To ask (TW compulsive behaviours) if any other MNers experience dermatillomania?

[YesSheCan]

Having an anxiety flare and after a long time (several months) of not picking the skin on my face, I started again tonight and have made a big mess. Basically, part of my anxiety can involve compulsive skin picking. I was doing really well having made my own fiddle toys to break the habit but recently got a tiny premenstrual spot on cheek, one of those deep sore ones, and have succombed to squeezing the absolute shit out of it. Put a hydrocolloid dressing on it couple of days ago and it was almost healed then I prodded it tonight and there was still a sore 'core' to it so - sorry about this and don't ever do this to your skin in case any sensible person would - I stuck a pin into the 'blocked pore' repeatedly to 'get out the crap' (I perceive there to be a load of yucky gunk in there that I 'need' to remove then it will all be fixed. Of course, this is an overvalued idea and all I do is make a horrible weeping sore on my face that takes weeks to heal and it's so hard to leave it alone once it's there). Guess I'm just looking for someone to tell me they've had this and permanently kicked the habit. I'm not a drug or alcohol addict but this damn skin picking feels like an addiction and I've relapsed again.

Stupidly I didn't realise this was actually a 'thing'. I can't stop squeezing/picking my face when my anxiety is bad but thought it was just something I did (not something that was commonplace with anxiety sufferers). I guess I'll go and have a Google

AhoyDelBoy it's not stupid to not know it's a condition. I didn't and I'm a doctor. Only know about it because I do it and I googled extensively to find out what I could do to help myself. Not sure that it's commonplace with anxiety sufferers but anxiety is a common trigger in those who compulsively skin pick, iyswim. It can also be a manifestation of OCD.
It really is worth seeing your GP about your anxiety and as PPs have said, therapy can help with the picking (although you'd have to be lucky to get an NHS therapist who knows about it, unless you live in London and have access to the Body Focused Repetitive Disorders Clinic, or luck out and your therapist happens to have experience of treating it)

Yep, dermotillomania and trichotillomania here, both (now, years on...) thought to be linked to my asd.

This thread might be of use to someone, helped me figure through some feelings:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3277669-Taking-it-out-on-your-body-exploring-possible-roots

I was on meds for anxiety and depression but they made me gain a huge amount of weight. I also have food issues and very low self esteem and the weight gain made me more depressed. Doc just said it was an “unfortunate side effect”, so I just stopped taking them.

BeyondRaggydoll that is an interesting thread and links to articles - had a bit of a read but will look at in more depth when I have more time and am not so frazzled.
Littlepond sorry to hear the antiD didn't suit you. Might be worth trying others. I had bad experience with two other antidepressants but the one I take now is ok. Try not to be put off seeing your GP because you had to stop taking that medication x

I never knew this was a thing. I don’t feel so alone now. I pick my scalp and have terrible scans... which makes me pick more. Ive done it since I was little and it’s worse when I’m anxious, stressed or depressed (most of the time 😂😂)

I’d love to know how to stop.

I pick my scalp, bite the skin on my fingers and pull hair out - mostly my eyebrows.

My hairdresser noticed a huge one with a bald patch and I lied and said it was an insect bite :(

Checking in as I suffer on my face - just been referred for cbt

Also regarding your experience with gps dismissing it - I had the same as I didn’t present enough other examples of anxiety or ocd so they just gave me a cream for my face to try and stop the spots (which are caused by me touching my face!) only when I cried did hey give me a leaflet so I could self refer to other services (who then referred me to cbt as they say it’s a behaviour thing I need to learn not to do?)

Doing my makeup - even just concealer it seems - helps to stop me picking my face, at least during the day, as I don’t want to ruin it!

Except this thread has now given me the urge to go to the mirror and ‘sort out’ a cystic spot that I can now ‘feel’ throbbing on my face...I always seem to convince myself that one more go at a spot will sort it out...when actually it just makes it more and more of a mess

Also a doc. What are they doing to us?!

Yep I do it too - I also found it a relief when I discovered it was a ‘thing’ I’ve also been on ssris but tbh it didn’t help this particular manifestion of anxiety. The best thing I can do is remove mirrors form my house- or I use a really small impractical mirror so I can’t pick at my face.

I have quite good skin too so my thing is squeezing the sebaceous filaments on my t zone. I wish I could stop! I watch dr pimple popper too as to get my ‘squeeze fix’ but I find it just makes me wish I had a good blackhead or two!

I suffer with this. What has helped me is really short nails, big thick acrylics are better but I'm not allowed to have those at,work.

Also I've managed to control the acne, retinol, cleansing etc and for the first time I feel as if I'm spoiling my face if I pick at it.

Also, I do,only,pick those in my scalp and sometimes I just,put a plaster on to,stop myself. Also, I've caught other people doing it and remind myself how gross it looks.

its feet and fingers with me, i'm sitting here now with a foot up, picking my toe nails and at any loose bit of skin on my feet (and not loose)

Its partly unconscious habit and partly anxiety related with me.

While you are waiting for a therapy slot, you could try cognitive control training games.

These are supposed to increase your ability to control what you pay attention too.

I've found them a) massively annoying because I am hopeless at them, b) useful in controlling my impulse to ruminate (not the same as a physical manifestation, but I'm guessing the underlying mechanisms are very similar in terms of responding to a compulsion)

I'm a picker really savage picking of cuticle, pulling off little toenails. I have forms that they absolutely only way for me is to have gel nail.polish and keep.my.nails short. The gel nails are like caps which stop picking fingers from being able to.grip. it literally stops immediately. And then I find once it's healed, I forget to bite. I have cuticles and toenails these days. Red and fake shiny which is not my style but pink and healthy skin!

Me. It's sometimes a nervous thing - I used to do it in exams - but also if i'm bored. I fiddle hair too which is slightly less harmful but makes my head feel awful and probably contributes to the bit of alopecia I get from time to time. If I can keep myself busy and really involved in what I'm doing it gets better. But even in a good job there are difficult bits and dull bits.

God I didn’t realise other people did this. I feel so much less weird now. I compulsively pick part of the skin on my ear. I can’t even remember how it started but I am in a constant cycle of picking it until it bleeds and then picking the scab. I had no idea it was an anxiety thing but I have had a very stressful few years and I’ve been quite anxious during that time.

Not the same but instead of biting my nails I bite and eat the skin around them.

I often don't realise that I'm doing it.

Would a distraction like putting an elastic band on your wrist (not tightly) and then pulling it and snapping it on to your skin when you get the urge to pick help. It will do less damage.

I do it- my face is a mess currently

I used to be very bad for this (hours at a time in the bathroom, and have also done the pin in spot thing!), and the only thing that has really helped is no mirror/ crap mirror in the house. I still pick at anything I can (chapped lips, spots I can feel, etc) but I don't really fuck my face up so bad I have to hide it anymore. I can cope with a really crap, smoky mirror in a badly lit room just to get a general impression of what I'm wearing.
I found fancy moisturising lipstick helped with my lips as there's less to pick at- this is better for me than lip balm, as putting that on can lead me to pick. Sudacrem is good on spots so they're a bit greasy and harder to pick. There's this overnight face mask by Skincerity that is pretty expensive and smells horrible, but has also helped me with keeping skin smoother and harder to pick.
I took an antibiotic as an anti-malarial once that kept my skin much clearer, which helped with picking while I was on it.
I do my makeup in the car on my way out. I occasionally pick in the car and in changing rooms, and always when staying in hotels, so even after years of no mirror at home I'm not safe!
Good luck with it everyone. It's a fucker of a habit.

I've done it my whole life to my hands, and also the inside of my mouth. I do it subconsciously, and I don't realise I'm doing it. It's comforting to see that I'm not alone.

Yep. Fingers, inside of mouth, lips. My hands are gross. Have done since I can remember. Have an anxiety diagnosis and conversations around BPD/EUPD in the past but no dx.