How to Stop Picking Your Face: 3 Effective Ways

Everyone picks their skin at some point in their life.

We can all think back to a time in our life when we had a scab and someone was over our shoulder telling us not to pick it, and the desire to pick at the scab was overwhelming, so we picked it.

Anyways, Picking can be a problem and in this article, I will tell you how to stop picking your face. There are different ways that you can apply to stop picking your face.

Let’s dive deep into it……..

1. What is Skin Picking?

Skin-picking disorder is different in that the compulsion to pick at the skin is overwhelming and that compulsion that urges is only satisfied by picking at the skin.

The urge to pick is so strong that an individual will pick at their skin to the point of causing open sores and bumps and all sorts of disfiguring skin lesions. People with skin picking disorder or dermatillomania as it’s also called.

They’ll pick at their skin even when there’s nothing to pick out just completely normal skin to the point again of causing open sores and skin lesions.

How do you know if it’s a full-blown skin-picking disorder or really just hey I’m bored and I’ve got a scab let’s pick at it?

Skin picking disorder is defined as when the picking becomes so distressing in an individual’s life that it encroaches on their quality of life or it disrupts their ability to perform at work and in social functions. Many people who suffer from skin picking disorder will have a coexistent mental health issue going on.

Most commonly depression, severe depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, people, who don’t have a mental health disorder but have a primary skin disease that’s itchy like eczema or people who have an end-stage renal disease where they’re suffering from intractable parietes that’s the medical term for the itch. They will scratch at their skin as a result of feeling itchy and that can lead to a skin-picking disorder to relieve that sensation of itch.

Some people with the skin-picking disorder will go as far as to use things like tweezers, and their teeth just to pick at their skin so it’s not limited to fingers. Yeah, that’s why I’m not a fan of a lot of skin tools things like extractors I just find that they can end up causing a lot of harm and scarring to people. There’s really no need for anybody to be using them without dermatologist supervision.

But they often find themselves in the hands of somebody who’s really struggling and it can result in a lot of disfigurement and scarring. If you’re struggling with this however don’t feel ashamed you are not alone it is estimated that 5 million Americans have skin-picking disorders. So, it’s really really common it’s one of the most common things.

2. How to Stop Picking Your Face?

There are different things that you can do to get rid of excessive picking. Some of them are listed below:-

2.1 Understand What Triggers You

Tip number one for the skin-picking disorder is to start to understand what triggers you to pick.

For some people it’s emotional stress, for others it’s boredom, and in the case of people who have eczema or other skin diseases a lot of times, it’s a sensation of itch. Looking in the mirror, and looking at your blemishes also can trigger the urge to pick at them. So, get rid of those poor mirrors they are not helping you.

2.2 Make it Harder to Pick Your Skin

Tip number two tip is to make it harder to pick at your skin.

This is where the mighty patch comes in. Mighty Patch is helpful because they create a physical barrier that prevents your fingers from accessing your skin. You can put them on a pimple and the hydrocolloid nature of these patches helps to facilitate the healing of the pimple.

If you’ve scratched or picked at the pimple to the point that it’s now an open sore this also can help facilitate healing. The hydrocolloid helps by absorbing up excess exudate basically whenever you have inflammation in the skin, a lot of fluid leaks out, and inflammatory mediators and hydrocolloids help bring that up out of the wound bed facilitating healing. What is also good about these is that they’re invisible, so you can wear them during the day and no one knows that you have them on.

As I said a lot of people who have skin picking disorder really suffer emotionally from feeling embarrassed out in public, and so these are great not only in that they provide a physical barrier from your fingers but they also help facilitate healing and provide that camouflage. Yeah, the invisible patches are really great for isolated pimples. They’re really good to wear in the evening time as well because many people find that the compulsion to pick at their skin is greater at night especially if you have an issue with itch.

For whatever reason, the itch becomes a lot more intense at night time. We really don’t understand fully why that is so you can wear them at night time to just kind of help create a physical barrier against your fingers and to facilitate healing especially if you have an open sore that you have created. This can really help but you also can wear them during the daytime after in the morning if you wash your face and put on moisturizer everything allows the moisturizer to dry and then put the patch on and it will camouflage everything and you can wear it.

If you wear it at night you can take it off the following morning or if you wear it during the daytime you can take it off in the evening as part of your evening skincare routine. You will see that the patch on the side that has come in contact been in contact with your skin all day you will see that it has turned white. You might see some exudate if you’ve had a particularly inflammatory pimple or a sore that is open you will see that.

Basically, that’s just the inflammation kind of being pulled out and again that helps facilitate healing of the open sore so it can be really helpful. It’s not really cleaning out your pores a lot of people are under the impression that’s how these work. It’s really just pulling up that inflammation that it otherwise would build up within that wound bed. It’s pulling it up into the hydrocolloid dressing and that will help with wound healing as part of the wound healing process.

So, it’s a good sign to see that but if you don’t see that it doesn’t mean that the patch is not working. The patch as I said can help get in the way of your fingers and it also can help camouflage things. Another nice thing about these patches is that they reduce friction on the surface of the skin like for example on your cheek, or on your jawline if you have an open sore that you’ve picked at, and frictional forces on like pimples or open sores like from your pillowcase or just things touching your face.

They can aggravate the pimple even more or the lesion even more and delay healing. So, these also help in that regard.

2.3 Other Tips

Aside from the patches, other things that you can do to get in the way of picking are to keep your nails trimmed short. It is recommended for anybody regardless of if you have picked it or not because of nails.

They harbor a lot of bacteria and then they also are devices for picking. the nails with the bacteria and then the picking you can actually introduce that bacteria into your skin and get a secondary skin infection it’s called impetigo. So, keep your nails trimmed short that will help you be less likely to pick and it’s just honestly better hygiene. Also, wearing gloves can also save you from pricking your face. Wear gloves so that you will not be able to pick your face.

The Takeaway!

This was all about the ways through which you can save yourself from picking your skin. Try to follow these ways and get rid of skin picking.

If you want to know how you can get rid of pimples then check this out.

Frequently Asked Questions!

Some of the most asked questions related to skin picking are given below:-

Q1. Can skin picking be cured?

Yes, skin picking can be cured. You need to follow the methods stated above to get rid of it. Try to keep your hands busy.

Q2. Is skin-picking OCD?

Skin picking is not always a behaviour of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It’s not always the compulsive skin-picking. It can be body-focused repetitive behaviour.

Q3. Is Skin picking a mental illness?

Dermatillomania is a mental illness where a person picks or scratches their skin. It is a bad habit

Q4. Why do I pick my skin so much?

Stress, anxiety, and negative emotions can be the most probable reasons for picking your skin. It’s also said that it’s a nervous habit.

Last Updated on November 11, 2023 by Himani Rawat