5Ā Strategies That Have Effectively Helped With Skin Picking
Since I have been skin picking since I was 14 (Iām 22 now) I have tried many differentĀ methods to stop. People used to think that 14-year-old-me had a skin disease.Ā I have went from looking like a mess, to looking like I have clear skin (which is not the case, but people can barelyĀ tell anymore!)Ā 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.Ā 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 donāt 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 wouldnāt 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 werenāt 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 overtimeĀ 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 didnāt look the best, they helped me.
3. KeepingĀ a picking chart. Itās important to be aware of how much you pick and when you pick. The point of this chart is to be aware of your pickingĀ and to figure out your ātrigger timesā. 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 āpickĀ #1 at 7:00pmā so I wouldnāt 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 shittyĀ feeling of writing a big number under ānumber of times pickedā, helped me not want to pick.
4. Honey. Now this is probably the weirdest one of the list, but itās the most helpful to me. When youāre at home and youāre not planning to see anyone, put honey on the spots that youāre 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 bodyĀ could spread on couches, shirts etc.Ā But what honey does is it forces you not to touch that area since your handsĀ will get sticky. Sometimes when Iām at home Iāll just start feeling my face looking for bumps, but honey forces me to stop. I donāt even bother feeling my skin since I know Iāll get sticky, then Iāll 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 thatās helped me so much, and I know it sounds weird, but if your skeptical, try it for aĀ 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, āIām going to stop picking!ā and thenĀ pick my first timeĀ of the day, I would feel horrible the rest of the day. Striving for perfection instead of progress, expecting a lot more outĀ of myself than I could handle at the time, and then feeling bad and guilty about it. Stopping a bit at a time was whatĀ 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 timesĀ 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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