Compulsive Skin Picking: My Face Is Finally Clearing Up!

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Sorry, I'm just so happy and I don't feel comfortable posting it on Facebook! Ignoring the fact that my one arm is still covered in scars from a dog (not an attack, it just had no manners), my face is finally starting to look somewhat normal. I had really bad cystic acne for a while and even though it's been under control for a year or two, I still have scars and it's triggered a compulsive skin picking problem that led to even more scars every time my acne flares up. Those are finally starting to fade after daily application of aloe and washing my face twice a day with Noxzema! My skin has always been a huge source of insecurity, and I'm so glad I'm starting to undo the damage I caused. I still have a long way to go, but today I looked in the mirror and didn't immediately see scars! I also have been less inclined to bother the pimples that do appear. The ones on my arm are not healing as nicely though. I'm worried they'll become permanent. But if my face could heal after years of abuse, maybe my arm will get better as well.

YAY for you!!

Congratulations! That is hard, I know.

Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? Why did you skin pick?

My reasons are:
• as a form of stimming (I rub and scratch my face to help me focus)
• because of my hypersensitive sense of touch (dirt, acne, and later scars, bothered my sense of touch, so I scratched and picked)

But, recently, I met someone who recognized that we had the same problem, and their reasons were different:
• an obsessive, compulsive need to make their skin look perfect (I do not care what my face looks like, only what my face feels like)


*By the way, I noticed that it lessened when I read a lot of Braille (my most recent special interest). The tactile sensation of reading Braille was a good substitute.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

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Long story short, I think impatience is the main reason and it started with the cystic acne I had when I was a young teen. Cystic acne is painful and I wanted it gone, and it took my parents a while to realize that I needed antibiotics to truly get rid of it.

I had BAD skin eczema as a kid & I compulsively skin picked too. I scratched till I bled & then I peeled the scabs off. Part of the reason was because I itched & part of it was because I was stressed out & angry a lot from struggling in school, getting bullied a lot, & parents not understanding my many issues & being on my back aLOT causing many meltdowns. I outgrew it a lot in my teen years partly because my stress was better. My skin still gets dry sometimes & really itchy in spots & I do scratch till I bleed sometimes but I try not to pick the scabs too much & I take Prednisone for a while to help with the itching & I put cream on sometimes when my skin starts to get bad.

Hi all

I'm new to this forum. I used to pick at my skin, especially my face, was on meds that made me break out more even into my 20's. I find that if my hands are busy doing other things, like typing, playing guitar, I don't have the compulsiveness to pick. I also know if I keep my mind occupied with other things, I'm less likely to pick. I have scars on my face, and other parts of my body, from past self harm, and used to get frustrated that they took a while to heal and would pick at them, but I have to learned that picking at it, doesn't make it heal any quicker.