Hi, so first of all I just wanted to say kudos to acne.org for creating this thread, I haven't noticed it until just now so I'm guessing it must be new but being a long time skin picker myself I'm very happy that they've made this thread a thing lol.
So anyways, I was curious as to whether any of my fellow skin pickers out there may suffer from other anxiety disorders as well? It seems like it would be a logical assumption to make that there may be some correlation between the two and I'd like to know if any of you have found that you were able to reduce your picking by reducing your general anxiety levels through medication.
Myself I suffer from bipolar type 2 disorder so along with receiving therapy for this I do take medications to try to stabilize my mood as well. Generally speaking, I try to keep all of the medication I take to a bare minimum but I'm starting to wonder if I were able to stabilize my mood and reduce my anxiety a bit more by increasing some of the medication I'm taking whether that would help me cut back on my skin picking at all? I notice that I pick at my skin a lot more when my anxiety is worse or when my acne has flared up so similarly to how it seems like it may help to try to reduce your acne through medication to cut back on your skin picking I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck at cutting back on their picking by trying to reduce their general anxiety levels through medication?
Hope this makes some sense, idk. Like I said, I try not to rely too heavily on medications to treat my mood so I'm under the impression that in order to cut back on your skin picking you need to sort of "train" yourself in a way to stop... so I guess I feel like you need to take a more sort of behavioral? (not sure it that's the right word to be using) approach to do that but please let me know if any of you have found medication to be beneficial at reducing your skin picking at all, thanks. Having acne in combination with other medication conditions really blows lol.
Hey there!
For me personally there is definitely a correlation between my anxiety and my bad picking habits.
It's become a kind of obsessive compulsive tendency for me. I get it into my head that the process of picking is "cleaning" my skin. Which, of course, it's not!
It's super difficult to train yourself out of it but I have actually had some success with the tips on this website:
[Edited link out]
Some I have found particularly helpful are wearing gloves when I am using the computer (since I tend to get distracted and pick at my skin)
Removing my bathroom mirror from the bathroom, I do my makeup in low lighting in my bedroom so I don't spot anything on my face that I might want to pick.
Mentally telling myself that I am going to "do it later" because "i don't have time" has been a great one as well.
And the absolute best thing for me has been toys Just little things (I have a stress ball and a mini rubix cube) to mess with when you're watching TV or your mind wanders.
Also this website is a great read:
[Edited link out]
One this from this which particularly hit home with me was this section:
"You have another choice. You can do nothing. Sometimes I feel that all the energy I spent on doing masks, applying nighttime acne creams, steaming, drinking carrot juice, and all sorts of other activities ALL FOCUSSED AROUND MY SKIN, just served to make my subconscious mind aware that there was a problem. It reinforced the fact that there was a problem. And I simply forgot to be.
The times when I simply forgot to do my facial rituals and forgot to wash my face, and forgot to focus on my healing, my skin often took to healing itself. In other words, when my attention strayed from correcting the problem, the problem diminished by itself."
Hi guys.
I'm also glad to see that there's a new forum specifically for skin picking. Anybody other than my mum, boyfriend and a couple of non judgemental friends know that I have compulsive picking when it comes to my skin. I'm so glad that it's not just me I can really relate to what everyone is saying about how they feel during a pick and afterwards. Sometimes I pick so much I feel physically sick with anxiety.
I'm 19 now but when I was 16 I noticed I was starting with some obsessive compulsive behaviours, largely rituals such as touching walls in the same places, checking doors were locked over and over, only going up stairs 2/3 steps a time. Sounds daft looking back but at the time I kept thinking "I better do it just in case something bad happens". Once I realised these were having an impact on daily life e.g. making me late etc, I worked hard to stop it and it worked. However with my skin I have always enjoyed picking scabs and spots.
It wasn't until last year when I had a lot of personal stress my skin went from mild to moderate/severe acne and the picking got worse. Don't know which came first.... the picking or the acne. But June last year I thought this needs to stop now. Since then I have stopped picking as much and am gradually reducing the touching and the amount of spots I pick. It's so hard though, sometimes you just ask yourself "will this all be over one day? One day will I be able to look in a mirror and not lean in? Will this be the last time I can't sleep because I'm so worried about what the damage will be in the morning?". I'm also dying to start the acne.org regimen but know it won't work if I keep picking.
Anyway on a more positive note.. Good luck everyone! We can do this!
I've been picking for 7 years and have managed to not pick for almost two weeks now. I've been at this stage before but have always relapsed. I have really bad social anxiety and Asberger's syndrome, plus I'm diagnosed with mild autism and I think this causes me to be an insane perfectionist and get really upset and stressed when I don't understand something. Fml lol
Hey guys, my first post here.
I am 37 and I've had acne since I was a teenager. I've ended up over the years picking my face every day depending on what I have going on. I've had anxiety over the years for totally unrelated reasons so I don't think that's the reason for picking. Picking is just a bad habit because of being conscious about my appearance and I'd rather have a red bump then a white head.....There's bad and there's worse....
And anyone that has had acne bad enough for long enough lacks confidence and gets worried over little things because of all the suffering we've gone through so anxiety becomes part of ones personality.....at least this applies to me... I even have a bit of OCD for one reason or another...but I've dealt with it and no one knows I have it 
I've overcome my "fears" and have come to accept myself.
The trick is to "know" your spots. I know that when mine are "ripe" I have to pick them because they don't heal otherwise and even if I leave them and they go down, they come back on the exact same spot early or later and the white head becomes a deep black head if not picked..... So for me picking is "healing". However, picking a spot when it's not ready is what I try to resist from. Mine are deeper, like bumps, not always with white heads most of the time so they need to gather a bit of force before I try to burst them, otherwise nothing comes out, I damage my skin and they become worse.
However, I've been almost clear of any bad outbreaks since January this year. I'll open a new post about this if anyone is interested in reading. I know it's a long battle and I know how you guys feel.