Are any of you compulsive skin pickers (mainly thumbs)?!
Question: What triggers your skin picking episodes? Have you ever seen a therapist or psychiatrist regarding this? Could you give me any tips on how to get rid of this skin picking habit? I've been doing this since I was 5...now turning 40 years old and want to stop. Do you also have an Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?
Answers: What triggers your skin picking episodes? Have you ever seen a therapist or psychiatrist regarding this? Could you give me any tips on how to get rid of this skin picking habit? I've been doing this since I was 5...now turning 40 years old and want to stop. Do you also have an Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?
I used to be a picker -- that is a form of self harm. I would pull out all my eyebrows, when I was young. I no longer do it.
It's a response to stress and emotional pain. To make it stop, you must acknowledge what is causing the emotional turmoil -- if you don't know (but most people do know) then you need to see a therapist and explore the issue.
I thought I might have ADD, but now I realize that the symptoms were also caused by my stress and unexpressed grief.
I'm glad you want to stop -- and you CAN.
Here's a website to help you with the issue of self-harm.
http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/injur...
I picked my cuticles when I was a kid, but decided to stop when I was in my early teens -- I didn't like being sore and bloodied. It's a bad habit and the longer you do it, the more ingrained it gets. Treatment for this type of disorders consists of therapy to deal with the underlying genetic and family-based (usually) anxiety plus meds. However meds along aren't the solution, and there are numerous other ways to deal with life's stresses. Meditation, daily exercise, etc.
IMO ADD is an over-used diagnosis that fails to address the family dysfunction at the root of the exhibited behaviors. Apparently people nowadays prefer to think their kids are incapable of focusing and self-discipline vs. admitting the home is a train wreck and working on creating peace and harmony instead.