scalp picking

[tena]

hi all

i am new to this site, but was relieved to find it!

i am a really compulsive head picker. for the past 2 days i have had a lump come up behind my ear (mastoid bone). it hurts quite a bit and is hot to the touch. i am wondering if this could be related to my recent picking increase near this area. has anyone else expericened this sort if thing? maybe some sort of infection?

hope someone can advise!

[anonymousartist]

Hi tena and welcome!

I can't tell you what the bump is 'cause I don't know. Maybe you should see a doctor. It could be hives, rash, or something more serious. Maybe even a bug bite. If it is an infection it's probably wise to keep your hands away from it and if you must touch it wash them after so you don't spread it.

[scalp picker]

Hi There,
I too am a scalp picker, sometimes I have scabs I pick over and over until my scalp hurts. I also have lumps come up behind my ears on the bone and I also get lumps come up on the lower part of my head where there are normal bumps. I get bumps ontop of the normal bumps, they hurt but when I stop picking they go away. I am always scared that one time they won't and I will get some bad infection in my brain ie meningitus , Hope to stop picking but it is habit and hard to break. Hope this gives some info to help you.

[tena]

thank you so much for replying.

i am really reassured about the bump! it does hurt still but seems to be smaller today. i thought i had mastioditis (thorough net searching led to that one!). and i have managed to nearly stop picking since it came up (fear is a wonderful thing sometimes). and if it does get any bigger i will go see my doctor. thought i was some kind of weirdo for my nasty habit, now i see i am not alone.

thanks again.

[rene]

hi what a subject that drew me right in? Why do we abuse ourselves this way? For as long as I can recall, I would pick at scabs, acne, and then stopped on my face (from nerves, I believe) and had metro cream prescription, so is it possible that acne or whatever has to go somewhere else so it choses head? I have been doing it on my scalp for about a year now, when I think one is about torn apart as much as it can be, then another lump comes BY IT, now I feel like a deer growing antlers, with lump on each side, then underneath? I do have anxiety/depression disorder, I recently got married and got my first new home, could it be all the changes (btw, how embarassing getting my hair done for wedding).
So tena, YES, I have experienced what you have, I don't know if any of the readers have seen Stephen Kings "Thinner" where the gypsy put a curse on one, and he got this rare skin disease with huge lumps all over his face and head, that is what I feel like, I don't feel like a pretty bride.
Scalp picker - you say that after you stop picking they do go away? so, at times you are able to stop, what gives you the greatest drive to stop this?
I hear yah both about "being a weirdo", finding yourself constantly looking in a mirror to the back of the head, and I even had my husband last night (after I clipped it) take a picture, SO I CAN SEE WHAT I AM DOING TO MYSELF or for Dr. (if I brave that), but maybe
WE can give each other support and incentive not to do this, GOOD FOR YOU TENA, btw!

[dee]

Oh my god, I can't tell you how happy I was to find this board. I was doing a search on mastoiditis, though I knew that it was highly unlikely that was my problem, and I ended up here.
I pick my scalp like crazy under stress. Hadn't done it since the spring, got a new job, and then BOOM! More sores than ever before. Like you, I got the swollen lump behind my left ear & I was scared I'd caused an infection.
I don't know if I can stop any time soon because I've only created more sores in recent weeks. Of course, once the scabs form, it is soooo very satisfying to pick at those. Sometimes it makes me want to cry. I am so grateful this habit is confined to my scalp because I have a healthy complexion and would be really miserable if I tore up my face too.
Already on Zoloft & seeing a therapist for anxiety. I'm going to have to find some way to kick this on my own.
But again, I am so very relieved to hear I'm not the only one with the swelling & that it may be related but probably not severe.

[Iugulo]

I just started looking online for help with my problem yesterday evening, and it's a great relief to have found yet another site where people can commiserate and try to help each other.

I had dandruff a few years back, and I guess that's when I started picking at my scalp. I haven't been doing it as much this last year, because now I mess with my face and back more. :/ It's a sad cycle, I know, but I can't seem to stop.

I got chicken pox when I was 15, and that was a bad time for me. That's maybe the first time I did any major face-picking. It's strange seeing chicken pox scars on famous actors like Angelina Jolie, for instance. Makes me wonder if maybe she had a bit of a scab problem...

The thing about finding a site like this is we all have to remember that just because other people are in the same boat, it doesn't mean it's okay to go down with the ship. We still have to fight this compulsion, because it's hurting us in myriad ways.

[bleh]

I mostly pick at my face but I pick at my scalp at high-stress moments when I am in public. It's horrible. Sometimes I realize I'm doing it, sometimes not. I don't know what to do with myself, I feel like I'll explode.

Lumpy heads? From scratching the scalp? Really, you guys? You can get lumps?

[yikes]

Scalp picking is bad. I've got 3 lesions on my scalp right now that I am trying like hell to leave alone because I need a haircut! Like you all say, it is humiliating when you have scalp lesions and need a haircut. My hairdresser is a dear and never says a word about it, but right now I'm trying to get them healed so she doesn't have to think I'm nuts. I suppose hairdressers have seen it more than once, since so many of us are here (think of all the people doing it but not facing up to it)....there must be legions of us! Once long ago I went to a different hairdresser and she referred to my "sore spot", so I realized they notice and it bothers them. My current hairdresser is an angel and totally supports me in everything...she is like the sweet mother I never had.

[Katiekat]

I have been a scalp picker for as long as I can remember. It's gotten worse in recent years. I also get bumps on my head from too much picking that get really sore. I often wonder what I would look like if I had no hair! I can realate to the embarrasment of having to get my hair cut as well. I just went in to my hairdresser last week to get my hair cut for the first time in 10 months. I tried so hard to stop picking so my head could heal before I went in but of course that didn't happen, I kept on picking until my appointment so my head was pretty raw. I had a full foil done and as she was parting my hair she commented on my sores but she said it was ok to work on me because they were not open... When my foils came out she washed my hair. She she wet my hair down and then excused herself, when she came back she had plastic gloves on! She said since I have a few sores on my head she needs to take special precautions. Of course I played it like it was no big deal but inside I just wanted to burst out in tears. Never before had she needed to use gloves, of course it had been a long time since I had been in and maybe other times my head was not as bad. How humilliating!!

Katiekat

[Holly]

I pick my scalp too. I know exactly how you feel when it's time to get a haircut.
I try so hard to stop so the sores will heal but I never can. I am quite honest when asked though.
I was asked what 'that' was on my scalp and I said it was dry patches that I kept scratching.
I actually get satisfaction from finding spots on my scalp and squeezing or scratching them. My fingers get bloody from it.
I was at school last week and started unconsciously scratching at my arm under my sleeve. Took my hand out from my sleeve and my fingers were all bloody.

It's awful. I feel like such a freak.

[Guest Brenda]

Finally a lot of people that have sores on their scalp. Nobody mentions thinning and baldness due to pulling so much hair out when getting the scabs off ?? I have to get my hair cut to try to cover my baldness and have 4 or 5 sores right now I'm trying to heal to do that.

I don't know the medical term for my picking of scabs - mainly on my scalp - but it's awful to worry about people seeing the blood or sores or even worse if you forget and pick one off in public.

[Dalton]

Tena - I'm kinda new to board also. BUT WOW - I never dreamed other people picked at their scalps, causing sores, which caused scabs, which caused picking them off all the time. I've done this off and on for years - especially when I'm stressed. The only time my head gets HEALED is when I wanna go to the hairdresser and I use medicine and all MY WILLPOWER FOR A FEW DAYS to get them healed enough to go - Also hair comes out many times when I pull scabs off - so I'm getting bald from crown to frontal area - do you?

I truly understand folks that do it - but I don't know why WE do it - unless it's just plain nerves.

[Monica]

I too have this problem. This time a sore bump with scab has developed out of my picking. What should I use on it to speed up the healing process?