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Recovering From A Skin-Picking Habit Is Possible. Here's How

Skin picking, we've all been there. Whether from stress or for fun, we know we shouldn't be popping or picking anything on our skin. However, sometimes the act happens subconsciously. Stress can consume your thoughts, so you don't realize you're doing something until the tension has subsided. We've trailed our face, arms, or legs to try and eliminate any bump, only to make it worse.

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  Picking Me Foundation

Almost losing her leg to Dermatillomania, Lauren McKeaney turned her anguish into answers, creating the Picking Me Foundation NFP- the organization she had always been looking for. Now we help others turn their silent struggles into adamant advocacy.

  SkinPick

SkinPick is the #1 platform to treat excoriation disorder (dermatillomania). Get one-on-one support from a therapist specializing in treating compulsive skin-picking through evidence-based techniques.

Articles of Interest

Skin picking is often trivialised as a bad habit – but dermatillomania can be dangerous

It goes to show therefore that, for some people, the quest for dermatological perfection is more than skin deep. Our minds and skin share close physical and psychological bonds and while the habitual picking of dermatillomania might seek to iron out imperfections in skin, it could also be counter intuitive. And become a deeply ingrained obsession.

Compulsive skin picking causes and how to stop

Compulsive skin picking isn’t just a bad habit—it can be part of a cycle that temporarily eases distress but ultimately leads to more frustration and skin damage. Understanding its role in the OCD cycle can help break the pattern with treatments like habit-reversal training (HRT) and/or exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy.

Dermatillomania Is a Skin-Picking Disorder, But for Me It Was a Form of Self-Harm

Understanding dermatillomania through the lens of self-harm has helped me become more conscious of my body and mind.

Dermatillomania Is More Than Just a Skin-Picking Disorder — Here’s What You Should Know

It’s been estimated in studies that 1.4 to 5.4 percent of the population is affected by excessive skin picking — also known as dermatillomania — a type of self-grooming behavior where people pull, pick, scrape, or bite their own hair, skin, or nails, resulting in damage to the body.

Dermatillomania: meet the people who can’t stop skin picking

The disorder can be physically and mentally damaging, but it is widely misunderstood – and underreported by embarrassed patients

Every Strategy I’ve Tried to Stop Picking My Cuticles, Ranked

I am a cuticle picker. This is a point of shame, both personal and professional. After all, I'm a beauty writer—people pay me to know about grooming and how to make everything, including my nails, look presentable. And, yet, my hands always look slightly mangled and sad. Any time I’m in a situation where I want to look like I have my life together, like meeting a new client for the first time or a wedding I’m going stag to, I suddenly get all self-conscious about the state of my hands.

Fighting the Shame of Skin Picking

For many people with body-focused repetitive behaviors, the predominant effects are cosmetic, and the consequences emotional and social.

For Compulsive Hair Pullers And Skin Pickers, There Is Need For More Help

I feel the urge again. My fingertips run along my face, feeling for imperfections, and I slip into the bathroom to be alone. After a glance in the mirror, I stalk back out, my nails digging into my palms. Not today.

How I've Managed to Curb My Dermatillomania Through Manicures

I turned to nail care to ease my skin picking — and it worked.

How K Beauty Helps Me Manage My Skin-Picking Disorder

Skin is our body’s largest organ. For years, it was also my biggest insecurity and my biggest source of shame.

How This Chronic Skin-Picker Created a Sane, Affordable Skin Care Routine

After years of picking my skin bloody, I’ve finally found (and stuck to) a routine that anyone can follow.

How to Stop Skin Picking for Even Just a Second

If you’re really fighting the urge to fiddle, try one of these in-the-moment techniques.

Inside the mind of a compulsive skin picker

We all know that squeezing spots can be seriously satisfying (there's a reason why Dr Pimple Popper has 6 million Youtube subscribers). But for some, skin picking goes way beyond popping the occasional pimple. For some, it is a complex physical and mental health disorder known as excoriation disorder, which can be debilitating, damaging and disruptive to every day life and overall wellbeing.

More than a habit? When to worry about nail biting, skin picking and other body-focused repetitive behaviours

Nail-biting, nose-picking, mouth-chewing, skin-picking, hair-pulling – we all do some of them, some of the time. Some normal grooming behaviours help maintain good hygiene (such as picking at a dirty finger nail) and appearance (plucking that pesky grey hair). But when do these normal behaviours become bothersome habits? And when do these habits become psychological disorders?

Picking at My Face Almost Ruined My Life

How dermatillomania (and binge-eating) have haunted me for years—and how I'm figuring out ways to fight back.

What is skin picking & how can we stop it?

The success of Dr Pimple Popper (4.4m million Instagram followers and counting) has confirmed what we all secretly suspected –most people find squeezing spots and picking at ingrown hairs satisfying (though this in itself carries a risk of infection and scarring). But while we all occasionally pick our skin one way or another, sometimes skin picking behaviour can go beyond a simple pop and squeeze, and become a compulsion.

When Picking at Your Skin Becomes a Disorder

Chloé is obsessed with her phone and her skin. The 19-year-old’s worst nightmare is a hormonal acne outbreak or waking up to a huge, red spot. She has dermatillomania, otherwise known as skin picking disorder. As the name suggests, those with the condition obsessively pick at their skin. It can stem from stress, anxiety, and even acute boredom, or be triggered by other skin conditions.

Why We Need to Talk More About Skin-Picking Disorder

"Hello again—here we are scabby and red," wrote Tallulah Willis in the caption of a recent bare-faced selfie on Instagram. She continued, "Feeling out of control so zeroing in on something I CAN control, thus fingernails met face, facialist and dermatologist sighed, and the healing process commenced."