Dermatillomania or Skin Pickers - Dermatillomania or Skin Picking

Compulsive Skin Picking is known to the medical profession as dermatillomania, and may also be referred to as CSP, derm or DMT.

People with Dermatillomania are affectionately known on the web as "Picksters". Those who have succeeded in becoming long-term pull free are PickSTARS. The key characteristic of dermatillomania is the compulsive urge to skin pick, which is often stress relieving rather than painful.
Skin-picking urges are often experienced as itching, which seems to be relieved by picking. People with dermatillomania feel that their skin picking, or lip picking is beyond their control and that feeling of being out of control can stretch to all areas of their life, including nail biting and even hair pulling.

Skin pickers often suffer from Body Dysmorphic Disorder and believe that picking may help them to look more “normal”. Like all impulse control disorders, dermatillomania is compulsive and very difficult to stop.

Pick free IS possible, though, and has been achieved long-term, by many on our entirely online PickFree therapy program, with the help of our expert counselors who all have personal experience of the disorder.

Current research reveals that dermatillomania is probably in our DNA, represented as a general behavioral disorder which means we have difficulty controlling our impulses in general. Many people with dermatillomania, for instance, have an alcoholic parent or a parent with other behavioral problems.

A person with dermatillomania may also have another impulse control disorder, such as an eating disorder, alcoholism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or obsessive relationship syndrome and most also have Social Phobic Anxiety Disorder.

Skin pickers often become obsessive with their make-up or wash routines, and many researchers now believe that the gene responsible for OCD is also inherent in dermatillomania sufferers.

Many people with dermatillomania also experience problems sleeping

What should you do about your skin picking? Talk about it as much as possible, separate yourself from the skin picking and accept that it is a disorder, not something to be ashamed of.

You are ashamed BECAUSE you have this disorder, and a symptom of the disorder is shame. You have no real reason to be ashamed of yourself, it’s just a faulty brain pattern.

It is believed that people with impulse control disorder have problems stabilizing their serotonin (the happy hormone) and therefore may be depressed.

Medication for skin-picking is usually serotonin re-uptake medication or SSRIs, which are anti-depressants.

Despite having worked with many dermatillomania sufferers, I have never met one who was helped long-term by medication.

Far more effective, are the following therapy methods: · habit reversal · hypnotherapy · cognitive behavioral therapy · Transactional Analysis · Or Picknotherapy, which incorporates all of the above and is conducted entirely online. Dr Neomie Da Costa B.Msc.D.