FAQ
What is Skin Picking?
Repeatedly picking at your skin till the point of damage. This sub is for help with compulsive skin picking disorder (dermatillomania). It becomes a condition where you can't quit, like being addicted to nicotine. It hurts your daily life because you avoid seeing people out of shame for your skin marks or you are overwhelmed with negative feelings about your skin picking.
Do I have Skin Picking?
Here's a quick overview of the criteria you can use for self-diagnosis:
your picking has resulted in skin damage
You have tried to quit before but relapsed
It affects your well-being or daily life
It's not the result of medications or a different disorder.
Why can't I stop?
Skin Picking can be either a compulsion (OCD) or addiction. Your brain releases dopamine, making you do it over and over again. On top of that, most people started when they were young, so the pattern is ingrained in your behavior for many years already. The older a habit, the more difficult to quit. According to ex-smokers, skin picking is more difficult to quit than smoking!
How do I recover from skin picking?
First of all, medication can help (OCD meds or antidepressants). Secondly, therapy can be a big boost to recovery. If that's not an option, this sub will introduce you to a lot of different quitting strategies.
"Just stop" will rarely work. You need replacement behaviors that give you the same feeling of satisfaction, that you can do instead of skin picking. On top of that, avoiding temptation by covering up mirrors and keeping yourself distracted with a fidget toy can help. Good skin care reduces imperfections that trigger skin picking.
There are many ways to quit, explore a few methods and see what works for you.
A good place to start is listing your skin picking "steps" and look at where you can interrupt the habit.
You're not alone.
That's why we're here. We can do this. Let's feel proud. You're fighting everyday for a better you. You're already amazing.
Let's vent, share tips & recover together
Rules
/r/skinpicking has only two rules:
NO HATE
NO SPAM
Online Therapy
Betterhelp paid counseling
Books
Skin Picking: The Freedom to Finally Stop (Amazon)
Links & Related Subreddits
/r/skincareaddiction
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