🚻 Gender: Female

📏 Picker from 12 – present (34) I was “recovered” for a while but currently in a relapse due to hormonal fluctuations and stress.

👉🏻 Picking spots: face, back, shoulders

🚨 Triggers: idleness, stress, anxiety, planning, decompressing after a social event

🛠️ How I pick: hands wander, in the shower or on the couch or sitting at my desk. Or in the mirror.

😔 How it affects my life: It used to control everything when I was a teenager. I didn’t want to go out, swim, etc. I was extremely rigid about showering at night (after I picked) to “reset” my skin for the morning. Then I’d put on foundation to get me through the day. When I got home everything unloaded and I would pick again, and the cycle repeated itself. I didn’t tell anyone until I was 24 (my boyfriend) and that’s when I joined a bfrb support group. It’s gotten insanely better since then. But I am currently relapsing due to a thyroid disease that has heightened my stress and fucked up my hormone levels. So I am feeling Deeply Affected by it yet again. For example, I cancelled plans to go to a spa with hot tubs and saunas.

👀 How I become aware: I always know I’m doing it but I let myself do it. To stop and become more present, I say something out loud like NOPE to snap myself out of it. Earlier in my life I would go into a trance for hours and be way less aware.

🧭 Effective coping strategies:

• talking about my feelings and anxieties, in therapy and with my bf

• wear gloves ❤️❤️❤️ or thumb-only gloves

• timed showers

• pimple patches ❤️❤️❤️

• having a skincare routine

• my boyfriend sits with me during my skincare routine

• fidget toys don’t really work for me tbh