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artchik7 , 13 Dec 2010

Do I have Dermatillomania?

I have a good number of the symptoms I've seen here. I pick my scabs and they take for ever to heal. I pick at zits and razor bumps. I'll scratch away skin imperfections on my back (but generally just when I'm itchy). -Occasionally there will be little cysts or callouses on my palms or feet and I'll generally scratch at them until they come out and am left with a gaping little hole. I bite away my cuticles on my fingers. I pick my nose a lot (like boogers not the skin). I bite excess skin on my lips. Sometimes I'll pull out eyelashes and eyebrow hairs. I would say I do this daily. But I don't obsess about it and don't spend any extended period of time searching my body for places to pick. I guess I never thought it was that strange. Its more second nature at this point. I'm 26 now and I have been picking like this for as long as I can remember. I'm not trying to generalize but from what I've been reading many people's picking is paired with other conditions. I don't really have any. From what I can tell I could be a candidate for dermatillomania because I had a pretty bad trauma occur as a child and I had anxiety issues for a number of years. But at this point in my life I'm happy, confident, and self assured. I'm relatively stress and anxiety free and the trauma has never really effected me. But I still pick. I honestly thought that everyone picked to one degree or another until recently. I casually mentioned dermatillomania to a few friends who got super grossed out at the thought of scab picking. I guess I've been able to hide it pretty well without realizing. If I could get some opinions that would be great. Thank you.

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