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Post by Lindsey on Nov 10, 2005 16:57:00 GMT -5
I am 24 and today is the 1st day i have herd or Compulsive Skin Picking. I pick my lips, and i bit the skin off my thumbs. If i get a bug bit i pick it untill its 5 times the normal size. I don't pick health skin other then my thumbs. I have about 7 bites on my legs now that i have been picking. Its gotten so bad that my bed has spots of blood all over them. If i do have Compulsive Skin Picking i am happy that i now know that i am not strange and that there is help for me now. I live with my boyfriend and he has never said much about it. Just like "why to you pick all the time" or "stop picking". But i never knew why i picked or why i could not stop. I asked my mom if she knew why i started picking and she says she can remember me picking my lips in 1st grade. She never knew it was a disorder. She think it will stop after college. But i don't know if it will.
thank you for the help
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Post by anonymousartist on Nov 10, 2005 17:41:24 GMT -5
I think it certainly could be, since you say you can't stop. That's enough to want to do something about it. There isn't too much clinical information on skin picking, but I have found a lot of help by posting online (for starters, it made me realize I wasn't abnormal). Don't be afraid to keep posting or ask questions or keep us updated. Hope you can find some help here  --Becca |
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Post by Lindsey on Nov 10, 2005 17:51:29 GMT -5
Thank you for the reply. I had posted about my self before i read the pther posts. And i do think i have Compulsive skin picking. I am sure it started when i was young because i always got picked on and mad fun of all the way untill high school. I have ADD and dyslexia and school was always hard. I do take Addrell for the ADD. Does Adderll make the CSP worst? Now tha ti know i have this i don't want to be taking something that might be helping me pick. Or is it ok that i still take it cause it does help with the ADD.
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Post by anonymousartist on Nov 11, 2005 1:53:07 GMT -5
I really don't know if Adderal can make it worse. Your pharmacist probably gives you a list of information and side effects when you get your prescription. But I would say ask your doctor, do some research. I'm not a doctor or anything so I can't say what to do. But I kind of think if I had ADD I'd feel it was more important to help that than my picking (who knows, maybe the medication has no effect on picking, or even helps it).
There was an old poster here (coolhandluke). She had ADD and I remember her writing some in relation to picking and ADD behavior like hyperfocusing (being able to superconcetrate on picking at the pores in one area or something). There may be a relationship of some sort but it may not be researched yet. Wish I had better answers. What I have observed on these boards is that people who come back with success stories have either been put on anti-psychotic meds (doesn't mean they are psychotic), tried inositol, just forced themselves to stop (A lot of the time we just do it out of habit, and the way to break a habit is to stop repeating it) and one guy had a method of reading and speaking at the same time which he swore by.
There is also the OSPA thread, it is like skin-pickers anonymous, where you can communicate with other pickers and work the steps like AA, but geared for pickers. It can be found near the top of the support board, and is run by Spring Angel.
For myself, I keep a diary on the ZT board (ZT stands for zero tolerance but I don't go by it). Writing helps me think more clearly. I guess I have to be more present in my consciousness to write. What I am mostly concerned with lately is finding ways to be healthier (I had a lot of bad habits that I didn't realize were making me miserable) and to let myself relax and not always think constantly out of anxiety. Honestly, picking isn't my biggest problem so it's not what I concentrate on the most, but I think a wholistic approach will help me heal.
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Post by Picker 1 on Nov 12, 2005 1:31:07 GMT -5
What was the method that the guy had with reading and speaking outloud that helped him not pick?
tHANKS,
Lillian
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Post by anonymousartist on Nov 12, 2005 16:26:10 GMT -5
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Post by Lindsey on Nov 13, 2005 12:32:11 GMT -5
Well I know that anything that will be like AA is not going to work for me. But here is what is working for me so far. 1st I got some silly putty and when I and not doing anything I just play with the silly putty to keep my hands doing something. ( my hand where in pain the next day i played with it all day) LOL. Also i think a stress ball might work but i can't find one in my town so i might look on line. The other thing that is working is when i feel like picking i start to put lotion on. In 3 days i have almost gone trough a whole 4 oz of lotion but i have not picked. The to above things worked for me i think because i am not a face picker i am a leg picker and my feet. I still have not found anything to stop me from picking my lips biting my thumbs. Also i don't know what i will do or use when i am in public but for now at home this is working. I don't know how long it will work but i will see. Also i am not 100% scab picking free i did pick one out of the 7 scabs yesterday when i was in bed. I hope thins can help other people.
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Post by garretsma on Nov 29, 2005 5:39:22 GMT -5
something else that is kind of fun to play with is floam. I got a tub of it for my son, and found that I play with it more.
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