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manju , 27 Oct 2010

advice for chronic skin pickers

I used to have the same problems that many of you have mentioned with lip/ear/face picking, and I'm pretty convinced at this point that it's a result of 1) too much adrenaline and/or 2) not enough dopamine. Anyone with anxiety problems and/or ADHD is likely to have this kind of chemical imbalance (i.e. me), and I'm a firm believer of addressing the causes of these kinds of habits as opposed to focusing on covering up the symptoms. So far I've had the best luck reducing skin picking by avoiding adrenaline-inducing habits and finding things that will increase my dopamine levels (in a healthy way). I mean, the reason why the picking is so addictive is that we get little bursts of dopamine from these kinds of grooming activities, which actually goes back to an evolutionary adaptation for keeping ourselves clean and free of parasites. Also, have you ever noticed that when you drink (note: this is NOT a hint to use alcohol to deal with this!!!), you don't have the urge to pick? Or how about when you're eating or when you're extremely happy? Well, those are all dopamine-upping activities, so of course you don't want to pick. To put it in a few words, picking is just another way of self-medicating for lack of dopamine. So - things to AVOID are excess caffeine, sugar, blood sugar ups/downs (especially letting yourself get hungry), stimulants, sleep-deprivation and stress (duh). Some of these are adrenaline uppers, too much of which will induce anxiety and will make you want to pick as a way of calming yourself down. GOOD things are exercise - don't think calorie-burning as much, those activities can up your adrenaline even more - yoga and tai chi are awesome. Going on a 10 minute walk while listening to some relaxing music does wonders, especially if you spend a lot of time sitting down and working. Also, eating lean meats can help (don't over do it!) because you need amino acids to build neurotransmitters, especially seratonin. I've found it also helps if you can break the cycle for a little while, especially if you have a formal event coming up that you want to look good for. Good tricks for this are to put vaseline/neosporin on the picking target-zone, especially at night so it can heal up while you sleep. Also, as weird as it sounds, if you're a female lip-picker you should try loreal's infallible lip gloss. there's something about the texture of the gloss that covers the rough parts so you don't really want to pick at them. Hope this helps!
6 Answers
bloodyfingers
October 27, 2010
I've never thought of it on a chemical level but it does make sense. I do notice when i'm boozed up I don't pick, yet I still do when i'm happy or eating, and DEFINITLY do it when stressed. As for diet, i'm a vegetarian but drink a lot of protien shakes and take multi-vitamins - I wonder what other people's diets are like.
Clu
October 27, 2010

In reply to by bloodyfingers

Well I'm not a vegetarian, I enjoy eating meat and its good for you so long as its not processed or has crap added into it. My diet is all organic, all natural foods, for breakfast I have oatmeal with unsweetend Almond milk which I add a tablespoon of milled flax seed in for extra Omega 3, and two scrambled eggs each day. I work a 2nd shift job so I basically pack the rest of my diet for my lunch/dinner. I pack a PB&J which has JIF natural peanut butter and Smuckers sugar free grape jam, a ham and chicken with provolone cheese sandwich, all natural lean meats etc. Both sandwiches are with natural 100% whole wheat bread. I also pack an apple, blueberries, raspberries, Activia low fat yogurt, carrots, celery, broccoli, then an assortment of nuts, Walnuts, Pecans, Brazallian nuts, Spanish peanuts, and Almonds. Then I eat a Salmon fillet on Sunday. That's my diet in full diet lol, didn't mean to get into such detail but id figured it wouldn't hurt. I also don't eat sweets or candy anymore, I try to eat as little sugar as possible.
bloodyfingers
October 29, 2010

In reply to by Clu

Your detailed post is helpful Clu, it shows that you can have a great diet and still pick. I had dental surgury yesterday and am in too much pain to eat solids but your post made me so hungry for crunchy food. lol My picking's been much worse past couple days and my ideas are: i'm in pain and therefore stressed, i'm eating poorly/unbalanced, not sleeping due to pain, and am on a lot of narcotics so i'm even more numb to the pain of picking. Interesting.
Clu
October 29, 2010

In reply to by bloodyfingers

I'm going to add a few more things to my diet. I'm going to try sweet potatoes which I read are good for the skin, kiwis, and oranges so I can have more variety. Well your diet isn't the only factor nor is it the most important but it is still important. Sorry to hear about all your pain, I've had my own tonight in front of my mirror but not as bad as it could be but then again I don't feel much better looking at the amount I've collected lately. I feel a little better because I used a scar treatment tonight that I've had for a while but I always forget to use. Hopefully I can remember to use it and see some improvement, I hope you feel better soon.
luckyteapot
January 07, 2011
Great post manju, thank you for the advice. I'll read more about dopamine as I do believeour strange habits are a result of chemical imbalance (I realized my scratching is an illnes just a few days ago so I didn't have the time to do extensive reading, but from what I've learned so far, the chemical imbalance theory is the most likely, well at least fo me ). Thanks again fo sharingr those very practical tips :)
Shorty999
January 07, 2011
Thank you so much for the advice! I have to say, in 2007, I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy and they put me on all kinds of stimulants, when I already had an anxiety disorder, and the doctor wanted me to discontinue the anxiety meds so it didn't interfere with the Narcolepsy meds...this is when my picking became the worst and has been so since. I also noticed, when I had to have my sleep study redone, they wanted me off my stimulants for 2 weeks before the sleep study. During this time, my skin had almost completely healed. I had found out with the second sleep study that they had misdiagnosed me. I do not have Narcolepsy...I have another sleep disorder called idiopathic hypersomnia, so I don't have to take the stimulants everyday...it is now just diagnosed as a prn medicine. Thanks again.

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