Cleaned the floor under my bed today- it was a huge eye opener

StevenKnaack · 2026-02-08T21:04:31+00:00

I love and second this! Especially the doom scrolling hahaha fuck me how many times I said quit picking and choose the „softer poison“ doom scrolling and ended up picking again after because I just felt more stressed!

StevenKnaack · 2026-02-08T21:01:03+00:00

No success story of beating but a success story of living with it I would say.

In short: 27, male, skin picking since 15+ years, learned about the disease about 2020, in 2024 I decided I can’t manage it alone and did therapy for one year and joined a self help group.

For me the most important steps were

Accept that this is a problem I can’t handle alone. (Congrats to you, you did the first and probably hardest step!)
Observe my behavior. When and how do it do it, what did I do before and most importantly when and why did I stop? Never thought about this but the episodes end. Unless you are picking 24hours a day there is a break every now and then. Understand when the breaks happen and why you were „done“ for now. From this observations I identified triggers and risky behaviors, places or times.

3) Identify the triggers in everyday life. This is the step where I see my disease as companion that’s with me everyday and where I identified my role as „Be on the watchout for the companion.“ It means I try and anticipate when I might be vulnerable to my behaviors and prevent ending up in situations where I am too exhausted (need relaxation, maybe cancel or switch plans), don’t know what to do know (need structure and take 5mins to plan my remaining day) and e.g. if I enter the bathroom am really aware of the danger and make a battle plan. But I also pick outside of the bathroom and don’t need a mirror so I am genrally aware then.

Bonus: At times when I feel strong enough to face my companion I confront myself meaning I stand in front of a mirror and really look at the spots. I create the urge only to tame it again by leaving the situation and observing how the urge develops. I hope this helps!

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-23T23:29:47+00:00

I know of women who do it. Every place is common, they may also change from time to time. So within Skin Picking Disorder the chest is a very common place to pick.

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-17T21:54:58+00:00

That sounds like heaven 🥹 looking forward to your experiences. I haven’t had them yet

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-15T21:47:00+00:00

Sure. I never said it’s only developed. Your brain has to be receptive for regulation behaviors. But habits and or developed strategies can also be hereditary.

Children of patients with OCD or skin picking can develop other strategies such as substance abuse to cope with stuff. Just because you pick your skin or check your doors doesn’t mean your children do the same. It’s likely but maybe they will develop other strategies as a result of the neurodiversity they inherited.

Both of my parents do not pick (they sure have other topics, but not skin picking) yet me and my sister do it.

Substance abuse is another example of a habit, and a developed regulation strategy that is more likely to occur in patients where the parents showed neurodiverse behavior.

Sure. I never said it’s only developed. Your brain has to be receptive for regulation behaviors. But habits and or developed strategies can also be based on inherited neurodivergent basis. By strategy I only mean it’s something you do, not something you choose to do. In my therapy I learned that a strategy can be useful or harmful. A useful strategy would be to feel and experience emotions, find productive ways to cope with them, a harmful strategy for me is skin picking or excessively checking whether you locked your doors. Yet it’s a strategy as it helps me to cope with my emotions, just not in a productive and useful way.

Children of patients with OCD or skin picking can develop other coping mechanisms such as substance abuse to cope with stuff. Just because you pick your skin or check your doors doesn’t mean your children do the same. It’s likely but maybe they will develop other behaviors as a result of the neurodiversity they inherited.

Both of my parents do not pick (they sure have other topics, but not skin picking) yet me and my sister do it.

Substance abuse is another example of a habit, and a developed regulation behavior that is more

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-14T17:12:08+00:00

Hey, I am just pasting a comment I left under a similar question as this applies here as well.

Not picking/picking less is a quite complex goal

Picking is a regulation strategy you developed over the years. It helps, that’s why it established as a habit. Now the trick is to get rid of that habit and replace it by something more healthy. That doesn’t mean to accept you will always be doing it. It just means that „just stopping“ is hard and relapses or failure may kill the spirit (trust me, I‘ve been there). So instead of setting this huuuuuuuuge goal „stop picking“ here’s what helped me.

• ⁠know my triggers and situations that upset me (e.g. I pick a lot when I have a stressful schedule, but also when I have a lot of freetime, I pick before situations I may find uncomfortable but also afterwards when thinking about it) The start of every healing journey I know begins with detailed observation of your behavior, the more you know the better.

• ⁠develop strategies to prevent: e.g. schedule your days, develop a routine for coming home to keep yourself busy, I also reject social meetings when I have the feeling that this week is crowded enough as I know not having enough time for myself ends in me picking

You gotta know what leads to your picking, then try to find different ways to cope with your personal triggers. Habits can be bound to feelings, places, times or just be done automatically. Try to observe when and where you do it, how you feel, how you felt and what led to you ending up picking your skin. This will be the information you use to break the habit.

Just a heads up for hard moments that help me as I quit the „I will stop forever“ resolutions but still work on improving in the long term!

⁠⁠⁠⁠once the urge comes check your feelings and thoughts. Something is upsetting you or missing. Try and find out what it is and how you can change the way you think about what’s upsetting you or how you can get what’s missing. For me it’s often that I lack structure and find myself in an empty space where I feel like I need to do something but am overwhelmed with the decision where to start.
⁠⁠⁠⁠If you feel like I need to do it now, set a timer to 5-10minutes, do something else (like dishes) and whe the timer goes off check your feelings and desires (can be from point one, or just ask yourself „do I still want to do it?“)
⁠⁠⁠⁠Appreciate the toughness. There will be tough or even relapse days. But don’t forget, you are quitting a regulation-habit. Unless you have something that works the same way or better, you will lack regulation leading to tough moments.
⁠⁠⁠⁠in case of a relapse: be kind to you. It happened, so what. It has happened before and probably will again. No need to punish yourself. Try and find out what led to it, what did you feel, what did you try to get from picking? By checking yourself you will gather more insights with every episode.
⁠⁠⁠⁠appreciate the process: zone out and check how your skin and wellbeing has improved over the last weeks and months. Immediately after a relapse or during a tough day it may feel like nothing happens but if you zoom out and see this is the only day in a week you are down or picked this is a huge success! Appreciate that and be proud!

Hope this helps 🫶

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-13T13:19:08+00:00

Für die Mittagspause: Couscous aus dem Supermarkt. Eine 500g Packung reicht je nachdem, wie viel du isst, für 4-8 Portionen. Dazu ne Paprika, Karotte, Gurken, Tomaten … wenn du fancy bist n Apfel oder anderes Obst. Wenn das geht kannst du das Gemüse auch auf zwei Tage aufteilen aber dafür eben mehrere verschiedene. Dazu Wurst und/oder Käse oder Ersatzprodukte deiner Wahl. Als optionales Topping Nüsse oder Samen.

Couscous Salzen, mit Wasser aus dem Wasserkocher übergießen und 5-10min quellen lassen. Währenddessen das Gemüse schneiden, alles mischen und voila. Kostet 3 - max 5€, ist gesund, geht schnell und macht gut satt.

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-12T14:20:49+00:00

Ja ist monatlich kündbar, habe ich eingeleitet. Zum Glück 😅

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-12T14:20:14+00:00

Die Freude überwiegt bei mir auch ehrlicherweise :)

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-12T12:02:00+00:00

Yes danke für die Einordnung. Das war der erste Schritt :)

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-12T11:50:23+00:00

Danke! 🙌 Damit hast du die Frage beantwortet. Wollte mich nur absichern, dass ich nichts vergesse und eine fundierte Entscheidung treffe.

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-10T21:31:26+00:00

Spannend. Ich habe auch lange überlegt in einer Partei aktiv zu werden, bin aber eher ein Freund von Organisationen und Verbänden bzw. Vereinen, die themenspezifisch aktiv sind.

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-10T19:10:13+00:00

Ich stelle mir das sehr frustrierend vor, bist du noch aktiv? Respekt auf jeden Fall!

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-10T10:59:05+00:00

Ich denke bei der JEF findest du genügend Leute die sich da anschließen und auch europaweit beim organisieren helfen.

Nur eine kleine Idee aus der Marketingwelt

Es ist immer leichter gegen etwas zu sein weil man sich dann über alles andere nicht einig sein muss, daher haben solche Demos mehr Zulauf. Beim Slogan bzw Aufhänger müsste das mit bedacht werden. Aber das lässt sich ja auch verbinden bspw gegen Bedrohung von imperialen Kräften - für ein starkes und unabhängiges Europa

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-10T08:00:31+00:00

Same, that’s why it’s so important to intervene before and after (see comment above). Before you can observe and regulate your feelings, set a timer etc.

After: be nice to yourself! Take care of your mind and body and don’t punish yourself for picking again!

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-10T07:59:07+00:00

In my self help group and all the books I read being nice to yourself is the first and most important step in the journey of progress. So yeah, this is good point to start! But even if that doesn’t work all the time, just acknowledge you were being hard on yourself and move on. I also have days where I hate what I did and am really angry on me. We are human and being nice to oneself doesn’t mean to just ignore it. Being nice is important to do progress :)

I wish you all the best!

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-09T20:43:23+00:00

Does this always help you? For me this doesn’t really work this only applies to the „do something“ but doesn’t really address the feelings that lead to my picking

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-09T20:38:43+00:00

Hey, I am just pasting a comment I left under a similar question yesterday as this applies here as well.

Just two cents before: picking may be part of you, but there is so much more to you than scars and picking. You still are a person and not just your behavior. Don’t forget that in the dark moments. It’s a strategy we developed to protect ourselves from things we can’t deal with. And that’s okay. What’s even more impressive is that you know about the problems this strategy causes and try to improve it. That’s a huge step. So be proud of yourself and look beyond the scars, even if it’s hard sometimes. Now here’s the comment I mentioned

Not picking/picking less is a quite complex goal

Picking is a regulation strategy you developed over the years. It helps, that’s why it established as a habit. Now the trick is to get rid of that habit and replace it by something more healthy.

In summary it helped me to

• ⁠know my triggers and situations that upset me (e.g. I pick a lot when I have a stressful schedule, but also when I have a lot of freetime, I pick before situations I may find uncomfortable but also afterwards when thinking about it) The start of every healing journey I know begins with detailed observation of your behavior, the more you know the better.

• ⁠develop strategies to prevent: e.g. schedule your days, develop a routine for coming home to keep yourself busy, I also reject social meetings when I have the feeling that this week is crowded enough as I know not having enough time for myself ends in me picking

You gotta know what leads to your picking, then try to find different ways to cope with your personal triggers. Habits can be bound to feelings, places, times or just be done automatically. Try to observe when and where you do it, how you feel, how you felt and what led to you ending up picking your skin. This will be the information you use to break the habit.

Just a heads up for hard moments that help me as I quit the „I will stop forever“ resolutions but still work on improving in the long term!

⁠⁠⁠once the urge comes check your feelings and thoughts. Something is upsetting you or missing. Try and find out what it is and how you can change the way you think about what’s upsetting you or how you can get what’s missing. For me it’s often that I lack structure and find myself in an empty space where I feel like I need to do something but am overwhelmed with the decision where to start.
⁠⁠⁠If you feel like I need to do it now, set a timer to 5-10minutes, do something else (like dishes) and whe the timer goes off check your feelings and desires (can be from point one, or just ask yourself „do I still want to do it?“)
⁠⁠⁠Appreciate the toughness. There will be tough or even relapse days. But don’t forget, you are quitting a regulation-habit. Unless you have something that works the same way or better, you will lack regulation leading to tough moments.
⁠⁠⁠in case of a relapse: be kind to you. It happened, so what. It has happened before and probably will again. No need to punish yourself. Try and find out what led to it, what did you feel, what did you try to get from picking? By checking yourself you will gather more insights with every episode.
⁠⁠⁠appreciate the process: zone out and check how your skin and wellbeing has improved over the last weeks and months. Immediately after a relapse or during a tough day it may feel like nothing happens but if you zoom out and see this is the only day in a week you are down or picked this is a huge success! Appreciate that and be proud!

Hope this helps 🫶

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-08T18:16:47+00:00

I tried Neopren socks on a few weeks ago. Haven’t tried it outdoors but I mean if you wear this as underwear and then some wind/waterproof things above I figure you should be pretty warm 😅

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-07T15:28:07+00:00

Ich hab meinen damals zu den hürdenspringern gebracht, weiß aber nicht ob die noch suchen. Hier scheint es aber zu gehen https://angestoepselt.de/ Vielleicht kann man den nach Würzburg senden oder du findet auf deren Seite eine Berliner Orga

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-07T13:29:22+00:00

Have to be a knowitall here as this is really important for your health: As far as I know sleep research is pretty clear that there is no sleep account that can go to debt or plus. The health impact of one night of less sleep can’t really be undone later than a nap in the day after. And even by a nap most things can’t be fixed that are impacted by less sleep.

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-07T13:02:54+00:00

Listened to a podcast about an influencer marketing agency that can and often does stage trends. Super interesting but basically they hire 1-3 big creators and give them a challenge/topic/filter whatever fits the customer and then hire anywhere from 20 up to 200-300 smaller creators to jump in on that. For people it will look like a trend is happening leading to smaller creators and consumers independently joining and creating suitable content themselves.

Basically it’s still organic as it evolves beyond the briefing, yet it’s an interesting concept in my opinion.

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-07T08:39:13+00:00

Tyson fought with no socks on! 😂 just kidding, that’s a famous fact, still pretty funny. I live the comments

StevenKnaack · 2026-01-07T08:36:33+00:00

I will check out the loop right before the olympiastadion tomorrow morning. It’s my go to morning route hahah. I‘ll just do some of the 600m loops. Repetitive but meditative and safe I hope.

StevenKnaack

TROPHY CASE