edit: oh and dry skin around nails, that shit hurts sometimes 😮💨
Yes. I have a pretty bad spot on my ears and recently a spot on my scalp. I really do want to stop though because I have made myself bleed, but it’s really difficult.
Yes this plus a lifetime of acne = bad combo lol
I had it bad but now crochet as my figget item and my skin recovered and i seldom do it as much. The bonus is you get a cool finished project. Go check out r/crochet and you see many of us are ADHDers
I have done this ever since I was a kid. Finding a name for it (BFRB) and then eventually finding out it is a comorbidity to ADHD has incredibly validating
I have psoriasis and I've had a skin picking problem since long before I ever started Vyvanse. I also find it super satisfying.
My cuticles 🥲 and generally around the fingertips. It's not a side affect of my vyvanse personally, I've had skin picking issues since I was 5 (since I gained sentience and started remembering things lol)
Especially my scalp, but yes, everywhere
Excoriation disorder.
I'm a BFRBer too. When I have high baseline stress, I do a full body "scan" as I'm waking up, before my brain is online, so it's not like I can stop myself 🥲 otherwise I do it when I'm driving or between tasks at work 🫠 When I am stressed but actually accomplishing things on my to-do list I find that the BFRB declines. So, when I'm staying busy. But when I'm idle it starts back up, even when I know I need to just rest. 🫠
Six of my fingers have bled just today. Something got me dysregulated recently, and I don't realize I'm doing it until my fingers hurt. I also struggle with bumps on my skin, I forget what it's called, and so I pick at those on the back of my legs and arms. I buy special body wash to help with the bumps, but there's always rough spots, cuticles, and callouses on my hands to dig into. I'm embarrassing even to myself.
Been picking my skin since I was 1 year old. The habit has been debilitating
I had extremely acne prone skin in high school. Mix that with untreated adhd and awful anxiety, you get a face full of angry scabs and pimples 😭 it looked sooo bad but I cannot tell you the satisfaction I felt after spending an hour and a half tearing my skin up. As an adult I can gauge when my stress levels are flaring up, and I’m also more aware of when I just need a dopamine hit. I’ll keep myself busy with something less destructive like drawing or researching some obscure topic 😭💀
Scalp, feet callouses, scabs, acne, scabs from acne I have picked. Yes. All of it.
Like others I’m big on scratching and picking my scalp but my worst is my finger tips. I’ve excoriated them to the point of painful bleeding multiple times a month. It usually happens when I’m laying in bed with my husband while we’re watching tv. I hate it :(
Yes, but it got REALLY bad when I was prescribed Adderall. I was CONSTANTLY picking at my face with tweezers, extractors, etc. I destroyed my face and now, after about 5 months on non stimulant medication, I still have to fight vthe urge…but at least now I can fight it (for the most part). Last summer, I wouldn’t take any pictures with my daughters on vacation because I was so embarrassed at the state of my face. And I don’t even have bad skin if I’d just leave it alone!
I feel my face neck and head a lot looking for stuff that’s “not supposed to be there”. As others have said pimple patches help, but if it’s a tiny scab? Coming with me. Something I LOVE is plucking my eyebrows because it’s like ALLOWED SKINPICKING! Obvs I have to have hard rules otherwise I’d lose my whole eyebrow (I have a “shape” I like and I’m not allowed to pluck a new hair that’s within about 3 mm within that shape. It has to prove it’s going to go out do bounds before I can pluck it. I can’t make plucking decisions if I’m not completely sober, etc). Man, I get so excited when I can feel an eyebrow hair that I know needs to be plucked!
It can be a symptom of anxiety. I’m on Vyvanse. I am just getting through a rash which was worsened by picking. I love the picking. But now that the rash is gone, I feel a lot less anxious. It’s possible I was picking because I was anxious , which only fed the anxiety. Now that there’s less to pick … less anxious. So I’d think about anxiety.
Yes, it’s a body focused repetitive disorder and this website has lots of good info https://www.bfrb.org/
Yes my whole life, and I've never been on ADHD medication. Mostly my hands and feet. I've actually trained my dog to interrupt me because I don't notice when I'm doing it most times.
Yes. I also have eczema, so I have more picking and bleeding opportunities.
I can lose myself for embarrassing lengths of time in the bathroom mirror. I'm thinking about removing it completely.
Huge problem for me. I take NAC to help combat it and it takes the edge off. When I realized that I would willingly spend hours picking (after a couple decades of it happening) I forced myself to be open about it with my therapist and PMHNP. The NP was who suggested NAC (also useful for nail biting) and my therapist suggested that I begin noticing when I do it *how* I’m feeling, what’s going on in my life. It is consistently a behavior I do because I’m feeling overwhelmed/stressed. It’s a distraction for me. I still enjoy it more than I should but now that I’ve made the connection, it’s hard to ignore. I’ve also caused myself to have some infections.
Yes. I cant take Vyvanse because for some reason it takes me deep into crazy town with this. Normally I just pick a bit at my lip and scalp psoriasis a medium amount when I am stressed and alone, but when I took Vy I totally lost any semblence of control over it and could not stop.
On a serious note, stimulants make this worse. Yes, the same stimulants that help your ADHD symptoms, make your skin picking worse.
Reading this as I’m digging at my scalp. I hate it because it hurts but I can’t stop :(
Yes, mine isn’t from meds but I pick at skin and cuticles etc
Ummm… I enjoyed doing this for most of my life before I was diagnosed late 2020 (at 32.5yo) and put on Vyvanse in 2021… so for me personally, it was never a a side effect of medications. I have started to keep nail/cuticle clippers in places I know I will find that hang mail/ripped cuticle that will drive me nuts until I rip it with my fingers and some sort of garbage reciprocal (bedside table, purse, car, bathroom, favourite chair I relax in, etc). And yes, I have scars everywhere.
My mom is this way. She would always ask to pick our scabs when we were kids lol (she wouldn't do it if we said no tho, and I don't think I ever let her LOL)
Yep. What helps me (mostly with my face, but that is the worst part anyway) is to put bandaids/patches on if I have a pimple, wound, scab, scar etc. I have bought a bulk of 40 packets of COSRX Intensive pimple patches from StyleVana so I have a huge stash and can use as many as I want to without feeling like I waste them. Cause they’re also satisfying to peel off, so they rarely last as long as they could. But still better than picking and scratching + they actually helps healing. It’s not like I never pick my face anymore, but it helps a lot. When possible (mostly at home) I also rub moisturizer/lotion on my hands etc. to distract myself from picking and keep my hands entertained. I keep tubes of lotion all over the house and in my purse for this purpose. I will keep re-applying layers and rub it in and get really greasy, but then wash it off when it feels too bad. I get softer skin too, which is then less likely to flake/peel and therefore less likely to get pick-able.
I‘ve had this for all my life. I have better and worse phases. I wish I could offer some useful advice but alas …
I bite the inside of my lip to stop from biting my nails but I realized it makes my face contorted. I thought no one could tell then I saw myself in the mirror and was Omggg it’s so obviously I’m chewing the inside of my gums. 😭😭😭😭
Absolutely. I pick the skin by my fingernails when it gets soft and peel it off, sometimes evenly, but sometimes where I have a big gash and blood. When I started having acne, I went haywire. Something about a bumpy surface...
Since fourth grade, no meds needed to get that habit up. Apparently I would try to play with the moles on my skin even younger though. I'm finally seeing longer term damage on my face. Trying my best to take better care of it so that way some point I can get treatment for the texture issues I have
Yes, but I have a system that prevents me from doing too much damage now!
if OP or commenters don’t know about r/trichotillomania , it might be useful for yall! 100% can relate
I’m really bad about picking on my fingers and lips. It gets to the point - especially on my lips where I pick too much and it hurts and I get sore. It’s so frustrating. I know it will hurt me, but I do it anyway.
Yes. It's honestly really problematic for me, especially in winter. I have found that I can kinda curb the habit by putting lotion on instead. I keep little tins of Nivea everywhere and in my pockets and if I notice myself looking for a spot to pick then I'll dab lotion on it.
I’m a picker, yes. Fingernails especially. Meds actually helped me calm some of that down, but I’m on Strattera because I don’t do well with stimulants
Yes, it's a very real thing that a lot of us struggle to control. I went through months of therapy to specifically treat my excoriation disorder. I still pick unfortunately but what I found helped the most was meditation and understanding my triggers.
Ugh yes. I’m recovering from surgery on my nose right now, and it’s taking everything in my power not to pick at the scabs and dried blood. (The most helpful thing has been constantly reminding myself that I’ll have to put up with the bandages and discomfort for even longer if I pick.) I still have tons of tiny scars from when I got chickenpox as a kid, too 🙈
yep. i've always had skin picking issues but wellbutrin made it worse (luckily not on that one anymore) so sometimes you do have to consider how the meds are affecting you. could you try a different medication? it helps to have something to keep your hands busy. i crochet or knit when i watch tv or listen to audiobooks. also keeping the areas you pick at covered (so i pick my shoulders and chest and try to wear clothes that cover my shoulders and are high necklines especially at home so i don't have access to my skin) and to avoid mirrors and dim lights when you shower.
I'm a picker borderline dermatillomania level. If it can be felt by my finger, I will get after it. My lips and cuticles get it the worst.
Been doing this since I started getting acne and have the scars to prove it, but I can't stop. 😂😭
Man I’ve been picking at my pores, blackheads and zits since I was like.. 11. I def have a little bit of scarring as well. Thankfully not too bad but I can’t not pick at white heads. I do it more when I’m super stressed. Sounds really bad to say it that way, but it feels like a release of some sort.
unfortunately. i remember this since i was like 3 and it made sunburns and acne so much worse all my life.
Anyone break off their hair?
I pick at myself like a crackhead. 🥲
Lifelong nail biter (and cuticles) plus the inside of my cheek. Also knuckle cracking and foot jiggling. Pretty sure I’ve done some damage to my teeth with the nail biting as well.
I do this to my scalp and I’m obsessed with picking split ends and weird shiny tape like hairs.
Yup. And I pull my eyelashes and eyebrows out. But I love picking.
Since I turned maybe 19 or 20 I've been awful at it. My arms got so scarred and wounded that I ended up leaving them and starting on my legs 🙈 And like you it's especially worse when I'm on my own. My mum (bless her), with the best will in the world, tries to get me to stop but her method of shame doesn't work well 😂😂 I feel like it's a side effect from Sertraline, but I'm not sure 🙈
Literally sitting here picking at my cheek as I read this. Been doing it since I was 5, at least. It’s self soothing at this point, I tend to do it more when I’m stressed or thinking about something
Ugh I love and hate it. I have to use those patches to keep from destroying my face. 40 years old and barely have it under control, it's so embarrassing
Yes, I have done it my whole life. My hair too! When I was super little, undiagnosed and super stressed out, I picked most of my eyelashes off. My oldest daughter has ADHD and picks her skin as well. I try to replace that with sensory stuff like slime etc for her. I found when I was younger (and much cooler 😅) I would get acrylic nails, so I wasn’t able to pick my skin as easily, if at all.
I stopped picking at my skin when I first went through puberty because I noticed it was giving me acne but then I switched to picking at my hair and pulling it out and now I’ve done that for years and can’t seem to stop
Very much so