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MLEE , 20 Jan 2011

Every day

I go to the mirror in my bathroom and pick my face to the point it bleeds. its disgusting i want to stop. but i CANT. It all started when i received these special cuticle clippers, they are like tiny scissors with sharp tips. I will stop at nothing to slice to the core of the pimple and squeeze that gross white stuff out. i feel like its a contamination in my skin, that it needs to come OUT. then after all the contents are COMPLETELY out.. i mean completely, my face is all swollen and red. the sore then scabs over and the picking starts all over again. I have tried everything to treat the "acne", when the real problem is the picking. at first i used neosporin and a bandaid on the open sores each night, so the scab isnt rough the next day, turns out im allergic to neosporin. I went to the doctor and she prescribed me some cream to get rid of the rash from the neosporin. but when i get real desperate, i figure i can put the neosporin on, then the cream on top. it started to work for a while, then my face just flared up. when worse comes to worse i take a nap to relieve the redness. it works the BEST, although i dont always have time to sleep for 3 hours before i go out. i have many mannnny strategies to picking and they are mostly all harmful. my problems are bad i need help!
4 Answers
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rachel_e
January 20, 2011
MLEE, first of all if you haven't already done so you need to throw out those scissors!! At one point I had a blackhead remover which I thought was a more hygenic way of picking than using my fingers. However it ended up being even more damaging and I too got obsessed with digging right into each blemish to get everything out. As you already know, this just makes a worse wound which takes longer to heal and looks worse than the spot would have it I'd left it alone. I know throwing the scissors away isn't easy and won't in itself stop you from picking, but if you're serious about stopping it's a good place to start. I totally identify with you when you say you've been trying ti treat your "acne" as I have spent ages buying products to clear blackheads and reading articles about how to get clear skin when the problem is not my skin but the fact that I pick at it. I have finally accepted that the only way I will get a clear complexion is to stop picking altogether. Keep checking in here - it has really been helping me. You're not alone!
MLEE
January 22, 2011
So i thought about it and i threw away the clippers! gone, at first i thought that gently picking off scabs with them would be better than scratching or picking, but i got too carried away with them. so far ive gone 1 day after seeing this site!
rachel_e
January 23, 2011
That's great. I know it's really hard. I used to use the same logic about using a "tool" as more hygenic and gentler than using my fingers. But I really feel I was just kidding myself. Any sort of picking is damaging your skin. The thing we have to learn is to resist the compulsion and hopefully over time it will diminish. Well done on going one day. Every day I go without picking I feel better about myself. My skin is far from perfect but I'm beginning to see signs of improvement. And surprisingly knowing i've managed to not pick is as satiasfying as the visible improvement in my skin.
meg78910
January 21, 2011
i understand exactly what you mean when you say "acne" is not really even the problem. Picking is. i look at people on tv and in life and think its not fair that there skin is perfect and mines not. but then i think to myself,they dont dig at their face every night either. i understand.

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