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no skin picking challenge
Hi! My name is Anna and I have atopic dermatitis. I also have the bad habit of picking skin on my hands which makes my dermatitis worse. I would like to do a 30 days of no skin picking challenge in order to get rid of that habit. I would like to write about it in this forum since I know that giving a public promise and reporting on the progress helps to not give up. If you also would like to get rid of the skin picking habit, join this challenge and let us support each other!
I am quite dependent on my habit. I pick mostly late in the evening and at night because it makes me feel relieved after a stressful day. The situation is worsened by the fact that I scratch my hands often and thus create new wounds to pick. But I am afraid I can do nothing with the itch, so I just hope to not make the situation worse via picking.
I gave myself a promise that if this 30 days challenge does not work then I will subscribe to an online therapy program. In order to give myself a positive motivation, I bought myself a nice little ring which I could wear if the skin on my hands gets better as a result of getting rid of the bad habit. I also installed the Skinpick application in order to be more conscious of my bad habit. I am planning to take photos of my hands everyday to be able to see the progress.
Day 1.
I could restrain myself from evening picking, but picked after waking up at night. Unfortunately, everything itched and I couldn’t help tearing off some scabs.
I am glad that these past days I could stop myself from picking abscesses and observed that they disappear themselves in less than 12 hours.
I compared the photos taken several days ago when I decided to stop picking and the photos of this morning and observed that there are a little bit less wounds now.
Steps to take in the upcoming days to improve the skin: 1) drink more water 2) restrain myself from eating not very healthy food 3) take some vitamine D 4) use the cream regularly to prevent the skin from getting too dry
You go girl! You can stop the habit when you really want to. Friday was a month of not picking for me. I used to do it all the time without realizing, now I don't even notice that the habit is gone.. and I was doing it over 30 years. I guess I just wanted to let you know that it does get easier. Wishing you the best of luck!
In reply to You go girl! You can stop the by Biter21
Thanks a lot! How did you do it? Did you restrain yourself from doing it every time you had an urge or did you try to distract yourself with other activities or used some other techniques?
In reply to Thanks a lot! How did you do by anna_goose
Listen to this. Everyone always told me "you better stop, you're gonna get an infection". But like I said, I was doing it over 30 years... and no infection. Until a month ago, lol. I somehow ended up giving myself a HUGE black/purple/yellow/green blister on my thumb and it was CRAZY PAINFUL. Like, my entire hand hurt from it. My doctor saw it and was like.. "um, here are 2 antibiotics plus an antibiotic ointment. If that doesn't get better in a few days, go to the ER for IV antibiotics". Lol. So basically, I was scared into stopping. That was most of my motivation. But to help, I always kept using lotion (like several times a day) to keep my skin soft so there was very little to pick at. I also kept thinking about how badly I want to go for a manicure.. I have only done that maybe twice in my life because of embarrassment. I hope to be engaged soon and I'd hate to never show off my ring because I'm embarrassed of my fingers. I dunno, I guess it was just time. That's why I said to you when you really want to do it, you will!
In reply to Listen to this. Everyone by Biter21
I see. Indeed, fear is a great motivator!
Day 2.
The same story: no evening picking, but cannot stop myself when I wake up in the middle of the night in a half conscious state. Need to do smth with scratching since it creates new wounds and gives more urge to pick. I can restrain myself from scratching parts of body with very sensitive areas, even if it itches very much, because I know that will create terrible wounds that will take days to heal, but the skin on the hands got so thick and insensitive that the above thinking does not work.
Also I figured out that I possibly have allergic reaction to pistachios.
Another thing, since atopic dermatitis is a psychosomatic disease I need to train to be more calm and serene.
Thus the steps to take are: 1) practice meditation 2) spend more time outdoors. Yesterday I have started a habit tracker to track drinking water, not eating potentially allergic foods and meditation.
Days 3 and 4. I could restrain myself from pickings, but I am worried about my allergy getting worse these last days (probably because of the spring pollen...), so more wounds to fight with. I am also trying to stop using corticosteroid cream, repeating to myself that it's help is just an illusion and it only makes things worse...