5 Strategies That Have Effectively Helped With Skin Picking
Since I have been skin picking since I was 14 (I’m 22 now) I have tried many different methods to stop. People used to think that 14-year-old-me had a skin disease. I have went from looking like a mess, to looking like I have clear skin (which is not the case, but people can barely tell anymore!) Even though I still pick, I have cut down a lot. Below are my holy grail strategies that have helped me get to where I am today, and hopefully for anyone who is struggling, this can help you too.
1. Giving myself 10 reasons to stop picking & reading them every morning. I feel when it comes to any goal, you have days that you are motivated and ready to tackle it head on, and then more so, you have days that you don’t want to bother trying. Reading a list of motivations every morning has helped me see the future I could have without skin picking. This is the reminder that pushed me a bit more to try harder. You can make more then 10, but I liked to keep a number that wouldn’t be such a hassle to read every morning. If you have trouble thinking of what to put, some of my motivations where: being able to not wear makeup, putting my hair up instead of hiding behind it, feeling like people weren’t looking at my skin, feeling more confident.
2. Replacing the habit with a healthier habit. This is important. The best way to get rid of a habit, is to replace it with a healthier habit. In my case, I used to wear a silicon bracelet (with squishy rubber beads), that I would play with anytime I had the urge to pick. At first, it was hard to remember to squeeze the bracelet instead of my skin, but overtime I started grabbing the bracelet and playing with it until the urge went away. I bought about 10 of these bracelets from the dollar store, since they would often break. And even if they didn’t look the best, they helped me.
3. Keeping a picking chart. It’s important to be aware of how much you pick and when you pick. The point of this chart is to be aware of your picking and to figure out your “trigger times”. I would divide the chart into 3 categories; date, number of times I picked today, what times I picked today. I would record in this chart at the end of the day before I went to sleep. I would also record on my cellphone through out the day, just sending little messages to myself like “pick #1 at 7:00pm” so I wouldn’t forget to put it in the chart. This chart helped me realize my trigger times (first thing in the morning, when I come home from work/school, right before I go to sleep). Knowing my trigger times helped me put my coping skills in action before the trigger. Also, this chart motivated me to pick less. The shitty feeling of writing a big number under “number of times picked”, helped me not want to pick.
4. Honey. Now this is probably the weirdest one of the list, but it’s the most helpful to me. When you’re at home and you’re not planning to see anyone, put honey on the spots that you’re tempted to pick at. Such as pimples, scabs, anywhere that is tempting, put honey on it. This works best if you pick on your face, since putting honey on any other part of your body could spread on couches, shirts etc. But what honey does is it forces you not to touch that area since your hands will get sticky. Sometimes when I’m at home I’ll just start feeling my face looking for bumps, but honey forces me to stop. I don’t even bother feeling my skin since I know I’ll get sticky, then I’ll have to run to the sink to wash it off. Honey also is an antibacterial, which is good for your skin and acne. This is a method that’s helped me so much, and I know it sounds weird, but if your skeptical, try it for a week and see if it makes a difference for you.
5. Cutting down instead of stopping cold turkey. This tip a lot of people could disagree on. But for me, this took a lot of stress and guilt out of myself. Everyday, when I would say, “I’m going to stop picking!” and then pick my first time of the day, I would feel horrible the rest of the day. Striving for perfection instead of progress, expecting a lot more out of myself than I could handle at the time, and then feeling bad and guilty about it. Stopping a bit at a time was what made progress. Using the picking chart I talked about above, I figured out how much I picked on average. I made it a goal to pick less than the average amount. So if the average was 20, the goal was to pick 15 times or less for a couple of weeks. And when I got used to that, then the goal was to pick 10 times, etc.
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