Horrible Sunburn Causing Picking Relapse

Posted June 27th, 2012 by Sarah-108
I have been doing so well with picking the skin below my eyebrows as well as plucking... The problem is that I did an event called Tough Mudder on Satuday and got a horrible sunburn. A 12 mile obstacle course combined with snow that hadn't quite melted on the mountain (as well as one cold polar bear swim) did not do me justice! On my one shoulder I have a bunch of tiny blisters and 2 big ones the size of nickels. My other shoulder is blistering a little, but is not so bad. My chest is also really red, but thank goodness there are no blisters. This is not my biggest problem though! I severely burnt my face and it got so bad that I ended up picking all of the skin off my nose! It's so gross! At first it started to just fall off, but then I helped it along and began peeling it. My entire nose is covered in red raw skin. :( I'm so depressed about this. If that's not bad enough, the skin on my forehead turned rough and looked like it was ready to peel off this morning. I learned the hard way that it was not. Now there's a big red strip of raw skin across my forehead. I really don't know what to do about this! I have cancelled my plans for the next 6 days, I'm just hoping this will be long enough. I have big gauze pads I can put on my nose when I'm at home so I'm not tempted to pick. My skin just looks so gross right now and I am worried about my skin going back to normal. I have never had this happen before!
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On October 14th, 2012 memartin said:
What ended up happening?? What was the process you dealt with after you peeled all skin off nose? When I read what happened to you it was weirdly comforting cause this is the 2nd time I've done that and I never thought I'd ever do it again, yet I did which makes me feel like a complete monster. I want to hide from my kids, my husband that is so annoyed that I do this to myself, or any outsiders!! I struggle so much after the scabs start to form, resisting the urge to remove them which starts the whole cycle all over again. Plus it's so painful!! So I guess I wonder what exactly you did and if it helped, how long did it take? I find it impossible to have scabs and elephant skin on my nose then to have to go somewhere and put makeup on over that rough ugly dry skin. It makes it look worse! Please help.
On December 15th, 2012 yellowzebra64 said:
omg your so lucky i am so obsessed with peeling the skin off my nose. One day i sub burnt it and now it keeps getting raw and then the skin grows back and is so raw then i peel it again. My nose is so raw i can barley touch it..
On December 13th, 2012 Sarah-108 said:
When this happened to me I applied aloe vera several times a day, every day, and I found that that helped. I also used a weak hydrocortisone cream in the hopes that it would heal faster. It was really hard for me to leave my nose and my forehead (that was also scabbed) alone. I tried to spend as much time alone as I could, but when I went out, I didn't put makeup on and tried not to think about it. There was one evening before I healed I actually got up the courage to go to the casino with my boyfriend. I felt like if he didn't care, why should I care, or anyone else for that matter? When I burned, the skin on my face might have been pealed and scabbed, but I LOOKED burned, so I figured no one would ask, and if they did, they'd just feel bad that it happened. I'd rather explain being burned so bad that my skin integrity was destroyed, then explain marks on my face that were obviously made from picking and nothing else.
On June 28th, 2012 skreed29 said:
unscrew your bathroom lightbulbs and just moisturize ! with something that has vitamin e in it. like 4 times a day ! or as much as you need
For information on the skin picking disorder (Dermatillomania), symptoms, causes and treatment methods, get the Complete Guide to Skin Picking Disorders.