angry at myself for failure to stop skin picking

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I keep picking my skin until I have gashes and then making a resolve (at night, usually) to stop once and for all. I've tried replacing it with my other repetitive movements (like twirling a string which I do anyway or fiddling with my necklace ect) when I feel the urge to pick. I've even tried scratching at objects instead. I've tried wearing gloves inside but they got so itchy and uncomfortable I had to take them off. I've tried cutting my nails so short that it's unsatisfying to pick but they grow back quickly and it starts again. I know it slightly increases the risk of getting some kind of cancer and blood poisoning and I;m actually terrified of getting a disease. Still, I continue to pick. It ages skin faster and makes me really ugly and that does eventually bother me. I keep saying that when I have the urge to pick I'll tell myself I can't do it bcs of increased risk of disease and ruining my skin but in the moment I just do it without thinking and once I start I want to finish, "even out" my skin. On this forum I read about someone who bought hydrogen peroxide and put that on the scars on her face whenever they were itchy but also whenever she had the urge to pick and she got addicted to the feeling of hydrogen peroxide instead.I tried it. That didn't stop me either. Obviously I don't care enough to actually stop or I can't care enough for long enough in any case. I'm so f*****g fickle! One night I can;t sleep thinking about how I'll never pick ever again and then the next day I gauge gashes in my skin! I hate myself! I want to stop NOW and never ever pick ever, ever again!

I don't have AS but I have had phases of skin picking and hair pulling since I was a child. I totally get the feeling of once you have started you need to finish until it feels perfect and smooth. I have even stayed up all night doing it before now.
I have found the longer I keep doing it for at a time the harder it is to eventually stop. The only way I have found to control it is to stop it as soon as I notice myself doing it. It makes me feel really panicky at first and I have a massive urge to keep going until it feels right but if I just try to talk to myself logically (in my head!) and tell myself that it won't end up perfect I'll end up looking like crap, in a lot of pain, tired, feeling rubbish and not getting anything done. After a while the anxiety subsides. It doesn't work all the time but it does most of the time.
I hope you find something that works.

I'm also a picker. I picked the tiny pimples on my arm to the point where it left scabs last summer and I bathe a fair bit, too so I don't know where they came from. My mum asked me what happened to my arm when we were clothes shopping one day. I made up a little white lie, saying that I walked into a rosebush while daydreaming as I was gathering cans and bottles to recycle. She believed me and told me to be a little more careful. I promised that I'd never pick again. I still have the scars on that arm.

I'm a skin picker. The worst of it is limited to a place on my left thumb, and also to my scalp (where at least nobody can see the scabs and things).

If I get a scrape or a scratched pimple anywhere else on my body then I enjoy picking the scab, but it usually stops with one pick and then I can let it heal and fade away. But my scalp and my thumb are "always on".

My thumb is always a mess and I'm self conscious about people noticing it. But I suppose I kind of feel at peace about doing it and haven't tried to stop, because I seem to need it, and I figure that because of where it is, it's not really harming anything.

Now, if it were your face you're picking, then I think that's of more concern because the scarring is going to be totally presented to the world. My thumb just looks calloused and ragged, but I think more important parts of the body presentation-wise, like the face, would be a problem.

Is it your face? Can you find another place to target and at least shift the habit to somewhere that doesn't wound as badly? I feel like as long as I limit it to the side of my thumb I'm doing okay.

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Many things are difficult to stop with having something in place to replace it. In other words the urge to do something and whatever positive stimulus it is providing is too strong to just stop cold. But you may be able to redirect it if you can find something close to as satisfying. I don't know what it could be, but one idea as an example would be a wide bracelet made of soft rawhide strands, that you could pick at instead of your skin. The rawhide has a somewhat similiar consistancy as far as picking, though it would lack the feeling of being picked. Hopefully something along that line would be enough. As it wears out replace it with new strands or a new bracelet.

Thanks for the responses , everyone. I'm pretty exhausted now so maybe I'll respond more thoroughly later. I have been working on my OCD related thoughts of having to make my skin smooth ect. but to no avail so far. I also pick at my scalp and my hands and yes, you're right , my face is worse in terms of presentation but I still haven't had success in just stopping picking my face. I have tried to replace it with fiddling with a necklace and doing other things...I'm now scratching at my new plushie owl's fur...we'll see if that helps. I'm not impressed with myself and my ability to follow through with my resolve so far.

I used to skin pick sometimes when I was in elementary school, then stopped.

I started up again. Ever since I stopped working, I have been picking my skin, and can't make myself stop it. I tried to stop several times. And I end up picking again without noticing until I already did damage again. Some people notice the sores on my face.

im exactly the same ! im a skin picker an when i daydream or just bored i pick my feet until they hurt , i used to do it when younger an then stopped for a bit an now ive got back into the habit again.

its like a really bad habit that i cant stop, and i wish i could stop it but its just boredom for me really . its like how far up can you pick your skin lol, til eventually it reaches the top of my toes an thats when i actually stop, but my feet end up sore as anything .

we need to give it up !

I still pick my nose, fingernails and toenails. Sometimes masochistically so. Gross... I really wish it could stop.

I read the suggestion of having a piece of felt to rub sometimes helps. I thought wearing cotton gloves might work. When I wore a wrist brace for an injury, I reduced picking my fingers by about 95% as it made the task very difficult.