Online Test

Find out the severity of your symptoms with this free online test

chanandlerbong , 13 Jan 2012

does this count as skin picking?

i've been diagnosed with OCD, but before i realised i suffered from it (when my rituals and contamination fears started to get really bad) i used to mess around with my skin a lot. i wouldn't necessarily call it skin picking, but what i would do is have a shower/bath, and then i would starch a certain part of my body where i would pick up dead skin cells. this is all i would do, but a short while after i began to eat the skin cells too. later when it got really bad, in public, i would quickly lick my finger (i learned to do it super fast so no one noticed) and rub my skin where i would try and get the same result when my skin was totally wet. i stopped for a while but then it came back out of no where. whenever i had baths i noticed how the dirt/dead skin cells would accumulate and create rings around the bath. i would then scratch at it, picking up the dirt in my nails, and later eating it as well. now i'm back to rubbing my skin to get dead skin cells as well as eating my skin cells from my bath. does this count as skin picking? sometimes i scratch myself and bleed, like on my back and stuff, but i'm not trying to achieve a scar, i just want my skin cells.

No answers yet

Start your journey with SkinPick

Take control of your life and find freedom from skin picking through professional therapy and evidence-based behavioral techniques.

Start Now