#shawleveryday2019 Day 14

Dermatillomania (also known as skin picking or excoriation) is a body-focused-repetitive-behavior that is associated with OCD. It is characterized by repeated touching, picking, scratching, and digging at ones own skin, whether damaged skin or healthy. The big differences between dermatillomania and normal picking at skin imperfections and irregularities is that the behavior is chronic, results in tissue damage, and causes the person marked distress and dysfunction.

I likely have a super mild form of dermatillomania, possibly related to anxiety. When I am stressed out, my skin gets angry with zits, and I pick at them in an attempt to gain some sort of control and relieve some of the stress. You can generally tell how stressed I am by how many spots on my body I am picking at.  Last week was rough at work, so I've currently got about 4 spots on my face and neck, and about 4 spots on my back that are affected. You'll often hear me ask for a band-aid because "I've picked a scab and now I'm bleeding."

6 things a chronic skin-picker wants you to know
​More details about skin picking

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