I'm in the same boat as you inglum. Just as things start to look up for me, I start picking. It's almost like an evil side of me is bent on ruining my summer.

I started exercising when I feel the urge to pick, and that helps temporarily. But last night, even though I exercised, I still picked before I went to bed, and now I have an angry red face that makes me cry when I look at it.

I've put my foot down now, and I'm not tolerating this behaviour from myself anymore. I put a piece of large fabric over my bathroom mirror, where i tend to do the damage. Behind that fabric I posted a sign that warns me not to pick. On the sign I also included a "days gone without picking" tracker, so I can put a mark down on each day that I avoid picking. Hopefully seeing marks tallying my progress will be further incentive to avoid picking, and will allow my skin to heal.

although these ideas represent my complete lack of self control, I think they might help. Anyway, that's my two cents. Try out this method and see if it works for you?

Good luck

On August 7, 2016 at 11:40 AM, lulrenx said:

I'm in the same boat as you inglum. Just as things start to look up for me, I start picking. It's almost like an evil side of me is bent on ruining my summer.

I started exercising when I feel the urge to pick, and that helps temporarily. But last night, even though I exercised, I still picked before I went to bed, and now I have an angry red face that makes me cry when I look at it.

I've put my foot down now, and I'm not tolerating this behaviour from myself anymore. I put a piece of large fabric over my bathroom mirror, where i tend to do the damage. Behind that fabric I posted a sign that warns me not to pick. On the sign I also included a "days gone without picking" tracker, so I can put a mark down on each day that I avoid picking. Hopefully seeing marks tallying my progress will be further incentive to avoid picking, and will allow my skin to heal.

although these ideas represent my complete lack of self control, I think they might help. Anyway, that's my two cents. Try out this method and see if it works for you?

Good luck

I love the tally mark idea. I think I have an underlying addiction to pick and any blemish on my face, and they just multiply or grow into giant mountains that I absolutely cannot ignore, which doesn't help me at all that I can't stop. I know that if I stop, it's the first step towards finally having clear skin, which would make me a lot more confident as well.

18 hours ago, bethanyp said:

On August 7, 2016 at 11:40 AM, lulrenx said:

I'm in the same boat as you inglum. Just as things start to look up for me, I start picking. It's almost like an evil side of me is bent on ruining my summer.

I started exercising when I feel the urge to pick, and that helps temporarily. But last night, even though I exercised, I still picked before I went to bed, and now I have an angry red face that makes me cry when I look at it.

I've put my foot down now, and I'm not tolerating this behaviour from myself anymore. I put a piece of large fabric over my bathroom mirror, where i tend to do the damage. Behind that fabric I posted a sign that warns me not to pick. On the sign I also included a "days gone without picking" tracker, so I can put a mark down on each day that I avoid picking. Hopefully seeing marks tallying my progress will be further incentive to avoid picking, and will allow my skin to heal.

although these ideas represent my complete lack of self control, I think they might help. Anyway, that's my two cents. Try out this method and see if it works for you?

Good luck

I love the tally mark idea. I think I have an underlying addiction to pick and any blemish on my face, and they just multiply or grow into giant mountains that I absolutely cannot ignore, which doesn't help me at all that I can't stop. I know that if I stop, it's the first step towards finally having clear skin, which would make me a lot more confident as well.

I encourage you to go ahead and try it. What's worked best for me is the fabric on the mirrors.
Just keep in mind that you should treat your picking like a real addiction. Don't beat yourself up for giving into the temptation every once and a while, because it will happen. But try and congratulate yourself for stopping yourself more and more quickly. Soon you'll find you can go one, two, three, and more days without picking. Right now I can make it to about two or three days, but then I find myself popping a white head (but I try hard to limit it to ones ready to be popped). But at least I'm not messing around with deep under the skin ones anymore. Small victories, but victories nonetheless.
Good luck!

Actually picking the acne is the fastest and the best way of treating the acne since it will eventually burst out. applying or using any acne products is actually prolonging the symptom and worsen it. Just make sure you use the right way to pop it

I'm in exactly the same position, I pick my skin constantly and then feel stressed about it and guilty immediately afterwards:( The only solutions I've thought of and done are wearing gloves, so that I physically can't pick my skin, or wearing a jumper with pockets and keeping my hands in my pockets. Sounds a bit silly cos it's something so simple but I tend to pick my skin when it's dry and flaky and when I'm watching TV or on my phone or generally bored, and physically not being able to is the only way that I can stop myself. Hope this helps. Just try and stay positive, and like someone else said, remember and keep count of the days that you haven't picked your skin:)

I used to pick my skin a lot too. I'd spend HOURS standing in front of the mirror everyday looking for the tiniest whiteheads/acnes and trying to get rid of them - only making them worse. One time my face got so bad I couldn't even cover it up w/ makeup, so I wore a surgical mask to work, and to my surprise, my face looked a lot calmer when I got home I guess cause I left it alone for the whole day. Ever since then I've been wearing mask to work when my skin is bad so I can just ignore it instead of touching my face.I just tell people I have a really bad cold or something so they'll leave me alone.

I still struggle not to pick as well but I'm able to restrain myself better than I used to. I used to do this chronically. I just tell myself, if you pick you'll likely get a scar, which is true for me, so that has helped. But the real key for me is to prevent the acne from forming. If not, there's still some temptation.