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sweetestdrug , 03 Jan 2008

Possible cause for picking my skin?

I'm nineteen years old and this bad habit started in the middle of highschool, it's been three years now and sometimes I pick to the point where I bleed. It's not pretty and I'm sick of using make up to cover it up. The reason why I pick might have to do with making myself look ugly so guys will find me unattractive. I am very shy and hate when I catch guys looking at me. It makes my skin crawl and rather not have any attention to my beauty at all. Before I picked my skin, my skin was one of my best features. Everyone would say it was "glowy and smooth" that didn't need anything to cover it up. By destroying my skin, I justified that no guy will ever like me and this is what my "psychology" wanted. On the other hand, of course, I want a boyfriend but simultaneously feel I don't deserve one because my skin is ugly, making me pick more. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, guys looking at me makes me extremely creeped out. Typing this out, it makes me seem extremely weird and in need of intensive therapy, but I'm far from it in life. Nobody knows this is how I think, not even my mom :| I don't know where to begin. I'm only nineteen and really wouldn't like to be talking to some shrink about my sexual life lol. But this problem is getting worse and worse and worse. Don't wanna be stuck to this problem for three more years or even life.
8 Answers
anndublin
January 04, 2008
what is it that you want? do you want to live a fullfilling life? do you want to have a life partner? I think the answer is "yes". you have to stop "enjoying" your situation in order to continue with your life. You have to take a decision, Noone is going to do it for you. Bear it in your mind. Always. Don't take cover in your situation, rather strive to break free. This is the only way, I think.
sweetestdrug
January 04, 2008

In reply to by anndublin

Ann Dublin, thank you for the comment. I appreciate it and will think about this carefully. It is a very different perspective. It is time to grow up and love myself for who I am. You know what is funny? I just now realized my resolution of losing a couple pounds should have been different. My resolution should have been to stop picking my face. Why did I put this serious problem on the back-burner? That is baffling. I'd like to say that I'll stop 100% right now, but I'll try my hardest. All my effort will go into stopping this ugly and nasty habit. This is a serious problem as much as I'd like to think it's not *that* serious and can be dealt with later. Time to battle this problem.
uvinerse
January 13, 2008

In reply to by sweetestdrug

uvinerse A word of advise, you're not actually picking your skin to make yourself ugly. That's just one of the excuses we make. I'm a skinpicker of 14 years and I should know. You say it creeps you out when guys look at you, but the fact of the matter is, creeping you out is the wrong term to use, what you really mean is - it stresses you out. You say u've only been doing this for 3 years and that you're only 19 years old, let me tell you something - you've still got a chance to avert this situation. At your age, skin is very resilient, it still heals very quickly - absolutely to the point of healing back to the way it used to look, so you've definitely have a chance to turn this thing around while it's still early. I've been battling this thing for 14 years, and my skin ain't that resilient no more, i can't get what i have back unlike you. Like you i used to have very good skin before. If i had the money, i'd spend it on a skin clinic to fix my skin to look like the way it used to, and i'm pretty sure after that i'd be able to drop this evil compulsion all together. Think about it.
sweetestdrug
January 31, 2008

In reply to by uvinerse

I think you're right. It stresses me out, rather. I've been thinking a lot about my picking lately. And I think it's getting worse. School has been extremely chaotic (semester two has started) and my financial situation as a university student is really really really really pissing me off. I think it's gotten to a point where I don't even know that I'm picking. For a couple weeks, I THOUGHT I wasn't picking my face and that it was actually getting better. Turns out my mom told me that I've been picking more than ever. She was afraid to tell me, because she knows I hate being told to "stop picking". Let me tell you, I was in total complete shock. No wonder I had scabs all over my face. I thought they were just from healing.. but no.. turns out I was picking like crazy while I was studying. I study for 6 hours on end, mind you, so that's a lot of picking. I cover all this up with TONS of make-up. No one has a frickin clue!! UGh.. right now I'm sitting with band-aids all over my face and it looks stupid. And yet, I'm trying to pick under the band-aids. I swear this is like a disease. I don't care. This needs to stop.
musicnatflute
January 14, 2008
Hey there, You are beautiful even if you don't think you are. Your maker, the Lord, thinks you are. Talk to Him about it. I am a skin picker and nail picker. I have battled it my whole life. My husband loves me anyway and has come to understand it and accept it completely. Many people never completely get over these tendencies, but we could be drinking!! Picking is a whole lot healthier than that., isn't it? Of course, there may be other issues that need to be dealt with. We don't want to stuff our problems away, but then again...maybe you just pick! I believe there isn't always a deep underlying cause to every habit. Hang in there my young, fellow picker.
scabby
January 17, 2008
try your best to get the picking under control now while you are so young. i can first remember picking in beginning of high school. it only increased through college and now i'm 35, and it seems i'm having my worst episode yet. life is alot more stressful now with responsibilties at a job, at home as a wife and mother. i was painfully shy all through school as well as college. i wanted to talk to people more, wanted a boyfriend, but just could never seem to talk to others confidently. i barely talked and can't tell you how many times i heard 'cat got your tongue' or 'shut up, you're talking too much hahaha'.....when all i really wanted to do was talk without feeling i'm going to say something stupid and be embarrassed. i now realize i was suffering from social anxiety along with depression even back then. i believe the skin picking is part of my ocd tendencies and the inability to deal with 'imperfections'. i look like i've got some kind of freaky skin disorder after all the picking......you'd think if i was worried about imperfections of the skin i wouldn't sit around and pick, scratch and dig until i bleed and scar myself.?? when life gets overwhelming & stressful, my anxiety level goes up, i just can't seem to control the urge. it's my outlet for now, but i too should do something more to deal with it. finding this site tonight has at least giving me some peace of mind knowing skin picking is really a disorder and many others suffer with it too....i'm not just some lonely weirdo with a really nasty habit. so anyway, do what you can to get it under control now, it is so hard once you let it go on and on for years.
gretamairi
April 03, 2010
i didn't know anyone shared this until now. i am 31 and it's only getting worse. it started when i was your age. do whatever you can to stop it now.
wildflower
April 03, 2010
i found this on another site - i think it describes the condition you have. maybe you don't come here anymore, this post is old, but others here might see themselves in this information and may be able to seek help specific to the diagnosed problem and it might help just to read the analysis ------->> Body Dysmorphic Disorder - And Finally… Acne Excoriee… Face Picking Nervous, obsessive, compulsive, and habitual picking is not just the result of responding to an unbalanced physical situation, but a response to a deeper unbalance of the spirit. It is a dis-ease with the self that compels us to ‘do something’ to ourselves to fix it. The medical term for picking at one’s face is "Acne Excoriee" literally meaning picked pimples which comes from "Acne Excoriee des Jeunes Filles" literally translating from the French to mean “acne created by young girls.” It was titled so because of the abundance of young girls who ‘fiddle’ with or aggravate their skin to the point where they cause major problems where there were only minor problems or even no problems at all. The result is scabs and various ulcerations usually on the front of the face. And interestingly enough, the habit of skin picking is far more prevalent among women then men. When this habit of picking is taken to the extreme on other parts of the body it is termed Neurotic Excoriations or “Picker's Nodules”. The name explains it what it is, but fails to express how painful and debilitating this disease can be. Self inflicted or self aggravated open sores and scabs appearing all over the body are not uncommon. Neurotic Excoriations usually begin with a chronic fungal skin infection or Lichen Simplex Cronicus. When the scabs fail to heal in a timely manner , the patient feels a irrepresible need to pick off the scabs feeling it is better to live with the open sores than the scabs. Sometimes it is felt that the wounds will heal better if the scabs are picked off. This is not an uncommon feeling in the case of Acne Excoriee des Jeunes Filles as well. Acne Excoriee is recognizable because the lesions left behind from picking have a pronounced look to them. The upper and lower epidermis are usually scraped off leaving raw looking scrapes and flat lesions of hyperpigmentation.

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