Compulsive skin picking

[ariane5]

How do I stop?

I have done this for years, I get nervous/stressed and do it.I do it when I'm ok and don't even realise.

I pick my skin round my nails most and they are painful and bleeding and get infected.My nails are ruined as nail beds so picked and Iam embarassed of my hands.

Lately I started picking the skin on bottom of my foot and it gets so sore I end up limping.

How can I stop?

I wish I had an answer, I have the same problem. My thumbs are the worst... I did stop for a while, but found that I replaced it with pulling hair instead.

I try to put hand cream on as ignore as possible, and keep an elastic band on my wrist to give my fingers something to do when I feel myself doing it.

Speak to your GP, you can get cbt to help this.

I pick the skin around my nails too, and worse, dry skin on my lips. Sometimes I don't do it for a few weeks, and sometimes I pick holes in them :(

With my fingers I've found that keeping them manicured and skin moisturised makes me a bit less likely to pick.

It has got so bad lately that I dread having to pay for things in shops or anything where people will see my hands.

Dh jokes that it looks like I've put my fingers through a shredder but its true.I would love nothing more than to have lovely hands/nails but even if I stopped picking my nails are damaged and misshapen due to years of picking.

I pick my head... I've got bald patches and sores on it .

I do this too and have for years, looks terrible after swimming especially

I pick too. Worse when stressed. Hate my hands.

Please speak to your GP. There is help available - CBT is great for this.

Some info here

Another skin picker here - i go for the skin round my nails - i don't even know i'm doing it sometimes and i make them bleed - sometimes i put plasters on my fingers or tape to stop me picking - but i start again when i take them off. i try to allow myself only 2-3 fingers on each hand to pick - that works sometimes. i use a nail clipper to cut off the ragged bits so there's no bits to pick at and i use a emery board to smooth away the rough bits so i wont pick so much. its worse at the moment cause my hands are so dry with winter - i put on loads of hand cream to soften them and wear rubber gloves for dish washing, etc

I have an occasional habit of picking the skin around my nails.

I haven't done it for ages as Ive been keeping my nails nice, but this weekend I have been feeling a bit frazzled and Ive sat and picked.

I'll pick, then they are a bit sore, then when the sore bits dry out I picked that dry skin too!

Definitely a stressy type thing here.

I agree with duende that keeping them manicured and moisturised helps...usually!

Oh I do this with the skin around my nails. I've got psoriasis on my scalp as well and have caused my left temple to go a bit bald with all the picking.

Today I saw my DS's thumb (he's 11) and he'd picked it till it bled. It really upset me

I've done this my whole life - there's a fancy medical name for it but I can't remember it.

I find I'm more drown to picking off the picked bits - so if one finger has got healed fully I tend to leave it alone. Lots of moisturiser with urea in helps me as then there aren't as many tempting picky bits - hope I'm making sense here?

I'm also a foot picker and saw a chiropodist when I had persistent cracked heels. They recommended foot cream with 25% urea in (I use Flexitol Heel Balm)- it hurts like crazy if you put it on sore skin but my heel cracks healed within a week and my feet were nice and smooth so not so tempting. Even better my hands healed because they were covered in the cream I was putting on my feet.

Hope this helps - I go through phases when my hands are so embarrassing. If anyone has a cure, please let me know!