- Username
- Andaw
- Date posted
- 1y ago
Skin picking
Any recommendations on how to stop skin picking? :(
Any recommendations on how to stop skin picking? :(
I want to encourage you to explore this area with a qualified therapist. Here at NOCD we use a treatment called habit reversal training. There is hope!
@Jamie Fall Yea, I reached out but I don't have an appointment till later and it happened before our last session. Thank you!
this isn't the same but I used to obsessively mess with my hair. run my fingers through it over and over. pull at it. pluck it out. it's some kind of anxiety thing that's a cousin to skin picking, I forget the name. I stopped doing it when I did research on my hair type and started taking care of it properly. I have pretty curly hair so when one of the steps to taking care of it was... "don't touch it. don't even run your fingers through it." I tried everything to stop doing it. it was hard at first, and I messed up a lot--for months!--but eventually I quit entirely. I think having some kind of an incentive not to or a goal you're trying to reach (unrelated to but including quitting) helps a lot. so, I'm not sure what that would look like for you, but if you find something truly meaningful, it could really help
@zombye I gave myself pink eye, styes, and bald spots on my lashes. I guess my goal would be to not lose all my lashes but I'll collaborate more with my therapist. Much appreciated
@Andaw for me, i caused a lot of damage to my scalp especially. I think I inherited it from my mom, she kept picking her eyebrows until they never grew back. I'm really glad it doesn't seem like I caused noticeable permanent hair loss, but I do have a lot of scarring. some are pretty bad where I kept picking the skin with my fingers.. anyway! yeah, for me, any positive goal that wasn't about stopping something, but instead making something good that I really care about happen, that seems to work better. maybe it's because positive reinforcement works better, who knows.
I’ve been skin picking since I was 10 and just now got it under control. I’m 32! My biggest advice is to get into ERP to treat the underlying OCD. Second, the only way to stop is just to stop. But that didn’t happen immediately for me. I picked both when I felt anxious about certain themes and just absentmindedly when my mind wondered. To start off, if I was anxious or just caught my hand wandering toward my skin to pick, I would say “nope not now!” And snatch my hands away. Id clasp my hands to give them something to do (if I wasn’t driving or anything) and would tell myself if I felt like I really needed to pick in an hour, I could. Usually (but not always) it would pass by then. As the months went on, it became easier for me to just avoid picking all together. I still mess up every once in a while - but my skin has never looked this good and that’s a huge motivator to keep going. I hope this helps! You got this!
Any tips on how to stop SH?
Does anyone have any tips they can share as to what they do to prevent intrusive images from coming into their brain? Or when it happens how to cope?
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