wounds are HEALING and scars are FADING------> PLEASE READ!!!!!

This is my first time here. I pick my face my arms and my upper legs. My sores and scars are disgusting. I pretend that I have really dry skin and that it itches and causes the scabs, scars and red marks. My 11 year old son has started to pick at his scalp and I feel like it's my fault from watching me. I started doing this when I was undergoing ETC for depression. Yes everyone electroshock therapy. I don't think I really needed it. I was addicted to pain pills, which I have been sober from for 6 years, but I do suffer from depression and when I would run out of pills and feel the crash depression that it caused I would call my psychiatric and it appeared that my depression was worse than it is. I didn't know that the crash was caused by the pain pills and starting withdrawal. I was a suburban housewife with a two and four year old. My now ehusband traveled for work and I would go to the hospital three times a week and have ECT and then be left alone to care for my children. I couldn't do it. I think that it really started as a control thing. That was in 2005. When my ex found out about the picking he was disgusted. I used to go hide in the bathroom to pick and he would actually have my children come and spy on me and yell at me to stop picking. So here I am, years later still doing it and I want to stop. I'm afraid that at the age of two because my son saw me that's why he's doing it. I'm going to try the suggestions to start healing. But I think by telling this whole story I just did start the healing. I want to stop so bad. Any suggestions will help me. I WANT TO STOP THIS CYCLE!

Hello newperspective, I wanted to say this forum and your advice are truly a miracle for people who dont know that this exists and who are suffering in silence. I have for many years had to complusion and do pick at any imperfection I find, It culd be a small blackhead or a cyst and I will take my mirror and my pimple lancer and go at it for hours often through out the day. I tried your calamine and witch hazel idea last night after geting a few "blemishes" that are now little craters on the right side of my face, I was truly amazed at the results! they are healed up nicley and no longer weeping! Thank you, Im truly going to be reading the posts on the website and Im so happy I found others who are like me and Its strange but the shame went away completely yesterday when I read everyone's comments and struggles with skinpicking. I have found a family within this forum and please if anyone needs help or to just talk, feel free to message me.

Hello! I have been researching for tons of stuff here in the internet that might help me with these scars that I got from chicken pox already a month ago and I got a lot of reviews about this calamine lotion. Can you please tell me exactly the name of the calamine lotion that you have used? Because I tried to search for it in the amazon but a lot of lotion appeared and does it really work for old scars (my chicken pox scars are dot, colored black or dark gray)? The chicken pox that I got already a month ago left a lot of scars in my entire back and stomach, arms and chest part, and little in my knees and hands. I have been trying a lot of products but none of them helped me. The scars ended up looking clear dot black or dark gray and I am so stressed going out since I honestly don't use makeup and I am just so ashame and uncomfortable with it :-(

I have been suffering from a severe case of adult acne for the past year, of course making it worse by picking. I went the same route we all did in the beginning by using acne products, antibiotics from the dermatologist, and Retin-A. Nothing worked, and the Retin-A actually made it worse. I found a post on a website called www.medhelp.com that led me to believe my acne may be caused by a fungal infection rather than bacteria. I had nothing to lose so I purchased some tea tree oil face wash, colloidal silver topical gel, and a tube of clotrimazole antifungal cream. After only 24 hours, I noticed marked improvement. Then I found this post about calamine lotion, and I would like to incorporate it into my current skin regimen in order to clear up the existing scabs and lesions as quickly as possible. I am going on vacation in a few days and would love to have clearer skin in the pictures. I would like to know how and when to use the calamine lotion, specifically in what order should I use the products in? Unfortunately I have to wear make-up to work every day, so it will be about 10 days from now before I can go make- up-free, and then it will only be for two days at a time. This is my daytime regimen: tea tree oil face wash, Simple® oil-free gel moisturizer, colloidal silver gel, clotrimazole cream, Dermalogica® primer, Dermablend® cream concealer, Dermablend® powder foundation. This is my nighttime regimen: tea tree oil face wash, Simple® oil–free moisturizer, colloidal silver topical gel, clotrimazole cream, calamine lotion. A few things I would like to mention; first, the tea tree oil face wash is not oily, the Dermalogica® primer is for use over blemishes and it creates a smoother surface to put make up over, and the Dermablend® concealer is hands-down the best product for camouflage I have ever used in my life. I started a photo journal to record my progress, if anyone is interested please respond with your email and I will be happy to share. If you have any comments or suggestions about what I could do to improve or speed up the process, I would appreciate it so much. I would like to end by asking a question about the next step, what to do about scarring! I know I am going to have considerable scarring on my forehead, cheeks and jaw line. Are there any treatments such as dermabrasion or peels, that are really good at reducing or illuminating scarring? What about scarring creams? This is probably a topic that should have it's own post but if you have any information please respond.

Thank you for this suggestion. I'm going to purchase some today. I've heard of this as a home remedy from when I was a child. So I look forward to its benefits. Currently I find myself picking behind my ears and noticed I started the habit in my teen years and it intensifies when I'm studying for class. As of now my remedy is placing a scarf on my head and band aids on my fingers . I have days when I win and some loses but I'm determined to kick this habit for good

I have very sensitive skin, so am I able to use calamine lotion, to fade hyper pigmentation and pink skin after a scab that fell off ?? Btw what calamine lotion do u use

Just bought Calamine lotion, but I'm very nervous because I can't even tell you how many products I've bought to fight my face. I am hoping to the Calamine Gods that THIS IS THE ONE and I actually see results. Fingers crossed!

I am really excited to try this. I use Vaseline to make it harder for me to pick and lotion with lavender, rose water and calamine, but it gets expensive. I have found that mixing coconut oil with tea tree oil has really helped kill off bacteria when my picking spots have become infected.

Hi, I have picked my pimples since I was young and then in the past few years started plucking my eyebrows and picking with a tweezers . I would sit in front of the mirror (10 x mirror) and see every little hair or blemish and pick for hours! I am always late, or I don't leave the house until really late. I am still trying to get out of the house sometimes! My dermatologist put me on accutane and I bled when I tweezed, and I hated it, so I stopped. Then I started using a new product called Nerium AD and I am amazed at my skin . My pores are smaller , even the acne scars are almost completely gone! I am getting my eyebrows waxed now too. People are telling me that I have beautiful skin, and they can't believe that I am 53 yrs old!!! It's changed my life! I try not to pick and tweeze , and I'm not sitting at the mirror forever. I have even lost 30 lbs and quit smoking because I feel better and want to be healthy!! I didn't know there were so many people who did the same thing, or that it was a disorder .

I cannot express to you how glad I am to have found this site and this particular post. I am an elementary teacher, and lately have been obsessed with tweezing my brows. I am not talking simple tweezing...I will DIG until I get the tiniest of hairs. I have a horrible sore under my left eyebrow and I have spent hours crying in front of the mirror because of how awful I look. My boyfriend is so very understanding and I even had him hide my tweezers. I am going to buy calamine lotion right now!!! Just to be clear, I can put it on open wounds, correct?

Calamine lotion for sores from picking

Hi! I don't know if I will get a reply since this post is older. I recently slightly chemically burned an area on my face. Now it's just an open wound (not deep) but it's really red and bumpy so there is no covering with makeup. I'm going to try calimine lotion tonight on it. While I sleep should I leave it uncovered ?

I found this website, forum and particular post yesterday, and honestly...after over 2 years of suffering from CSP (undiagnosed) to the point of debilitation (job loss, missed opportunities, almost failing school, suffering relationships...) I can't tell you how grateful I am. The darkness has parted, and I can see the light. I can picture a life where I am not encumbered by these compulsions, and a big part of this is just knowing that there is a product out there that helps. Calamine lotion WORKS. I dont know how, I dont know what it is in particular that makes it so effective, but IT. WORKS. Just follow the steps newbeginnings out lines in her posts: wash with cetaphil antibacterial soap, apply up to 3 layers at a time, leave for an hour, rinse and repeat. I have yet to use witch hazel or a renewing cream, but after ONE day of using the lotion as directed above, my life has been saved. My skin is nowhere near perfect after a single day, but it is smooth enough to cover with foundation (a MIRACLE) and a new layer of thin skin has grown all over my entire face. Calamine lotion is a lifesaver, and this forum is a safehaven for people who are suffering. THANK YOU newbeginnings!!

Thank you for posting this. I had a very bad episode last night and my face looks horrible. I am trying to conceal it well enough that I can feel somewhat comfortable leaving the house to go to the store and buy some Calamine lotion. Neosporine does not help me other than reduces the pain. It is a nightmare to have this disorder. I am 58 years old and feel so sad and ashamed because of my skin condition. I will continue to seek help as nothing I have tried over many years has yet to help in a lasting manner. My hear goes out to all who suffer from skin picking.

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So are we talking about the pink kind? I have caladryl clear I use on my kids skinned knees or bug bites. Wonder if that would help the picked spots i've got going on on my face right now?

I have scabs inside my nose that I pick. Will calamine lotion work on those? I wasn't sure, since the nose is a bit different than picking a wound on the face. Thanks!

Hey newperspective I read your article and was so excited to try Calamine, as a few ago i picked on my tiny clogged pores and created three hugeeeeeee wounds on my face! Went to the derm and he prescribed me with topical steroids, which i really dont want to try coz i've already damed my skin a lot in the past. So right now i have absolutely clear skin except for those 3 huge wounds. Its been 4 days since i've been applying Calamine and one of the wounds is semi healed , but the other two JUST WONT heal!! Pleaseee help me! My birthday is in 4 days and i dont want to look like this ofor the party!!!!! HELP!!!!!

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't checked in for quite some time. The calamine lotion I used was the pink kind. It's very important that you follow-up with T.N. Dickinson's Witch Hazel. It will clean off any leftover residue from the calamine lotion and it truly does help heal and treat any existing wounds. The combination of the two products will really help speed up the healing process. I've been doing well. My skin has come a long way and while I still occasionally pick, I've learned to minimize my picking episodes, and more importantly to forgive myself when I slip into old habits. I truly have come a long way from when I first found this site and I'm thankful for any and all progress I have made over the years. Never give up! With continued effort, it does become easier over time. Like with our skin, time heals all wounds, both internal and external. XO!

Holy hell this stuff really works!!! After a particularly nasty picking spell followed by maybe an hour spent searching for ways to heal my ugly wounds, I came across this post and figured I might as well try it out. I've searched numerous times for the same thing, "how to heal skin picking wounds" etc, and I've only ever seen calamine lotion mentioned once before until I came upon this post, and for that reason I had a considerable amount of doubt concerning this method. But I slathered the stuff on anyway and prayed for results. I had it on for about an hour and a half, having to wash it off just now because it have an appointment today. As soon as I started rubbing it off I was absolutely floored. This really works!! I had it on not even for two hours and already the wounds look days old. Absolutely incredible!! I have the rest of the day free so I will DEFINITELY be applying more of this stuff the second I get home and leaving it on for as long as possible. I can't believe this. Absolutely astonishing.

Do you have a suggestion for how to use the calamine lotion to heal scabs on my scalp under my hair? Or does anyone have ideas for the best products to use under hair?

Sounds awesome... I'm gonna try it tonight and I'll let you know if it works for me too!

Thank you SO much for this. I'm really happy to hear that the spell can be broken. My skin's gotten so much better since using calamine. I've dabbled in tons of products by now. I use Advanced Healing Bandaids for fresh wounds; A+D ointment for scabs; Calamine for swelling, redness, and complexion; Zinc oxide for overall healing - it ruins sheets but saves your skin. (If you see a new pimple coming up slap some zinc on it and go to bed). Now all that's left is to stop the habit! Easy right...

Calamine lotion DID NOT WORK FOR ME. Okay so I recently picked the scab off my wound and I'm guessing it wasn't ready yet because I was left a with red, raw skin patch which was also oozing clear liquid. So all I've done is put neosporin on it and it has helped somewhat but I need it to heal fast since I have upcoming events. I also tried CALAMINE lotion but it started burning so I quickly took it off. what else can I do to make it heal faster?? How can I keep a scab from forming? or How can I make the scab fall off faster once it does form?? Please HElp.

After reading all these posts , comments and replies, I'm going to give this calamine lotion thing a shot...I've picked and squeezed a wide and somewhat deep of a crater into my chin from one of those deep underground zits that I guess would be considered either cystic acne or a boil? Anyhow, I look and feel Aweful with this huge hole in my face and make up just hasn't been able to conceal it ... If anything it makes it stand out because the hole is caked with concealer and face powder and it just accentuates it... I'm going to hope this works because I hate having to go out in public, or go to work, or even face my friends and boyfriend when I look like this....

Newperspective I can't thank you enough for this ! This truely is the fastest way to help with your picked skin ! And I've tried damn near every home treatment and remedy possible! But this one really does work at speeding up the process! Especially for the bad ones! Thank you thank you!

Newperspective I can't thank you enough for this ! This truely is the fastest way to help with your picked skin ! And I've tried damn near every home treatment and remedy possible! But this one really does work at speeding up the process! Especially for the bad ones! Thank you thank you!

Has anyone experiences with Calmine and scars at the skin around the fingernails?

Hi everyone.. I'm sorry to say that this method did not work for me :/ it actually ended up making my wound much worse to the point I got cellulitis and had to be on an antibiotic. My advice for open wounds from picking would be to not mess with it. Once the damage has been done, treat it as if it was a wound on any part of your body. What I did wrong was I put so many different products on it including the calamine lotion and I messed with it too much. Once it was infected and looked 100x worse, I just decided to treat it as a wound and leave it alone as much as possible. I bought the Cetaphil Antibacterial bar, and I do love that suggestion. I washed my face twice a day with the soap and then took a clean piece of gauze and dabbed it on the wound to dry it out. I then put on a small amount of this medicated honey sample that I got from a skin care package onto my wound with clean hands. I covered it with a non-latex bandage and left it on as long as I can. After a few days of doing that, my wound went from looking absolutely disgusting to nearly 100% healed. I'm telling you, please by medicated honey. Or Manuka honey, they both work!! If you treat your wound like any other cut and use bandages and keep it moist and clean, it will heal up in no time!!

"OOOH oh oh ohhhhh sweet cal.a.mine!!! * sings In the tune of sweet child of mine by guns and roses*

Thank you newperspective! I just reached for my calamine lotion, read the ingredients and it's the same as yours! I was skeptical, but of course, I wasn't consistent. You've inspired me to try again!

Hi everyone, I seriously just made an account to comment on this. I'll give you a bit of background first. I'm 21 years old and have been picking for 6-7 years. I had a forehead full of closed comodones and I picked every single one of them until they never came back. I got on birth control for other reasons about five years ago and the closed comodones stayed away. I'm still on birth control, a brand known for its effects on acne, but regardless my skin is pretty clear and nice looking. I empty the blackheads on my nose regularly and every time I get any on my forehead or next to my nose. Also I pick any milia I get, usually on my cheeks, because I can't stand the feel of them. Now to the point. I've seen every awful sore you can imagine. I heal surprisingly fast on my own, it usually takes 3 days for an average pick to heal and 5 for bigger ones. I live in Europe and they don't sell calamine lotion here, so I ordered it online for a big price. I've used it for two days, but the point is that i picked a milium today, 10 hours ago, it wasn't SORE bad but I did use a needle on it, so it wasn't going to be gone in one day. I put calamine on it for about 8 hours and it seriously does not look like i made it today. It looks one or two days old and much less red than it should. Now, I don't believe in miracles, but this is it. Also, I know that the whole forum has been quiet for a while and this thread obviously too, but I noticed people asking questions that newperspectives has already answered earlier (pages 1-4), so it would be useful for everyone to read a bit further back. Thank you everyone, I read every single answer and it helped me so much.

I have to update, because I know people read these things even years later. I got a bigger wound, all by my own hands, and since it was on my cheek it should have taken about 4-5 days to heal enaugh that the scab would fall off. This was a bigger sore than the previous one, so I slathered calamine all over it every time I was at home, even overnight (overnight use of the whole face calamine masking is not recommended because it might clog pores, but a sore is a whole different kind of "skin", so I didn't feel the need to let it breathe). I wear makeup during the day, so the forming scab wasn't really breathing. And let me tell you, it looked amazing! It was easy to cover even just 24 hours after creating the wound. Now it's been about two and a half days since the mess and it's barely even visible! It has the tiniest scab, a fraction of what it should be (knowing my own skin), it doesn't show under makeup and it's barely even pinkish. This bigger situation truly showed calamine's real potential compared to the smaller wound - the smaller one did also heal up neatly (less likely to provoke picking!) but not as fast, though I didn't keep the calamine overnight on that one, so I really believe that is the secret!

Does clear calimine work as well as the pink stuff on open wounds, acne and scars where I've dug into my sk8n?

Does the calmine lotion work for over exfoliated skin? I accidentally over exfoliated my skin, and it was burning so bad. And now I’ve got tiny bumps on my head looks like a rash and it’s very dry. Would it work for that please?

It's gotta be that pink chalky stuff I've read. I've tried it and it does work. Overnight application is iffy, sometimes it just ends up as a big pinkish crusty scab that just ends up being more of a Hassle to try and cover once you've washed it off...but everyones skin is different I suppose

I am planning on trying your advice! Congratulations on your success!! I'm hoping to have the same.

hi newperspective,, about 4-5 months ago I popped my pimple and it turned purple when I washed my face the purple flesh came off and revealed a wound. I tried everything to heal it aloe Vera, rose water, and polyspoin (spelling?) Iand it still hasn't healed. i still use rose water and aloe vera but it doesn't seem to really heal. im buying calamine lotion today and want to ask would it really work and help heal this wound. im only 14 years old and school os abut to stat again and i don't want to face my friends with is wound still on my face. what makes this even worse is that its in between my eye brows so i have no way to hide it. im too scared to put make up on it because i don't want it to get irritated and worse. so will calamine lotion help heal it? im really desperate.... (sorry if this made no sense)

Had a picking episode again...and it's an embedded red oozing mess with red inflamed edges...doing the calamine treatment and hoping it works....the wound has been here for almost a month now. ...

Had a picking episode again...and it's an embedded red oozing mess with red inflamed edges...doing the calamine treatment and hoping it works....the wound has been here for almost a month now. ...