HELP

I would advise seeking professional help sooner rather than later. Other than my lips and cuticles, my main picking "playground" has almost always been my scalp. Because the marks aren't visible, I've never really had to deal with the outward shame or embarassment of explaining myself to people and, as a result, I never considered my problem to be a big deal. I have picked for literally as long as I can remember. I recall my stepmom telling me, while I was in kindergarten, that if I didn't stop biting and picking at my lips, I'd bleed to death. I'm now 28. For years my picking stayed at a certain "manageble" level. I rarely made myself bleed and could usually stop myself when in certain company or situations. I'd never considered that things could get BAD. Then, all of a sudden, about a year ago, my picking started to escalate. It went to my feet and my neck. My scalp, where for years I'd always have 2-3 "spots" that I constantly picked at, was now being ravaged. Seriously, I think my hair is now thinning due to how much I pick at my scalp. And I pick ALL of it. I'm really not trying to tell you this to scare you, but there are treatments available and you should activily start exploring them because, at least in my experience, this problem doesn't just go away. No matter how scary or embarassing, you should tell your parents (if you haven't already) and urge them to help you find a professional that can work with you to overcome this compulsion. The good news is that other people have successfully stopped. And the bottom line is that if one person can do it, you can do it. They did it through a combination of therapies that worked for them and there's a method out there that will work for you too.