What are these things?????

[angelinapb]

I pick. I am ashamed to say so, but I pick. I wonder what these little white things are that are in the middle of pimple. Sometimes they pop out if I squeeze hard, and sometimes I take my tweezers to pick or pull them out. They almost look like a pore, what is left in my skin is like a litllle pin hole.
What are these things?
dear god help me, A.

[Mary Ann]

I dont understand these white things but I hate them soooo much. and when I get a real sore swollen pimple if I dont get the white thing out and let the hole it leaves bleed a little then I know its out and then it heals pretty quick ( if I could leave it alone it would) but I 've had times when I really tried to leave it alone and it just wouldnt go all the way away until I dug the s.o.b out of there and a lot of times I have to dig so much to get it because of how deep rooted the DAM WHITE THING is. Does this happen to anyone else? I thought I was the only one who got the f-n white things.

[anonymousartist]

There was a thread on this a while back. I think we decided it might have been collagen?

I dunno, but now I've got a "white" thing that looks permanent on my nose ('cause when I picked at it it wouldn't come out and I got a red spot and had to remind myself after a couple times that it made me look like Rudolf! Anywhere else wouldn' be so embarrassing). The one time I really went after one to get it out I got a big, enlarged pore on my nose. So if you can, avoid these at all costs. For me it does help to remember that it just isn't going to come out no matter what and move on to something else if you must pick.

As far as the white stuff that does come out, in the pores I think is it sebum, which is natural to soften the skin.

In white-heads and infected pores one of our posters (neuromancer) stated that she had argued with dermatologists and they said that the white stuff we are popping out of there is a collection of white blood cells from our body that are there fighting the infection, and that whatever foreign bacteria is in there almost never really comes out. So what we think we're making better we're just hindering our bodies from healing. Remembering this really helps me not to pick (when I remember it).

[petunia]

those f**king white things are the bane of my existence! i hate hate hate them. my mission in life is to get rid of all of them.
it doesnt seem like they are collagen, though. i would think collagen is fibrous and stringy or something, not little bulbs.
and anonymousartist, the problem is that sometimes they actually DO come out. and when they do, the sore heals up nicely and that spot stops forming a new zit. if the damn thing stays in, that spot will never completely heal, and there will always be that bump and gunk under the skin. most of the time they do not come out successfully, but the times that they do, is what keeps me from quitting. because every once in a while, one does come out and it is the most satisfying feeling in the world.

[Froglet]

God I so agree... its what makes it so hard to quit... those times when the picking actually seems to HELP the spot heal faster! But its such a small percentage of the time. I always thought that the white things where a sort of white black head type thing. Just a block of gunky crap. I think if you look up acne spots on the internet you might find definitions of the different 'types' of spot. It does feel so good when you manage to get it out in one piece and spot stops being painful. That little hole thats left all puss free... My god, how can picking a spot possibly be so satisfying?!
Some times I can tell its not going to come out, and I keep on diging. Thats when things turn nasty!
We have to stop thinking about the satisfaction of picking though... I have this awful picture I took of myself after one mother of a session, to remind me not to pick. If I didn't live with my boyfriend, I might stick it on my mirror, bt its so bad... Im to embarressed! maybe I should make myself look at it before I go to pick?

[pookadot]

Are you talking about whiteheads? because thats what i usally get instead of big red ones. And i just call the white stuff puss and like some of you i cant just get a little bit of puss out i have to dig until it's all out and when it starts bleeding then i know it's all out and i think it will heal up faster and go away quicker if i pick it out. But as i keep squeezing with my nails to get it all the nails scrape the skin around it and make it bigger and then into a big wound. But im trying to say to myself a little white head is far easier to cover up then a huge big scab.

[petunia as guest]

no, i don't think they are whiteheads. they aren't pus, they are solid little things. i think they are what lies under the pus of the whitehead or something. all i know is that if i successfully remove the little white thing, the whitehead/zit doesn't come back.

[ameise as guest]

no - it's not whiteheads. I remember the thread from before, too.

And I don't think we ever resolved what they are.

So, I don't know what they are, but I wanted to put in my two cents just so angelinap, and others know there are many of us who know exactly what you are talking about...

I kind of think they are little tubes made of that can get filled up... sometimes you squeeze just the pus or sebum or whatever out of the tube, but other times the while tube or bulb can be squeezed or pulled out...
(in other words, if they are a tube, maybe they are the lining of a pore, you can just see them as a little filament because the other skin on the surface is gone.)


I also have had the experience of getting them out, having a pinhole & things apparently heal more quickly.... I also have thought that some of them are perpetual problems/ they repeatedly are the ones that get full, swollen, etc & have felt that getting rid of those "must" be helpful/ progress...

But - since I know picking overall is not helpful - I like to remember the "skin-structure is like a delicate lace-curtain analogy" to persuade myself that it's all part of the naturally functioning skin & probably has a role in cell generation, or waste elimination, etc, and probably is just as well left in there...

BUT I would really like to know what they are, too, and why some pimples/ spots/ pores have them, others don't seem to, or not so obviously, etc.

curious, too
ameise

[playinwitfire]

I've noticed you get like 3 types of 'contents' ...runny ones, more solid ones and solid ones which are really deep.

I think...
the basic contents are the same (dead skin cells, sebum, antibodies) but what happens is they are at different stages

so some are like really new and they are runny.....some have been building up for a while and keep coming back (for me these are the ones that are not inflamed where a more solid substance collects under the skin)....and the ones I get most rarely are the ones that you can see right deep under the skin and they seem more permanent.there's little to no inflamation but I can't resist digging these ones out..although I consistently end up with the same two inevtable things..a ball of whiteness, and a hole in my nose. Characteristic of these ones is that when you go to pick it it seems to move like you just can't get to it or under it so you have to break the surface of the skin first so you can sortof lever under it and I always need a needle or tweezers to do it. Tends to bleed a lot too and a leaves a deep scab..basically best to leave it cus maybe it'll surface on its own, duno never waited?

The blackheads are white heads which have been exposed to the oxygen in the air, it makes them go black.

love xjessx

[FlutterBy]

I think the little whilte yellowish bulbs u can pick out are usually hardened sebum/ skin oil- but there is sometimes some pus too from white blood cells which i don't think gets hard. Getting one of those plugs out and having the ltitle black hole left behind is THE best part of picking- if the spot was sore it immediately stops being sore and heals up nicely after you get that plug out! It is such a joy. If doing that was not so satisfying I think I would have an easy time quitting. I need to get convinced that doing that is really not helping, cuz I don't believe that yet. But you know, that ONE time when you are so convinced you can get that plug out and u can SEE it but it WONT come out no matter how much u try...that is when all hell breaks loose and I get those animal bite wounds. sigh

[jeff]

it may be sabaceous hyperplasia, in which case squeezing will not help but laser treatment -- smoothbeam or lasers used to coterize (sp?) could help.

[collinsjs]

it may be sabaceous hyperplasia, in which case a dermatologist can use lasers to coterize (sp?) it or remove it. this has worked for me.

[jediknight]

seems like i can't stop squeezing that white crap out. even though time after time i get an inflammed blotchy, painful face afterwards. plus the crap always comes back, sometimes within the next day. and i am back at square one only my skin is more damaged everytime. i can't stand having crap in my pores though. and it does feel like i am accomplishing something when i get it all out. i think i am gonna take out all the mirrors. if i can't see that white crap in my pores maybe i can leave it go longer at least........this is a curse, being like this!!!!

[anonymousartist]

you will never get it all out. I tried Accepting that helped me move on from it (though I still pick other stuff, but pores much less frequently)

--Becca

[guesty]

You know what's so wierd/dumb? I am soooo freakin squeamish---I can't even HEAR someone talk about blood or things like surgery or bodily things like that, can't handle watching even fake gross stuff on tv like CSI or anything like that, yet I can stand there and dig away at my own skin, and squeeze out wierd pus and blood and crap, and get "satisfaction" out of it.