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Dermatillomania (Think I've spelt that right)

NAS75030

Hey,

I was just curious if anyone else on here suffers with dermatillomania? (obsessively/excessively picking your own skin) It's something I have done since my teens and predominantly I obsessively 'attack' my lips, and also pick/pluck at my eyebrow hair...in both cases this can be for long sustained periods and ultimately will damage the skin causing it to be very sore and very noticeable. It does also come with a feeling of relief once I've finished. I just wondered if anyone else does this or has any tips for maybe reducing it? I guess like switching focus maybe? Also just curious if this is related to being on the spectrum as I'm currently awaiting formal diagnosis at 36, however having pretty much accepted I have high functioning asd/asperger's.

Thank you in advance 

Marti

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  • My wife has eczema but not ASD and she picks her skin until it bleeds quite regularly.  It sounds like you need to find a way of changing your stimming to something else.  I have always been lucky that my stimming is both constant and subtle however I do suck my teeth a lot and wonder if it has long term effects.

    I think there are books and articles or how to change more destructive forms of stimming.

  • in reply to Paul

    Thank you for your advice. I definitely do need to try and swap this destructive stimming out for something else. I do stim in other ways such as tapping/bouncing my foot when sitting or generally fidgeting or 'faffing' as it's been described so maybe I need to find something good to fidget with and see if that distracts me. Thank you for your suggestions I'll have a look.

    Marti

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  • in reply to Paul

    Thank you for your advice. I definitely do need to try and swap this destructive stimming out for something else. I do stim in other ways such as tapping/bouncing my foot when sitting or generally fidgeting or 'faffing' as it's been described so maybe I need to find something good to fidget with and see if that distracts me. Thank you for your suggestions I'll have a look.

    Marti

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