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Lunchboxed , 30 Nov 2011

Ingrown Hairs OCD

Okay so I am a 22 year old college student with anxiety and ADD. I have this major obsession of searching my legs and arms for ingrown hairs. It started about 4 months ago, now I am covered in scars. I know that when I am anxious & nervous, it alleviates my focus on tweezing them. I used to have open sores from them that I would pick with on a daily basis with a nail clipper causing them all to bleed. I am covered in scars on my face, legs, thighs, arms, elbows, forearms, shoulders, groin and chest region. However, like i said they all used to be fresh open scars but I managed to give them a break for a week causing them to no heal of completely. They are nothing but dark spots. However I still manage to search my legs and tweeze itty bitty hairs that are stuck. So far no marks or major irritation. Anyone else dealing somewhat with this?
3 Answers
drb4131
November 30, 2011
I am at 23 year old..and i have anxiety and add too, and i thought i was the ONLY one with this problem. I obsessively search my legs for ingrown hairs and pick at them, squeeze them out, or tweeze them. A lot of times i go sort of deep and start bleeding. I also do this under my arms. It's sort of relaxing but at the same time it only makes my anxiety worse in the long run, because i spend so much time doing it, and wearing shorts or sleeveless tops is kind of out of the question because people can see the red bumps. I just tell people I have sensitive skin from shaving :/
Lunchboxed
December 01, 2011

In reply to by drb4131

I thought it was ONLY me. Well at this point my legs and arms are not that bad. its my thighs that are the worst. I used to go deep till it bleeds, but now i switched to going easy on them. I search and search for hours. Its mainly my ADD medication that causes me to do it.
IwishItPerfect
December 08, 2011
I have horrible skin picking disorder. It started at the time when I got my first pimple. There wasn't no other options in my mind as get rid of it. I also pick the ingrowing hairs. I don't get them often on my legs or underarms but I get them in my bikini area so I just pick it so the "white stuff" goes out all together with the hair. Sometimes infection goes on the spot and I keep touching the scar until it is completely dried out and a new skin has began to grow on top of it. It does not looks good at all and I think it affects my sexual life because I loose my confidence witch takes a big part in sex. Scrubbing off the dead skin and put a cream afterwards can help to - not - get the ingrowing hairs. But how to stop picking them when you have already found one? Is there is any other options how to get rid of it when it has grown in upside down? I have started to think about getting rid of my hair all together with laser but it is very expensive and I am not sure if I can afford it. Most of my face picking horror starts when I want to tidy up my eyebrows. I just see face up close and there where it starts. I end up with my face ALL RED and burning from stress. Then I try to hide from everyone so nobody would see my freshly touched face. After all everybody see it anyway because I can't wear any make-up at work. It really affects my life badly. Just thinking about it. I am 20 years old and I am sure that I haven't had a single day with a perfect skin, soon I will have a wrinkles and I can forget about it at all. Now, all I need to do is stop picking them in order to get a nice looking skin, but I can't. I have been trying..... I can't do it..... ;(Consider getting rid of hair al together and find something else to do in your spare time is my advice on this one, but what advice can I give if I am not any better myself....

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