A good discovery

[salsaqueen]

Hello to all,

It has been about 10 years since I've started this strange habit and I am so relieved to discover that I am not alone. For the past five years, I suspected that my skin-picking was a sort of OCD, but I was afraid of confiding in someone about this habit. One of the few people who knew about it was my mom. I told her my theories - that I suspected my skin-picking was a bad habit that possibly needed professional help. That theory was brushed aside, however, because my mom and I knew nothing about this message board or other related sites. We have never heard of my habits being categorized as some type of OCD. Recently, I started to see a psychologist about my anxiety and depression. One of the first things I was surprised to discover on the questionare I filled out was a question about skin-picking. Then, a few weeks later, my mom discovered me crying because I had just spent countless minutes picking at newly formed pimples on my shoulder blades. My back had been clearing up nicely and I destroyed it - again. Seeing how emotional I was, my mom quickly searched the internet and found countless sites (including this one) relating to my habit. It has been such a relief to know that I can get help. I have high hopes that someday I will be rid of this habit forever.

[Constance]

Welcome, you will find a lot of support here. CAll me or email me before you pick.- 916-489-4203. [e-mail]

[ameise as guest]

constance -

I saw that you are from CA, as well as your 916 area code phone number...

Me, too -- I'm in Sacramento.

If you don't want to be more specific about where in CA you are, that is completely understandable.... but if your nearby & interested in talking to // ??possibly meeting a a nearby skin picker... I am here.
(I have a journal in the Team ZT section, too.)

[needshelpinBigD]

salsaqueen said:

Hello to all,

One of the first things I was surprised to discover on the questionare I filled out was a question about skin-picking. quote]

i know my picking was amplified by anxiety and also have gut feeling i suffer from some mild depression i think.

Have you dug on this issue with your therapist??? I'm VERY curious what "medical establishment" is saying, obviously it was listed as a question for a reason, so i'm curious what he/she has to say on it.

Thx

[Constance]

Hey, ameise I'm in the middle of the arden area/Carmichael, I've lived here all my life. Please give me a call and maybe we can help eachother out.

[Pepper]

Hi Everyone - I am new to this board also. I really can't believe that this site exists! I really thought that I was the only one out there picking! Whew - relief to know that I am not alone. I am dealing with severe depression and generalized anxiety disorder, but also realizing know I show some symptoms of OCD (which I never thought of as OCD). I have keratosis pilaris on my arms and legs and I have picked at my arms for years, but especially lately with my anxiety level being so high. So I totally understand that anxiety plays a large part in picking. I also pick at the whiteheads on my face, which are almost invisible to begin with, but by the time I am done with them, it makes my face look like I have scabby pimples. My arms are also really bad. As soon as they heal, and look somewhat decent, I go back to picking when I'm stressed.

[newandbetterme]

hi new ones.
i'm glad u have found out that you are not alone, there is help, online, offline...and hope.

here are some sites that have helped me.

this site is abot body dismorphic disorder...these types of people are overly concerned with their looks..and picking is one of the symptoms. thre is a doctor on the site who wrote two books...and he also answers questions. He deals with people who have skin picking problems. read soem of his old posts.

www.bddcentral.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl


and there is a online free selfhelp book that i recently discovered..andits pretty helpful..

mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/

and one of the members on this site,moratorium, made charts to monitor your progress, one for the face and one for the body, and an amazing site also made by moratorium, is "through a picker's looking glass"

homepage.mac.com/sonus_ex/facepicking/


facepicking.hostingisfree.com/21-days-csp-hydra.gif

facepicking.hostingisfree.com/21-days-csp-venus.gif


i hope this helps a bit...
u'll need some time to research,...and lots of work..but its all worth it ;D

[needshelpinBigD]

Thanks for the links!

I just read some of the posts on the board at the BDD site, and have some questions for here...

Maybe someone that has more knowledge towards it can explain...This seems like a normal genetic DNA makeup ...to look as good as possible to the opposite sex. A few hours on Animal Planet or Discovery verifies this. I started to read through some of the posts on the BDD liink, and it seems like our "modern" brains, ie. only the past few thousands years IF that, are trying to trump millions of years of evolution, in that this is some kind of new revolting behavior on the male species.

From a complete newbie standpoint on this subject(which i am) is seems the argument is that we are trying to rationalize this BDD as some kind of disfunctional societal condition(male pressure on female bodies, even though is exists in the opposite direction as well), as opposed to exploring why we take what is a fundemental genetic blueprint in the gene pool ....to an excessive level?

Makeup is a multi billion dollar industry for no reason. there are fundemental underlying reasons why that sells. Gym on every street corner....guys trying to get big to look better....all this is exemplified in the animal kingdom ....humans aren't any different.

So rather than focus on why IS it this way, why is that it's taken to an extreme for BDD sufferers???

[skigirl]

I think I see what you're saying - that BDD may be sort of an evolutionary glitch. But have you studied cognitive behaviorism? I tend to believe a lot of habits, at the point they become problematic, are an evolution of the habit itself. In other words, picking as part of grooming evolves into habit which in turns evolves into compulsive behavior. We start a behavior for one reason, begin to use it as a coping mechanism for another reason, then continue it and cannot quit it for possibly a different reason entirely. It's sorta like saying, well this works, so let's keep it up. I have had the most success with replacing the picking with a different, healthier behavior - running. I've found the more I run the less I feel like picking. But it wasn't good enough when I just did the typical let's get in shape routine. I have to sorta go over the top with it in order to quit the picking. I don't know if you've ever studied neurochem to the point you'd be familiar with upregulation and downregulation in the brain. Very interesting stuff. But it seems that people with addictions have altered their brain chemistry in such a way that the neuroreceptors require the same level of stimulation in SOME form, or depression and withdrawal sets in.

Holy hell. Sorry about that. I get to thinkin, and this is the kind of shit that usually comes to my addled brain during a picking session. But since I've pretty much quit at this point, I'm dumping here. ;D

[needshelpinBigD]

skigirl said:

I think I see what you're saying - that BDD may be sort of an evolutionary glitch.

Yea that was my point, but i posted after a few too many drinks, so it wasn't real cohesive! lol.

No i haven't studied any of that stuff, i'm sure it is interesting...so much so, that this has caused me to kick around the idea of going back to school to get into this field even!

[skigirl]

Dude, you should totally do it. What sounds more interesting, the neurochem or the neuropsych? At a certain point they sorta mesh in the middle - you have to understand the chemistry to understand the psychology, and vice versa. In my classes it's been fascinating to learn the exact mechanism of mood altering substances on the brain, both the legal and the self-acquired. There's another girl who comes on here sometimes - Coolhandluke, and she's really into this stuff too. Go read some of her posts, if you haven't already.

Would this be a great departure from your career/school goals thus far? You seem to have a propensity for it, so good luck if you choose this endeavor.

[skigirl]

Sorry Once again, I'm guilty of hijacking a thread.

[needshelpinBigD]

skigirl said:

Dude, you should totally do it. What sounds more interesting, the neurochem or the neuropsych? At a certain point they sorta mesh in the middle - you have to understand the chemistry to understand the psychology, and vice versa. In my classes it's been fascinating to learn the exact mechanism of mood altering substances on the brain, both the legal and the self-acquired. There's another girl who comes on here sometimes - Coolhandluke, and she's really into this stuff too. Go read some of her posts, if you haven't already.

Would this be a great departure from your career/school goals thus far? You seem to have a propensity for it, so good luck if you choose this endeavor.

To me the nueropsych piques my interest alittle more. This would be drastic career change which i want to do anyways. I just need to figure out how to do it and still pay a mortgage!

i have a physics and computer engineering degrees so this would be somewhat drastic change! lol. (hence my logical approach i'm taking to kicking this/understanding it rather than the more spiritual 'camp') I only had to take the first two levels of college chem and no pysch, other than my own reading. I need to do some research as to what kind of prereq's i need for some graduate work in this field or some other way of getting into this as a career.

I'll try to dig up some of those posts...thx!

[newandbetterme]

well
i'm slowly getting better.
i'm ddd on the bdd site.
if anyone wants to follow my progress.

i am following more or less
dr claiborn's advice.

and using the double face/body chart to monitor my progress. that i got from here.

well as per dr claiborn, not exact quote, but her is the idea: it is not as important to spend the time to figure out exactly why the disorder exists..it is more important at this stage to figure out how to treat it. how to manage it.