I am not the only one right? I have to pick at my skin if I have a big juicy pimple awaiting. Also, any little non-inflamed whiteheads have to go! I hate it. Good thing I have not done too much damage yet, but the future awaits. So, are you like me or are there any people that can actually control themselves?

Gotta say, as bad as it is, there is something very pleasurable and gratifying about popping a big juicy zit.

There is nothing more infuriating than trying to pop a zit and failing to get the puss out, just making it larger and more irritated and sore.

so when i go into the shower i put soap on my face and when theres too much of a 'stiff dead skin layer' i just rub it all off - stuff come off (dry skin and little gross 1 mm thingys - idk what to call them) and some times theres bleeding >.< ... i try to avoid doing it every day so i do it every other day.. doesnt seem to make things better ~ but im afraid to keep the layer on in case it makes my acne worse ; ps. i dont use mosturizer should i? im afraid moisturizer will make it worse and i dont know which if any to use

I seem no matter how hard I try to pick! Any tips on stopping? I usually do it when I am angry or stressed...Any tips?

Arghhh, it's just so hard not to. I get bored and then I'll just touch my face. Not really doing anything in general, just touching. Like when I'm tired. I'll just run my hand down my face. Or when I'm not doing anything, I'll feel for any new zits, pick at scabbed skin, anything. Even when I'm sleeping, I usually sleep on a hand.

Anyone else like this? I need to stop, it's just a matter of control I guess. Distractions are needed and I can't find one that can take place of this hobby. I know I can't be alone on this...!

I am so so so so so tempted to just pop this pimple that is on my chin! It is really bugging me especially since I only have 2 pimples right now! The one I want to pop is fully developed and the white little head is sticking straight out. Thank God it's not very big but it is annoying me.

By the way, if you are an obsessive skin picker like I was, seriously try and stop, just for a week. I noticed my skin cleared up a lot when I stopped picking!

I am a compulsive skin picker and my therapist has linked this to disgust at skin imperfections. I was wondering, as a kind of exposure therapy, if you guys could send me some pics of any gross spots you or others have had(!)

I hope this doesnt offend anyone, it is not intended to! I have horrible skin but in the opposite way - dry skin/eczema.

Lethe

During the Regimen Dan says not to touch or face or to pick at acne. Does anyone here pop them or just leave them completely leave them alone while on the regimen?

I've been picking this poor pimple that's on my face for DAYS, maybe more than a week
I need to stop or I will never be clear.




Starting today, I won't pick at my skin


Wish me luck




BTW, I'm totally broken out, I don't have only *1 pimple*

So I just realized tonight that I only pick when I am upset about something.

Someone said something that upset me, nothing skin related or anything. Just put me in a shitty mood and I looked in the mirror and picked a small bump on my face thats been bothering me. And now it looks a whole hell of a lot worse than before.

And then I stopped and thought, what the heck am I doing? This is obviously just going to upset me more.

I dont even really ever skin pick, I guess only when I am upset.

What triggers you to pick?

I used to actually have some acne bumps when I was younger. Im 17 now and don't really have acne until i go on a picking spree . I was always an average picker but when i started aderral when i was 15 it all went to hell. Now i have scars on my chest back and face from picking at my pores, making them inflammed and not stopping. I feel like i am insane, normally nothing comes out of the pores i constantly squeeze, but then they become inflammed and then get oil or whatever into them. I dont pick when I don't take my medication but adderral keeps my wait down and myself focused which i need for modeling. I'm in such a dillema. Well that pretty much sums up my experiences so far with acne/picking. Advice would be great.

Hey there, okay so im a fifteen year old girl who started getting acne around age thirteen. Nothing was ever bad, but once high school started i develpoed and uncontrollable skin picking, looking at and popping pimples habit. It is now almost the end of my sophmore year, and im pretty sure i have a good amount of scars on my face now bc of it. I have red, irrated, and closed comedone skin now, and its AWFUL i start accutane tommorw. I can say though, that i have not picked in exactly one month, and im quite proud of myself. Basically, the moral of this whole post is STOP PICKING AT YOUR FACE, OR YOU WILL REGRET IT LATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trust me, i would look like a totally different person if i had never developed that awful habit. Bes of luck to you!!!!

Yes, yes, we all know that picking and popping your zits is bad, bad, bad, but...there's just something so satisfying about it, isn't there?

This is a thread for those people that don't care about the scars or exacerbating the acne problem. Frankly, I'd rather pop a zit and deal with a flat, easy to cover red mark for a few weeks than let a nasty pimple sit on face and ruin my skin's texture.

I only pop zits that have a white head, though.
I rarely go for one that isn't obviously "ready to go."

Anyway, maybe I'm a big freak, but I have fun popping my zits. If I can't at least do that, then what good is my acne, anyway?

It's especially satisfying when you get one of those that splats on the mirror.

Due to Yaz totally screwing up my face for a little while there, I was getting quite a few of those big, exploding zits.

This is totally gross, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway:
About a week ago, I popped a HUGE zit in my T-zone, and holy crap, man, there was like a 3 inch line of pimple goo on my mirror. Gross, right? However, I couldn't help thinking that it was pretty much the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I mean, seriously, that thing had like ten of those little hard pimple things in the goo.

I know, TMI, I know.

A couple of days ago, I popped what was definitely the last of the big Yaz pimples and the splatter actually went past the mirror and hit the wall next to it. It almost looked like someone had been shot or something.

I have a really big problem, because I constantly pick at my face, even when it seems that I don't have a visible pimple; it could be a little bump, or a cyst, or an underground pimple, but i will pick at it. I have noticed over the years that I have scars on my chin area from picking, and it absolutely kills me, and is something i am very very self-conscious of, yet I can't stop picking. I was just in the bathroom for two hours picking, using an eye-brow plucker at times, and right now my face looks swollen, red, and just horrible. And i think back before, and I really didnt have anything that needed to be touched on my face....and now instead of doing something with my day, I refuse to go out because I look hideous. I almost feel like crying, but I shouldnt feel sorry for myself, because i did this to my face. I am young, and when I dont irritate my face, I am a good looking girl, but this need to pick my face is turning me into something ugly. If anyone has any actions that they take to stop picking and feel they have worked for them, I would love to hear about it and see if its something that can help me. At this point, anything will help. Everyone is always telling me its not hard, just dont pick, but i wish it was that easy for me. I definitely need help, so please I am open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks <3

Hi you guys. A researcher got in touch with me a few weeks ago to see if I could help him recruit people for his study. I agreed. The more research we have on this topic the better. Please see his post below:
_______________

The Personal Impact of Chronic Skin Picking: A Survey Study

Are you interested in helping researchers gain important information on skin picking? Dr. Douglas Woods and the Behavior Therapy and Research Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are conducting research examining the personal impact of skin picking. If you are at least 18 years old, pick/scratch your skin, and are interested in helping us gain more information about this problem, please fill out the survey connected to the link below. The information collected in this survey will be completely anonymous and this project has been approved by the institutional review board at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Additional information about this research and informed consent can be obtained via the link provided below. Thank you for your help!

Click Here to take survey

does anyone else feel a great satisfaction by popping pimples?
i tend to see the mirror and then just get carried away, and before i know it my face is an absolute mess and i feel absolutely horrible, disgusting.

Im trying so hard not to touch my face, but it itches so bad!!!

I am a skin picker and I feel so out of control sometimes. I hate the way it makes me feel after I do it but I just feel like I can't control myself. I have many scars and the more I pick at the new scabs the more scars I get. I am going to do some exercises to help my self to stop myself from picking. This is a bad problem picking at scabs and pimples and stress has so much to do with this but you gotta try some way to change your ways of dealing with stress.

I'm starting the Chill Out today--the new part of Acne.org that I built to help people stop picking. I'm using it to stop biting my nails, which is pretty much identical to skin picking.

I just printed out my answers and my journal. I'm going to cognitive behave myself

I'll write in this thread and keep you posted of how it's going. It would be incredible if this worked since I've been trying to stop since second grade with no luck.

BEFORE pics attached

Sometimes I'll go days or weeks without picking. One fight with my boyfriend or one problem at work and I'm back in front of the mirror picking again. Sometimes I think I need to cut off my fingers.

Lately my acne has been getting better, therefore; I've become more tolerant of my pimples. In other words, I let them die out naturally, without any popping or picking. 2 day ago, I had a small pimple in them middle of my forehead. It wasn't ready to go, but it didn't stick out like a sore thumb either. But for some reason, right before I showered, I squeezed, managed to get all the pus out, but in the process basically ripped/scratched a part of my skin off. Now I've been dabbing Aloe Vera like crazy, but I still have a sizable red mark/wound from picking. It looks much worse than it would of been as pimple. Great. Maybe, I'll finally learn this time to leave it alone, especially in noticeable areas.

Hey guys --

I was wondering, since I'm going to stop picking, how soon I can expect the scabs to go away.

Also, how soon can I expect new pimples to go away without popping them?

Just from your experience....

Thanks!

After using Mario Badescu Buffering lotion on my face, I believe I broke out worse with all kinds of red bumps (and here I though it was actually working)The worst part is that, it makes the top of a nodule or cyst hard and scabby. I guess to attempt to dry it out, I don't know. Anyway, after having to deal with a big crusty yellow scab on my cheek for about 2 days, I finally gave in and picked it off. Now I have a dried up blood spot where I picked, will the scab form again? Has anyone done this before? It kinda hurts too and feels very tender. Did I just make a huge mistake? It didn't take much effort to peel it off but I'm kinda worried now.

(Post deleted. I am no longer on the site).

Damnit! I didn't follow my own advice and I picked.

My skin was clear of red spots. All nice to clear, but of course there are those little blackheads here and there. So I picked and pinched them. Why oh why? I did extract one that was kind of big and hard, but now I'm back to 4 red spots.

Ok, so for some strange reason I pick when my red spots are gone. WTF? Why do I do that?

I need to follow my own advice and write on my mirror.

Does anyone have any other advice, of does anyone have any idea why I pick once my face appears clear.

So there are 3 spots on my face.

spot no.1, I manages not to touch it for 4 days at all with a bandage on,
it peeled off on its own, with a not-too-bad pink mark.

spot no.2, It showed up as a whitehead, I didn't touch it and let it grow for near 24 hours, then the surface got scratched by the towel after shower. the mark is not that bad.

spot no. 3.....
spot no.3 is the tough one.
I thought it was healing, but then I saw some pus is growing inside.I left it untouched for almost a week. but then I know it will never heal if I don't get the pus out. two days ago, the scar got scratched off after shower (and there we go, bad things always started after you scratched it off)

yesterday morning, I saw the pore where the thing is growing, of course I squeeze it out. It wasn't watery or solid, somewhere in between, rather stick to itself...Last night, the scar was kinda forming, but somehow It feels like something is still there, like.. blood. and I scratched it...........
Now I'm not sure how bad the scar/mark will be... it's just like a red open wound......

Gosh, it's probably going to take 3 months to heal. Maybe just in time for taking pictures at Christmas...........

I've always known that picking makes my acne look worse. Picking tends to increase the healing time and spread the infectious bacteria causing more acne. (I understand that when a pimple gets out of control, it needs to be popped by a dermatologist with sterile equipment followed by a cortisone shot.) In my 20 years of acne, I have not once benefited from picking my own face. I only make things worse.

Picking, however, is fun. It's a tremendous stress release. I enjoy punishing my skin for misbehaving. Revenge is not always sweet and I always end up with a destroyed scabby face.

I've decided to quit picking. It'll be hard. But I'd rather have an invisible clogged pore than a big red puss spot.

Quit with me!

I started seeing a counselor about three years ago for generalized anxiety disorder and depression. After about a year, I had worked through so much buried anger and hurt that I thought I was all better. I also started taking anti-depressants, which I am still on. Then I realized that my 20-year habit of picking at my face/acne was actually a symptom/coping mechanism for anxiety. I've been trying to stop for years, but haven't been able to. I can't go more than half a day without picking. I know it makes my acne worse, but I can't make myself stop. So I am working with my counselor on this, and this website and others have been very helpful. My next step is to tell my husband, but I'm embarrased about it. He knows I'm seeing a counselor for depression and anxiety, but I haven't told him about the skin picking and how it's related. He just thinks I have acne.

hi,

i am a chronic skin picker and have over time done some pretty nasty things to my face since i could not resist the urge to attack or to heal that pimple as quick as possible. At times it has worked in my favor and the nasty pus came out of the pimple and i then applied a thin layer of sudocream which greatly diminished the pimple by mornimg and healed it completely in two days.

now the not so great times were when i picked a pimple or the skin to the point where i had a nice hole in my face staring right at me and me panicking thinking wow i did it again.

So heres how you close up the hole fast and it will heal in tops two days:
use saliva yes the saliva in your mouth. I KNOW it sounds crazy but google it and you will see that there is research based on saliva healing wounds in rats in 16 hours compared to antibiotics or other treatments. after those 16 hours the wound was practically gone, they say saliva contains something called histamine which heals skin fast.


anyway so this is what i have done and it has saved me pain and misery from lasting a week to about two days. before going to bed you have to coat the hole with saliva. it will take about 15 minutes or so and you will feel it drying up on your skin and tightening the pore kind off like an egg white mask. MAKE SURE YOU COAT THE HOLE WITH A GOOD LAYER OF SALIVA, then go to bed rinse with water in the morning and the hole will be filled in. Go about your usual routine and dont pick this time. Now repeat if necessary again the following night if not just moisturize the area that was filled in and watch how it magically heals fast.


i know it sounds crazy but it works so please try it before you think this sounds too desperate.
think about it, how do animals heals their wounds, they lick themselves since their saliva contains a powerful healing enzyme to heal their wounds. the human body has the power to heal itself without resorting to chemicals or antibiotics
think about it and best of luck