Ask a therapist > Anxiety > Can I redirect my anxiety away from picking on my skin? It ruins my skin & lips and it's painful

Can I redirect my anxiety away from picking on my skin? It ruins my skin & lips and it's painful

I've been picking on my skin and lips for a very long time now. I didn't know it was serious until i saw a tiktok on someone that does the same and has the same type of bad skin as me. They also talked about the way it was a stress reliever for them. For me I always knew I had anxiety but only recently I started to feel like that maybe it's severe when I'm reflecting on my self. I have weird random times where it just so happens that I lose air from my lungs and I feel like suffocating when I start talking. Even though I just didn't feel nervous before that and I am social. I also realized I procrastinate A LOT because I'm too nervous to start working and finding it hard. I keep picking on my skin and lips whenever I'm doing something to relieve the stress. The anxiety thing I can contain but the skin picking is making me even more anxious now.

Asked by sara

Anxiety

Worry

Answered

05/05/2022

Good morning there Sara,

My name is Jo and I am a counsellor here at BetterHelp. I do thank you for reaching out with your question which I have read really carefully.

Firstly I am sorry to read that you have been experiencing anxiety to such a degree for a long time. I think that anxiety and stress can really manifest itself in us physically, so some people may pick their skin, others may find pulling their hair can have that same effect.

It feels that the situation that you are describing is called dermatillomania or otherwise known as excoriation disorder. I think it's important to know that we all pick our skin from time to time but when that behaviour causes damage or you begin to realise that there is a pattern to this behaviour then I would suggest that having a chat with your G.P could be a good idea.

I can suggest some ways in which you can try to manage these behaviours.. I hope you find some useful.

Keep your hands busy if you can, try squeezing a soft ball or try wearing gloves.
Identify when and where you most commonly pick your skin and try to avoid these triggers.
Try to resist for longer and longer times when you feel the urge to pick.
Care for your skin when you get the urge to pick.. maybe use a nice hand moisturiser.
Tell other people so that they can also help you to recognise when you are picking.
Try to keep your skin clean and free from infection, keep nails short and neat, and don't keep things like tweezers and pins easily close to hand.

I think that talking therapies are currently thought to help with skin picking as it helps you to address the underlying issues with anxiety and can help with the other really distressing symptoms such as feeling that you are loosing air from your lungs when you try to speak. I would think that through the talking therapies, which could possibly be CBT based, you will begin to look at recognising and being more aware of the triggers for skin picking and then begin to explore replacing this behaviour with something less harmful.

I do hope that my answer has gone a small way to help. I hope that you feel able to engage with a therapist to explore these issues together.

Please do take care.

Mrs. Joanna Oxford

BACP