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scratch_ankle , 01 Oct 2008

I knew I had OCD but thought my ankle was echiezma

Well hello all! I'm glad to be here. I was not aware that my ankle scratching was part of the OCD-sprectrum, I know I had OCD and other crazy anxiety disorders. anywho...I started picking at stuff when I had chicken pocks back when I was 9. I got to ankle scratching when I was 12, it started with my left ankle then was on the other ankle (on the inside) then to the outside of my right ankle where it's been ever since. I have noticed it gets worse with stress, that's why echezma is also called stress itch. Like a lot of you I also pick my face and my nose. I guess I can blame some of this all on low seritone levels and some on my miserable childhood of being raised by schizophrenic single mom in a bad city in bad public schools with no reason or chance for a future. I guess all the chronic stress of growing up got me good! Anyhow, I guess it's better to know now then to never know. I'm holding down a job, I'm in school and I'm in a sucessful relationship. So things aren't so bad I guess. I've got a lot going for me. I was wondering if anyone else picked elsewhere on their body besides their face? Does anyone else have echezma like me? Just curious...scratch ankle refers to a Cops episode I saw one time of 2 guys getting pulled over outside Atlanta, and their it was Scratch Ankle Rd...I'd like to go their one day for the heck of it.
2 Answers
sarah78
October 06, 2008
Can't say I've ever heard of the ankle scratching problem, but it's certainly no stranger than any of the other problems on here. My problem is with my fingers, around the nail area. I pick & pick & pick at the skin there until it bleeds sometimes. It hurts, it's unsanitary, and it sucks.
Lizkin1990
October 09, 2008
Hi! You have no idea how happy i am to find some one else who scratches there ankles....but its not just my ankles its inbetween my big toe on my left foot, in between the fingers on both hands,my left eyebrow and beside one of my finger nails. I als have eschzma and OCD!? This is such a percular coinsidence, i've spent all my life thinking these "itchty patches" were some form of eschzma...and its only today i found this website. The only way i've ever been able to describe them to others is a really deep itching sensation, But the more i think of them the more i realise that they don't itch, its more along the lines of the same sensation of releif that you get when scratching a really annoying itch ( If that makes sense) its a releif when you feel the "pain?" of picking at them. Its evermore frustrating when you have'nt picked at them in a long time and they look like they're on their way out, and then something stressful that causes you to get anxious happens and before you know it you've been picking at them without realising it and there red raw!!

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