Letter to my mother

[Andy]

Hey everyone!

I think my mother has a hard time understanding sometimes how hard it is for me to stop picking and how much it can bother me. I was wondering if you fellow pickers could respond to this by sharing how picking makes you feel and how it impacts your life. Maybe if she saw how many other people share the same problem, she will better understand and beleive how I feel.

Thank you

[Fellow Picker]

Hey Andy,

I am really proud that you told your mom about your picking. I believe it is a positive step towards breaking this habit if you can get support from someone that you love and trust.

There are hundreds of testimonials both on this site, and around the web that demonstrate how many people are going through this and are having trouble breaking this horrible habit, which might help you to explain things to your mom.

In terms of my own story... I am eighteen years old and having been picking for as long as I can remember (I probably started when I was around five or six).

Picking is something that I usually do in stressful situations but I also often do it subconsciously, and when I start it is nearly impossible to stop. After picking, I am always left feeling alone, sad and hopeless, because this is one area of my life over which I feel I have no control. I try not to let it control my life, and therefore still try to go out and have a good time, which either means putting on a lot of makeup or just hoping my hair covers most of it (I have bangs which helps). However, it really impacts my mood and I feel extremely self-conscious.

I'm not sure if this helped or not, but the main message that I am trying to convey is that many people suffer from this, and it is completely normal for it to bother you and that it feels overwhelming. I hope you can convince your mom that this will require a lot of time and energy, on both your parts, so that you can hopefully get better.

I wish you all the luck in the world! Feel free to ask more questions if I wasn't clear enough or if I didn't answer your question specifically, and I will try to reply!

~ Aly