Well, since I reviewed that other article, I may as well review Diary of a Skin Picker's guest post of the Trichotillomania Learning Center's blog, which you can read here. In the post, Skin Pick Guy (as I will refer to him, since that's his e-mail/twitter handle, so I don't think he'll take offence) gives his account of being a male with dermatillomania, a perspective which we can often be hard pressed to find in the dermatillomania community. To start with, I personally think that we are hard pressed to find these perspectives for a similar reason that is mentioned in the post: guys tend to be more secretive about these things. I think the why to that fact though is because guys aren't supposed to have problems. In the post, Skin Pick Guy mentions how women are expected to be skin pickers, which of course means that men are not. Women are expected to have problems. We're expected to be emotional and irrational for that, so of course we're going to have issues. Men, on the other hand, are expected to have it all held together and therefore not have any personal issues. That's one of the biggest stigmas that men have to fight, and I think that translates into having dermatillomania too, of course.
And maybe that's why guys aren't asked as much about "what's wrong" with them when they have marks all over their face for instance, which is something Skin Pick Guy also mentions. Because guys "shouldn't" have any problems, then clearly the marks must be nothing to worry about. It may just come across as trivial. I agree to some extent when he says that women are also expected to have perfect skin (suggesting that men do not), but I think that applies to men, too. I can think of dozens of commercials that promote perfect, clear skin for men, I think maybe men just sometimes hide it better when they are affected by these commercials. So maybe it's just a matter of men not wanting to talk about this either because they "shouldn't" be affected by these things because they're men and yadayadayada macho macho man (please excuse this misplaced bit of humour).
In any case, I could relate to Skin Pick Guy in some regards here. One being the makeup situation. Although I'm a girl, I've never worn makeup, beyond playing around with it when I was a kid. But as for the daily ritual of putting on a mask, I can't be bothered. And when I pick at my face, I get really self-conscious about it, too, and suggestions from other pickers about makeup don't really help me either. I, of course, don't have facial hair under which to hide the damage, so he's got one up on me there. I can see how the shaving excuse would be handy, too (women can use that one too, just for other areas of their bodies, like legs).
I don't really know what else to say about the post except that it's refreshing to have a male perspective, to see the similarities and differences between men and women dealing with this disorder. I only know of one other male (on facebook) who is pretty outspoken about his struggles with dermatillomania, and I think more men ought to speak up, especially considering the loving support of the dermatillomania community. You may find a lot of comfort and compassion, like I have, and like Skin Pick Guy says that he has.
I suggest you all go take a gander at his guest blog post (and then his own blog if you haven't already). I know I for one continue to admire how willing he is to speak about his struggles and dealings with dermatillomania and his willingness to help others through that.
I'm sorry I don't have more to say, but I'll leave you all with this quotation from Skin Pick Guy's post.
"We all have our distinct challenges, but I think that the most important thing is to help each other."
