Teenage daughter picking face

[pinkbubble]

I am a mum to 3DD's and very worried about eldest. If she gets worried or stressed then she picks her face. Most days she has at least 10 sores admittedly they are not huge but they are visible to the human eye. When I ask her why she does it her reply is I dunno do I. DH thinks she will get over it in time and to ignore it and it will fade away, unfortunately I cant see this happening as its been going on for a good year or so! I am so worried that she is going to be picked on by children at school(shame really as she has lovely clear skin with no spots in sight-just scabs!!)

sounds like she needs another outlet for stress / anxiety

I would consider cognitive behavioural therapy and yoga

definitely something I'd address

Really dont know how to go about this as DD doesnt show feelings directly, even to me and DH. We only get a hug if she wants one which isnt v often if anything would say she had slight and I mean slight autistic tendicies. To be honest v worried about this young lady

If your sure it is only stress related, than you need to find her another outlet for it. By her a stress ball - sounds silly but they are fab.

How did you get on at the doctors with DD, pinkbubble?

Dermatillomania (sp?) is the name for skin pickers. I have trichotillomania and when I'm stressed I pull my hair out til I have bald patches. I've also pulled out my eyelashes and other bodyhair at times.

I don't know what to suggest really, nothing works for me except waiting for the stressful period to pass.

Talk to her and try to find out what's worrying her. My mum used to pump me full of Kalms but I don't think they helped at all.

I second twig, it should be addressed. Wish my mum had done something positive about me when I was pulling my hair/eyebrows/eyelashes out aged 10 plus, instead of shouting at me. I moved on to picking my face as a teen.

I had some severe issues and would have greatly benefited from prof help a lot earlier. No chance of my mum doing anything about though as home life was a large part of the cause.

She needs to learn how to cope better CBT is very good. It is similar behaviour to self harming.

Thanks for this information, I did have to take her to the Drs recently and I brought up the problem(admittedly it was not my Dr, but basically told me not to worry and I was making her more conscious about it. She also looked into DD's notes and told me infront of DD about us having CP issues due to my PND almost 7yrs ago!!!I left there feeling very frustrated and upset about mentioning such things infront of DD who is obviously at the best of times a very sensitive young lady!