Skin Picking [Excoriation]: Stupid Addictions that Only Harm You

You might not have heard about this condition if you don’t like the psychological roleplay plots. This is a type of obsessive behavior in which a person will continue to scrape away skin layers from the hands, feet, the corners of the nose and mouth, and primarily the scalp. Skin picking as a habit can reach such a point that you realize the skin is being bruised, remaining inflamed throughout the day, or even bleeding, and even then, you cannot stop yourself. Even recently, I saw this where a lady in marriage counseling would pick on the skin just along the base of her nails to the extent that the skin would bruise and bleed. This type of skin picking is more than just self-obsession or some type of OCD. It is like a means to handle anxiety and stress in a manner where the pain perhaps gives way to some type of engagement to the mind, taking away the attention from the actual cause or the stimulus causing the anxiety. 

Some healthcare agencies believe that skin picking is closely connected to obsessive behavior symptoms. Such folks might have a concurrent running or previously existing condition that makes them perform the same activity repeatedly. This can be some form of OCD, too - if you have read my discussion about stress management and anxiety control measures, you will realize that when you are bogged down by thoughts that make you squeamish, there is a big chance that you will indulge in activities that you realize are counter-productive, but still, stopping yourself seems impossible!

How common is this? A lot, beyond what you can imagine, but most people don’t count it as a mental health condition. 

Scratching yourself seems so natural – where is the harm in this? However, when scratching reaches uncontrollable levels, when you are picking away at your own skin with the seriousness of a grave-digger, day and night, you have a problem. Do you need medicines for this? Not really! Yes, there is a proper term used to describe this condition - Excoriation Disorder - however, it becomes an actual problem only when you allow it to reach unmanageable proportions. For me, this problem comes and goes and often leads to facial rashes when I am stressed, but I have been able to cut back and nip the problem in the bud! You need to create some type of controlling mechanism to take charge. You have to unteach yourself, i.e., kick scratching out of your mind’s vocabulary. I recall some type of movie about this habit where a person would compulsively prick and pluck his teeth, imagining the worst scenarios about out-of-space creatures existing along the dental landscape.

Though this was more about hallucinations and some serious mental health issues, the depravity of the symptoms can be found in obsessive skin picking, too. If you are doing this out of being stressed, you need to get out and find a less health-denting way of keeping your hands busy. You want to defeat the habit, not allowing it to cause issues like hair fall or being an instigator of skin conditions like psoriasis – the latter being very relevant for me!