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Extremely worried about my daughter! Face picking. : (
I have a 17 year old daughter who has just recently started brutally picking on her face. She does have problems with acne, however her acne had been clearing up as of late. But suddenly, within the last 2 weeks or so she has been picking on her face to the point where now I would have to estimate she has at least 20 or more open and/or bleeding sores.
First of all, we know that she has problems with anxiety and depression. She is on medications for both. She sees both a psychiatrist and a therapist. The psychiatrist recently changed her meds but I think things have gotten worse and I've left a message at his office to let him know and also, she has an appointment there next week (thankfully). Our family history includes a lot of mental health issues/anxiety.
Anyways, last night her face looked worse than it ever had been. But she called me just now (I am at work) and said when she got home from school, her face is actively bleeding in certain places and looks EVEN WORSE than yesterday. I just can't imagine. : ( She says she does not remember picking at all today. I don't know what to think? I am worried about the possibility of infection, and of course scarring.
Any advice or anything appreciated, please. I am so worried.
March 17, 2012
I just had to comment to say that I commend you for helping your daughter with her picking issue. You are taking steps to assist her with this terrible ailment. I am positive that she will thank-you forever. I have never spoken to anyone about my own person issue, but would feel so relieved if I could! The fact she has an upcoming medical appointment is a good thing as she can get some much needed advice. Prior to her appointment, I suggest that she take a yoga/meditation class as it will ease her anxiety. Also, putting vitamin e or another skin healing ointment (with an antibiotic) will assist with the healing of her skin. I truly feel for you and your daughter and hope for better, brighter days ahead. :)
March 19, 2012
I found this in another thread, I'm going to pick some of it up tomorrow. NAC is an over the counter supplement... On November 3rd, 2011 kgolden1234567890 said:
I have had a LOT of luck with the amino acid N-acetyl cysteine, which is sometimes sold as N-acetyl L-cysteine, for my 11-year-old daughter who severely picks her skin (arms and legs). I'm hoping that everyone on this group will check it out. We started out at 1200mg each day, 600mg in the morning and 600mg in the evening. Then we worked up to 2400mg, 1200 mg in the morning and 1200 mg in the evening, within about 3 or 4 weeks. The study that was done in 2009 showed the best results were after 9 weeks of continuous treatment with this amino acid, also just known as NAC. We saw great results after 6 weeks. Please consider trying it. I am not a doctor, so please weigh out the risks for yourself. It has truly been a godsend. My daughter used to pick to the point of staph infections. She has scars all over her body. It works by regulating the URGE to pick. You can download the summary text of the 2009 study on this website - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19581567. The study was for hair-pulling, but skin-picking and nail-biting result from similar sets of urges.