Skin Picking

[HollyBob]

Hey guys,

Currently being treated for GAD but I think I'm coming up with some obsessive behaviours and compulsions so I thought I'd post here.

I have a severe skin picking problem. Any blemish on my body that I can feasibly reach is in danger. My face is particularly damaged; a particularly bad breakout that happened a couple of months ago is still attempting to heal and my face is quite scarred in some places.
I constantly pick at my face, lips, shoulders/neck and scalp. I also pull out my hair sometimes.

I know that this is a problem and I'm going to see about getting some CBT to maybe help but what I was wondering you guys could help me with is healing remedies.

Does anyone else suffer with these issues and, if so, do you have any remedies to soothe skin, speed up healing or just to make yourself feel better?

Thanks!

[rb1978]

I don't really have any remedies or advice but I do do this. It's only fairly recently that I realised it was connected to anxiety and it was an ocd type behaviour. I tend to pick my lips when I'm nervous; some mornings I'll start picking before I'm even fully conscious if I've had a really restless night.

I also pick the skin around my nails and also (this is gross, sorry) peel layers off my nails. I've kind of cured the nail thing by using nail varnish. Once they're painted, I don't want to disturb them.

With lips, I've yet to find anything that stops me doing it :(