For those of you in therapy for dermatillomania or trichotillomania, has your therapist had you try to go longer and longer without picking/pulling? Can you please explain how specifically they recommend that you do this?
To my understanding, it’s usually trying to step up the amount of time between noticing the urge (while not actually doing the behavior) until you give in. Sort of like ERP, where you make yourself sit with the discomfort for 30s longer this time. I imagine this could be done by having a stop watch on-hand or keeping a timer on your phone that you steadily increase each time you try and resist? But I haven’t personally had a therapist have me try this, so this is just from what I’ve seen other places online. The only treatment I’ve ever really gotten for my BFRBs, before my current psychiatrist prescribing me an anxiolytic, was wearing brightly colored accessories on my hands/wrists so that I would notice my hand going up to my hair or to my face not just somatically (feeling the movement, subconsciously) but also visually (seeing the flash of color and not just my arm moving).
@mathsbian Thank you. That last part is interesting and definitely something I hadn’t thought of. I pick the same spot on my lip and have since I was a little girl. A lot of times I do it without realizing. Something like that could potentially help me. But otherwise, when I do catch myself doing it, I need to work on increasing the time in between picking. Do you increase it by 30 seconds every single time or do you, say, increase it for 30 seconds for a day or a week and then increase it after another day or week?
@mathsbian I’ve heard you can find ways to keep your hands busy when you feel the urge to pick, but I feel like that’s could be more like avoidance in OCD treatment. Although, what’re your thoughts on it?
@Catlady Finding other ways to satisfy the urge (other things to do with your hands) isn’t really an avoidance issue, in my opinion. It’s still doing the exposure, but maybe finding a more healthy outlet for the compulsion to become so that it doesn’t have to be something you fight. I don’t know what the best method for increasing time would be. I unfortunately haven’t gotten that kind of treatment plan in my own therapy yet. However, for myself, I would probably try to add 10-15 seconds each time I become fully conscious of the urge and try to fight it; that seems somewhat manageable, at least to myself, without having tried it. I don’t know how “catching myself mid-pull/pick-session” would fit into that, though… it feels much harder to stop when I catch myself already picking or pulling, so I might have a separate timer for that, and increase that time more slowly, maybe adding 30-seconds to 1-minute every week? Even thinking through all this, to type out a reply, I’m realizing how much I need to set goals like this for myself. All of my BFRBs are so bad right now, so even trying to stop myself for 10-15 seconds would feel like a huge step in the right direction.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to stop picking at their scalp?
What does a therapy session with an OCD specialist look like for y’all? This is something I’ve always wondered because I’ve only had one OCD therapist through NOCD. Our sessions always looked like sit there and “reduce anxiety” meaning don’t think for a few minutes and take a few deep breaths and rate your anxiety level every couple of minutes. AND that was it. Is it supposed to look like that? Because I haven’t seen anyone on this app talk about this or how their therapy sessions go. I’m considering restarting therapy but I want to know how therapy goes for you guys before I go back to the same specialist. Any input would be appreciated :)
Hi everyone. <3 was wondering if anyone with experience dealing with excoriation/skin-picking disorder has some tips or tricks that have particularly helped them. Came to NOCD this week for help - first timer that would really like to be able to wear a tank top again 😅🫠 I did join the BFRB support group but unfortunately will be on a night shift this week when it meets . Thank you in advance ❤️
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