Harm reduction picking

As some of you may be aware, harm reduction is acknowledging that one may still harm oneself but since it's so damn hard for a lot of us to stop, minimizing the harm will ultimately be better for the participant. Harm reduction is normally associated with drug users...such as providing clean needles to heroin junkies, or a red hazardous container for them to put used needles into. YES, people will continue to do drugs, but lets reduce the harm they are doing (or could possibly do [such as use dirty needles and get HIV]) to themselves....hence, harm reduction................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Yesterday, I decided to quit picking my scalp (I have been a picker since 7 or 8 years old [eyelashes/eyebrows/lips/scalp/hair etc.]) Since this isn't my first rodeo with quitting something addictive, I decided to apply the rules of harm reduction instead of cold turkeying it. I have already over come scalp picking in the past but due to a stressful ex break up type of shit; it's baaaaaacccckkkk....Currently, I have 6 sores on my head. Three are about the size of my pinky nail - what I've dubbed 'Big kahunas"and the others are smaller but all within the same region. (I'm right handed and my left hand does most of the picking..) In my prime of picking I amassed enough souvenir scabs to fill two film containers. I think I may still even have them...somewhere........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Anyways, yesterday, what I did was PICKED ONLY ON MY SMALLEST SCAB ZONE in order to let the larger ones heal properly. The big ones were huge, hard, bubbly, painful (but I kept on rubbing on them and applying pressure...and yes, I know how hard it is to read about this as you are probably sitting there at your computer with your fingers in your hair ready to blast the cap off that scab) but for me, it seemingly worked very well. I still got to satisfy the need to pick - by picking at the small scabby - while letting the others heal. Truth be told, I did end up picking all of them at the end of the night (just once!) but when the large ones grew back - they were not hard as they normally are when I pick at them all day long - the only one that grew back hard was the small one I had been picking on all day!...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................It's harder to pick soft subtle skin than a huge honking scab; thus far, the big kahunas are healing quite nicely...I am still picking on the small spot but a lot less..at least today. I hope this is of help to some. :)