6 Tips To Avoid Picking: Dermatillomania 

I was picking while watching. I feel bad

Haven’t made it a whole day yet but every day I get a little further. I cry a lot when I fail. And you’re so right. If my hands aren’t moving I start unconsciously scanning. You’re a good person.

I'm a 17 year old boy, I have had tough experiences with picking the skin from my thumb, it's always the thumb I like to pick at. I'm now 29 days clean, and haven't picked since. Thank you so much 💜❤️

Alright.... I'm honestly having a pretty hard time figuring the root cause for why I do this. So here goes me best guess: I mainly pick when I'm bored, or inactive. Pretty simple. At least, you'd think. But... The longer I fight the urge, the stronger it gets. One day is the longest I can without picking a spot, then the urge gets so strong I just want punch something or squeeze something. And the urge does not go away. It does at first. It comes and goes. But when I fight it for long enough, as I said, it gets stronger. So strong that it's all I can think about. It takes all my willpower so I don't pick at that spot. If I am wearing gloves, it works well in the beginning. Really well. But you can't wear gloves forever, and even if I did, the urge is still there. Still manifesting itself. Creeping up on me, slowly driving me insane. Fidget toys don't help very well, because I _want_ to pick, and if I stop paying attention to the toy, my hands will put it down and start searching my face. Which completely destroys the purpose of a fidget toy. It feels like there's just no winning for me. I have no clue what to do. I'm 13, and have only been dealing with this for maybe 2 years or so, but it's just now getting worse, I think. I've very slowly graduated from just one spot around my nose, to my entire face, my scalp, some on my fingers, and I eat the skin, too. Uhh yeah. That's my rant. Bye.

I dont see a lot of people talking about scalp picking. If any of you do let's have a conversation about it.

i've been picking my face and scalp since i was a child. i think for me it's a self-stimulatory behaviour since i'm autistic and it calms me down but i also do it just out of boredom as well. i've bought fidget toys and it's gotten better but i still have a long way to go!

thank you so much! my depression, anxiety and ocd have been getting worse since quarantine began and those are all reasons for my skin picking... this made me feel relaxed and less alone

Awesome video. So helpful. Thank you :)

Thank you :) this is very helpful

34 days clean now. It's working! I thank you so much. 💙💜

Thank you so much for making this video. It was so helpful on so many levels

Thank you for that video so much ❤️❤️❤️

A skin care ritual is a wonderful idea thanks for sharing 🙏

Thanks for sharing. I learned some great new tips.

Thanks for this, Carolyn. I'm currently dealing with picking my head skin. Greetings from Mexico

Thank you , ill try , much love xx

Thank you so much for the video.

This is helpful, thank you

Thank you for this video! I'm sorry you have dermatillomania too, but I'm glad I'm not alone.

Thank you very much. I cried at the end your words are so sweet. Sometimes I do feel like all I am is a skin picker. It’s so frustrating I just want to love myself better.

thank you for this.

I appreciate you so much for this. It was difficult to get through the whole thing without picking but your reminders at the end were very helpful.

I will try this thank you....!

Omg thank you so much i watch so many videos that didnt help i mean didnt but you video was perfect and too long and hard explain better than any other video i watched thank you again💕❤💗💖💙

Thank you 😊

thank u so much for these tips!! they were really helpful to me

I have it! Thank you.

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for this video, I started doing a lot of these tips awhile ago and they helped so much, I’m maybe around a month clean from picking which is a huge win for me. Also a rather interesting story from me, to distract my hands from picking, I started crocheting just to keep my hands off my face when I’m watching something or have nothing else to do with my hands, and it turns out I’m actually good at crochet so i guess it helped me find out smthn cool about myself that I never woulda found out before lol

Thank you 🤗🤗🤗 This is so helpful! I haven't picked in two full days and I'm so happy with the new masks and moisturizers I bought to treat myself and encourage me to build healthier habits around my skin!!

Thank you so much for these tips and wonderful advices :) I suffer from dismorphofobia and dermatilomania. The dismorphofobia makes me see things in my face that do not exist. And I pick myself in the legs and arms when I am anxious our sad. But I have to share here that is completely possible to have a normal life with these conditions. I can spend months without picking myself. But I am going to use these tips when I am more anxious :) Thanks for sharing these tips with all of us! Much Love and Admiration from Portugal!

Great tips beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

When you said nobody else sees the flaws, this is a trick that your mind plays, I thought that was beautifully said and extremely comforting. Go far, bright star! Thank you! ☆☆☆

I had suffered bad from severe social anxiety growing up on & off depression's sometimes insomnia. I feel like it has also resulted in a skin picking problem for me. It’s been something I do every night for years. I hate it because I have to wear makeup everyday on my face before I leave the house to cover up my scars. I pick on my back & face. I use to pick my the skin my arms I’m glad I stopped picking there.

thank you so much

You are very very pretty! 🥰 Be happy

Thick moisturizer and cotton gloves to sleep in helps me at night.

I’m in construction I stay very bizzy but it’s never enough . Thank you so much. I ripped my feet so bad I can’t walk:/

I almost wish i had sight problems bc i see TOO well and can see when there is a raised bump on skin from a mile away it seems. I’m struggling so much it is so so so hard for me and it’s affecting my life and no one understands

Fake nails made it impossible to pick. It was great.

I don't even know how i came across your videos but I'm happy I did You are so frickin beautiful lmao

Iam suffring with ear pimple rashes reapeated by 6 years what is my problem???

I pick the bottom of my feet so bad that I CANT walk!!! it's awful!!! I've gotten fake nails for a while but they are so EXPENSIVE now that I can't afford it all the time. Thank you for your tips

I was playing with a fidget cube during this. I've found that you can kind of pick at the side with the clickable buttons without them coming off

Perfectionism is a trigger.

I know I’m late but I’ve been picking since I can remember, I’m 14 now but I mainly pick my fingers, cuticles, and lips. My mom tells me it’s just a nervous tic but i do it all the time and not just when I’m nervous. When I was younger i picked so bad that I got a cuticle infection and lost my finger nail, I’m Afraid it is going to happen again. Nothing anyone has said has stopped me from picking and I think I may have ADHD. When I start I do not stop til I’m bleeding everywhere and this happens all day every day. The mirror part of your video helped me though. Thank you

I think maybe painting your nails, and just picking off the polish could stop you from damaging the skin.

I pick my head. I do suffer from anxiety, but I’m wondering can this be stopped for good? I do it even if I’m not stressed

I just found out tonight that my "sensitive skin" could be a possible disorder of a sort. It's really similar to my situation and I've been picking my skin since I was 6 at least, I've been given treatments like lotions, creams, and even oat meal baths and my skin would get better or my scars would get lighter but they kept on coming back and I too beat myself up for it because of how much everyone is trying to help and how I can't help it. One of the greeting's that family members say to me is "Heyyy how's your legs doing?" Man it really sucks. I'm 14 and it hasn't changed and I'm really hoping to change it soon, but I keep scratching my skin and I don't even realize it, I could wake up the next day and find a wound I didn't know was there, so I suspect that I scratch in my sleep. I reallyyyy hope this will help, the last dermatologist I went to just said that I have to avoid stuff like dusty and dirty places, sand, plants, fur, and feathers and its been called "sensitive skin" and I've been told that I just had a thinner layer of the top layer of the skin or something, I hope to get this properly checked out and I'll try my best to stop myself or distract myself from scratching. Plenty of thanks to you, I got a lot more insight on this. Lots of love❤️💕

I pick at my chest, my back, and my face. That's my main area. I want to stop, but it’s so very hard. Too hard. My mom and dad want to contact a doctor. One part of me wants to, but I feel like this is something I need to fix on my own. I know I can't do it because if it was so easy I would have stopped for a long time ago. I want to cry😰 my mom tells me «do you want to look like that when we go on vacation?». I couldn’t care less. My dad understand me though. He wants to help, so does my mom, but she is just making it worse. Probably because I don’t want to know the reality, which is terrible. I feel so dirty and sick and Idk. I just want to cry.

only gloves helps a lot, but what kind of gloves?

you are so cute, thank you!

Getting acrylics is the best for me, I simply stop! Then again acrylics are not safe and your body absorbs those chemicals. I'm going to work on trying in between having acrylics to see how long I can go without absolutely needing to get my nails done again, until can break this life long habit.

💓

Thank you this helped a lot

I have a MIRROR CLOSET .

You’re sooo beautiful

Tip number 6 is to eat food that do not trigger pimples.

To be honest, I really like to pick my lips. I use chapstick every night so that I could pick my lips in the next day lol Maybe I should use chapstick more often so I don’t pick my lips.

i'm so frustrated. i had gone a whole day without picking and then woke up to blood all over my hands and i had just picked my entire face. once i start picking it's so hard to stop so now i'm back here to get motivation to stop

Is it just me or do i pick my fingers....?