RSS
Home
Compulsive Skin Picking (CSP), rising with stress?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Photography by: K. Nash Photography
The most common characteristic of Compulsive Skin Picking (CSP) is to pick at one’s own skin, causing damage, bleeding, bruising, swelling, infection, scarring, and disfiguration. CSP, or dermatillomania, is most common on the face and neck areas of the body, but can also occur on the hands, elbows, arms, legs, and feet. Sadly, this rarely heard of condition is on the rise, and some Health Care Professionals blame stress.
(If you’re the visual type, then I’d like to apologize now. However, if you were someone with such a compulsion, can you imagine the frustration you might feel, knowing you’re hurting your own SELF and seemingly CANNOT stop?)
CSP is similar to, and carries traits of, obsessive-compulsive features that are often acquainted with OCD, BDD and Trichotillomania (the obsessive act of pulling out one’s own hair). While it is sometimes found in individuals with these disorders, as well as in patients with certain medical conditions, it still has no place of its own in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) published by the American Psychiatric Association. In fact, a recent study found that 23% of those with OCD, and 27% of those with BDD, also suffered from subconscious skin picking.
Habit Reversal Training (HRT), done in conjunction with a trained Cognitive Behavioral Therapist, can and has changed the lives of many who suffered quietly with this damaging disease. Your skin is your largest organ; would you want yourself, or someone you know to begin picking at their liver, incessantly?
If you, or someone you know needs help, contact the OCD Center of Los Angeles at (310) 335-5443, or email them directly for support and direction. You're not alone.
No one ever is.
No matter what.
Related Articles:
Comments
