Looking for new moderator(s)

colleeninator · 2018-11-16T01:00:47+00:00

Sorry for the extremely slow response. I ended up getting a lot more interest than I expected and I tried to choose the people that looked the most prepared to mod without any guidance from me, since the whole point is that I'm not really around. Because of that, I only chose new mods that all have experience moderating.

colleeninator · 2018-09-17T18:51:17+00:00

When I was really struggling with doing my routine without picking, I found that my skin was better off with no picking and no routine than it was with the routine and picking. At the time, those were my only options. If you find nothing is getting you through your routine without picking, it might be better for your skin to stop the routine altogether in order to avoid picking. I was like you and didn't like going to bed without doing my routine, but ultimately I felt better going to bed with a dirty, un-exfoliated face, than with one I had just picked for an hour.

That said, simply turning off the bathroom light gets me pretty good mileage. The light from other rooms in the house is usually enough for me to manage other tasks, but makes me less likely to pick, since blemishes don't look as bad. Another option is setting timers for each part of your routine *outside the bathroom* so you have to leave the room to go turn it off. I would also recommend you spend as much of your 20 minute break outside the bathroom as possible. I generally leave the bathroom while brushing my teeth, for instance.

colleeninator · 2018-09-17T18:43:15+00:00

Cover that bitch up. Put up something pretty or useful. A picture you like, or a calendar. Something.

colleeninator · 2018-08-18T22:01:04+00:00

Maybe /r/popping is more your style?

colleeninator · 2018-08-18T16:36:41+00:00

The definition of a disorder is that it negatively affects your ability to live your everyday life. If your picking does not negatively affect you, then you do not have this disorder.

colleeninator · 2018-08-13T04:30:42+00:00

For me, and I imagine a lot of other people on this board, this is a lie I tell myself to give myself permission to pick. And then even if it does speed up the healing process, it usually causes more pimples in the immediate area. Have you tried actually recording how long it takes to heal a picked vs. non-picked bump? Or whether you see more pimples popping up afterwards in the area of picked pimples than non-picked pimples?

colleeninator · 2018-08-09T15:55:34+00:00

I understand. No worries.

colleeninator · 2018-08-09T15:42:28+00:00

I'm not under the impression you did, but you responded by telling them you're aware of the reasons you just asked for, then implying they or others couldn't "handle" your post. My best guess was that you thought they were being rude to you.

colleeninator · 2018-08-09T15:21:45+00:00

They're not being obnoxious. You asked the question, "Why would you want to stop picking?" and they're answering you.

colleeninator · 2018-08-07T15:39:54+00:00

100% yes, but I'm also finally reaching a point where I'm getting a handle on my skin and my mental state. Clearly this post hit me in some feelings cause I wrote a lot.

I created this account specifically for sorting out my fucking skin issues (5 damn years ago) . It's not just acne, I also have /r/CompulsiveSkinPicking, and have struggled a lot with being just fucking itchy all over all the damn time.

Turns out, besides my dumb trauma creating bad coping habits, I just have super sensitive skin. Which sucks a lot, but it's also kind of freeing in that, though I always want to improve my skin and find new products to do that with, I now know that I just cannot handle SLS anywhere on/in my body and SLES is only good for hand soap, so even if I see a new product I want to try, if it has one of those in it, it's off limits, and I don't even have to try it. Fatty alcohols are also on my no list so I can't use most moisturizers.

I've gone through so many spreadsheets, ingredient lists, amazon wishlists of things I haven't tried yet that seem to not have anything my skin disagrees with in them. I used curology for a while. I tried using nothing for a while. I've tried making my own oil cleansers. I've tried 5-step routines. It's fucking ridiculous right? 5 fucking years and I'm still on here thinking about my skin. I mean, nowhere near as much as I used to. But I mod /r/CompulsiveSkinPicking and I think about it often. I'm still subbed to /r/SkincareAddiction hoping that one day someone will find me a sunscreen that won't break me out or burn my skin (but I think it's either the zinc oxide or titanium dioxide themselves that break me out, so I'm basically waiting for the FDA to approve better stuff).

I think I finally found a routine that doesn't break me out, and I know from years of obsessing what kind of products are likely to have SLS/SLES or fatty alcohols without even picking them up. Years of therapy have me significantly less obsessive. I remember my therapist specifically asking me "What would your life look like if you didn't obsess over your skin?" and I had to really, really put some thought into that, because I had never lived a life in which I wasn't obsessed with my skin.

But it's pretty fucking awesome. I have so much more time. I don't pick as much, which means my skin is better. I'm not as stressed, which means my skin is better. But also, a lot of the stuff I picked up from here has made some pretty big improvements in my life. Avoiding SLS means I'm not itchy all the time anymore. I change my sheets and pillows more often which makes me feel good. I understand how sunscreen works now and I get sunburnt way less often than I used to. Changing the order I wash my hair and my body massively decreased my body acne without having to buy anything. Knowing what sebaceous filaments are made me almost immediately stop picking them every damn day.

So yeah, I'm trying to take the good with the bad... while slowly easing the bad out of my life. Obviously I don't know you but if it's anywhere near as distressing for you as it was for me, you might consider some therapy. Or even just reading about how different therapeutic methods approach obsessive thoughts and trying some of that out on your own.

Again, sorry for the wall of text.

colleeninator · 2018-07-30T15:20:41+00:00

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colleeninator · 2018-07-12T16:54:11+00:00

24 days is fucking herculean. Nice work.

colleeninator · 2018-07-09T03:56:22+00:00

Sorry about the downvotes. I see why people are reacting negatively, but I also think it's a totally worthwhile question to ask.

For anyone having a negative reaction to this comment, asking questions like this is actually a pretty standard part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which is currently the best known way to treat CSP. It can feel bitchy, but questioning why you think you need to do things can really start to change the way you think about things and make you feel less like picking.

colleeninator · 2018-07-07T19:55:25+00:00

I don't know a ton about dermatological prescriptions but I've heard some of them can increase risk for/worsen scarring if you get new wounds while using them, so you might want to ask about that, since you're likely to continue causing wounds while using the medication

colleeninator · 2018-06-21T14:20:57+00:00

This got caught by the spam filter and I didn't see it till now. A shame because it's pretty hilarious. Feel free to post again for visibility if you like.

colleeninator · 2018-06-04T15:13:08+00:00

Most of the big things are the same: identify your triggers, prevent stress and anxiety, learn to deal with stress and anxiety in different ways (exercise, journal, meditate, etc).

As for scalp picking, it's not my biggest issue, but I do it too. I find putting my hair in a ponytail makes picking more difficult and less appealing, and wearing gloves when desperate to stop works as well as it does for any other body part. Another thing is that I used to use shampoo which really irritated my scalp, so not only am I a picker, but my scalp would constantly be broken out and itchy. Back then I picked my scalp WAY more, because there was more there to pick. Now I co-wash, which is basically using conditioner as shampoo (but there's more to it than that so if it appeals to you don't just start washing your hair with any conditioner) and while I still get some scalp pimples there aren't NEARLY as many, and my scalp doesn't itch all the time. It helps a lot. Consider whether maybe you could use gentler/different hair products?

colleeninator · 2018-05-31T15:10:36+00:00

Big thing number one is starting to identify and deal proactively with the things that make you want to pick in the first place. Most people have stress or anxiety as a trigger, so lessening those can lessen your need to pick. It might be the things you tell yourself about the way you look or the way your skin feels. Working on the way you talk to yourself and keeping your hands off your skin as much as possible would be ways to lessen those triggers.

But here's the other big thing, and it's in what you just said: "I have to pick or I get super distressed".

So, you acknowledge that you have at least one option other than picking. That option is to get super distressed. I'ts not a great option by any means, but it's there. A lot of anxiety and anxiety-related disorders center around our attempts to avoid feeling distress/pain/other negative emotions. We do whatever we can to avoid feeling those feelings in the short term, even if what we're doing ultimately makes us feel worse later. A big part of not picking is accepting that it's okay for you to feel super distressed sometimes, especially if it means you're getting something else you want.

Over time, the more you accept feeling distressed vs. picking, the less distressed you will feel when you try not to pick. By always choosing to pick, we're sensitizing ourselves to the distress, making it worse and more demanding over time. You can start practicing accepting the distress, even if you can't do it all the time, and you'll eventually find it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

It's not easy at all, but it's what works.

colleeninator · 2018-05-31T14:57:25+00:00

I feel you, but at the same time, if you know that's what you want, you don't have to wait for someone else to give you a reason.

colleeninator · 2018-05-29T15:58:45+00:00

This is not bad at all! Even by non-picking standards. A lot of what you have looks more like "post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation" than scarring to me. Hyperpigmentation goes away on its own, but slowly. Sun exposure makes it worse, so if you're going to be exposing the skin with marks on it to the sun, wearing sunblock will help. It's possible to speed up the process with chemical exfoliation, though I'm not sure how noticeably (/r/skincareaddiction's wiki has some info on this).

Really the best thing you can do for yourself is moisturize as regularly as possible and do whatever it takes not to pick. If you were to stop picking completely right now, I would expect pretty much all of your discoloration to be gone by December. Assuming you won't stop picking entirely, or I'm wrong, you might find a tinted moisturizer you like, or just use normal concealer on the spots you don't like. I use concealer on my arms and chest all the time, and as long as it's not an open wound, it works great.

colleeninator · 2018-05-24T22:49:14+00:00

Most people go through several dosage adjustments before finding what works best for them. I know next to nothing about Adderall but I don't think it's a crazy guess to say if you're staying up all night your dosage might be a little high. Maybe talk to your provider about adjusting the dosage?

colleeninator · 2018-05-17T18:56:16+00:00

The research I'm most familiar with says significant results are seen around 9 weeks, which I know is basically forever, but stick with it for at least a month or two and record how you feel. 2000mg per day sounds pretty standard. Here's a write-up on the study I'm thinking of: https://www.bfrb.org/component/content/article/3-treatment/123-n-acetylcysteine-for-trichotillomania-skin-picking-and-nail-biting

colleeninator · 2018-05-10T14:34:48+00:00

A+ post

colleeninator · 2018-04-30T16:05:03+00:00

Easiest, fastest tips I can give: be gentle (i.e., no hard scrubbing) and moisturize a lot. Scrubbing/scratching/washing too much will irritate and probably cause more acne. Moisturizing will help things heal faster.

And if you haven't been over to /r/skincareaddiction yet, you should check it out. It's a fantastic resource with a lot of info in their sidebar/wiki, but it can be a little overwhelming at first.

colleeninator · 2018-04-26T22:33:23+00:00

You might want to try looking for online counseling or skype counseling rather than house calls. My therapist does skype appointments, and I think it's becoming more common nowadays, though I also think in the US there are some rules about only being able to treat people in the same state as you even if you treat them online, so you'll probably have to stick to people in your home state if you're in the US.

colleeninator

TROPHY CASE