This is a medical condition, not just a bad habit. It is very treatable but will probably benefit from psychiatric treatment, not just counseling or friendly advice. As with OCD, this can include cognitive behavioral therapy as well as medication.

We have a friend who does this. To the point of bleeding. It is a recognised medical compulsive disorder condition (a desire for perfect skin so you want to remove the imperfections which makes it worse and so on)

Please do see a doctor. They won’t think badly of you and can help.

Picking skin is a symptom of something much deeper (and possibly darker).

The fact that you want to get rid of it is great but as someone mentioned you need help.

I would suggest reading “The body keeps the score” it may give a glimpse of the issue… But you need a professional

Good luck dear internet stranger and remember that you are lovable and loved

Gloves/mittens barrier.

Even thin cotton gloves will stop you from being able to use your nails to pick.

(But the real answer is speaking to a psychologist, and working through their best practice that has worked with countless others : )

You should try to talk to a doctor or psychiatrist about this habit, especially if it’s beginning to bother you and affect your life in other ways.

As for things you can do right away, how about sticking bandaids on your sores, this will help them heal and it’ll also keep you away from the area. And don’t wait until it gets bad, but even put bandaids on prematurely if it’ll get you to stop compulsively messing with your skin.

Another thing is to buy some basic skin care tools. As someone who has the habit of biting my nails, sometimes until they bleed or are painful, I know that biting them can lead to making them rough, which just leads to making me even more compelled to bite the rough bits. For me it can really become a cyclical problem that’s also likely driven by anxiety and depression. But by clipping and filling my nails with proper tools I can quickly break the cycle, because my nails will start to generally feel better. So maybe you can do something similar with your skin by exfoliating and using lotion! It’s worth a try!

Finally I want to say that cannabis has been good for my personal type/level of anxiety, though I hesitate to recommend it because when though I don’t find it addictive I think it maybe isn’t great to recommend to someone who is experiencing addictive or compulsive behavior.

In the end I think some combination of therapy, behavior pattern breaking and maybe drugs if necessary, might be able to help you get away from self-harming compulsive behavior. Good luck!

I feel you… For me, it sometimes help, when I notice that I’m doing it, to grab some knitting/stitching project or to grab a Rubix’ Cube. But as others said, a specialist would be a good idea.

When I saw your post I remembered a meme I saw on Lemmy, it’s kind of sad, but also makes me more aware of it…

Dip your finger I’m pvc glue, letcit dry, peel it off. Repeat.

Or find an activity to distract. Don’t sit on the sofa and watch TV (if that’s where you pick), keep busy with other things.

im an alcoholic. one day, after a long trip down a dark and broken road, i decided to stop.

i used to drink in the evening when i was bored. nowadays, after dinner, in the evening, i take long walks. they’re typically 6 miles and last two hours.

you’ll stop if you really want to. getting the help of a professional or support group helps lots of people. good luck

I used to do this with my arms, I’d spend hours rubbing my fingers over my upper arms for pimples or anything similar. The excessive touching would inevitably cause more pimples, more squeezing and picking, more skin damage and scarring.

I stopped eventually in my late 20’s but it takes effort. Awareness is key. Try to be mindful when you do it. When you catch yourself, don’t beat yourself up, just recognise that you were doing it, remind yourself that it is damaging, remind yourself that you want to stop, and then stop doing it. Then do it again when you start doing it again.

You won’t succeed immediately and that is fine. This isn’t about hating yourself for your own behaviours or inability to act differently. This is about taking the active steps to train yourself not to act the way you have. It could take 6 months or a year, doesn’t matter as long as you try. It’s a behavioural addiction like any other that takes awareness and willingness to change.

Buy some cotton gloves - anytime you’re in a situation where you know you might pick, wear them. This has worked very well for me (nail biter).

So sorry, dear one. I have had many physical ticks, habits, addictions. Only one has been terribly damaging. I haven’t been able to stop that one, but I have been able to stop some. My technique has been replacing a harmful one with one less harmful. I’m not sure I have specific advice other than to talk to a psychiatrist. In the most stressful time of my life, I managed to stop chewing my nails by taking anti anxiety meds. When life evened out, I didn’t need them anymore (now I am meticulous about nail clipping and filing). I stopped picking at my feet when I got a foot rasp. Using it after baths with just my feet in the tub it felt like I got what I needed without hurting myself. Keep working, but professional help is best.

It’s worthwhile to see if professional. Especially because this is a long-term issue.

You can try the variety of individual remedies people are giving you, but the psychological barrier is real. And you need to address it as a real issue.

If pain is a deterrent, you could put some hot capsaicin oil on the areas that you normally pick, and then picking will be painful. Especially when you break the skin it’ll burn. That might be a version therapy of a sort. But definitely seek a professional

In addition to what others have said already (seriously, see a doctor), it can also help to redirect the urge. If your brain currently demands something to be picked, it doesn’t have to be your skin - plucking on loose threads or fabric fuzz in an old towel until the surface feels smooth again, peeling labels off glass bottles until there is no paper left, anything with “tiny imperfections” that you can remove with a bit of fumbling can help to easen the urge without you damaging yourself in the process.

This is not “the solution” tho - it is only an additional little help to medication and therapy.

Recognize your behavioral triggers. Could be anxiety, stress, etc. Try to actively recognize how you’re feeling before you engage in an addictive behavior, and then either do a substitute activity or find ways to (calmly) move your thoughts or feelings to a different place. The key concept is to divert your thinking that produces the addictive behavior.

Just my two cents, not a doctor but have broken an addiction or two.

I love wasting spending lots of time on the computer.

I’m friends with Beeminder.
I started at one minute less per day. At the moment I get one day in the countdown when I’m off the machine for 165 minutes. I raise the value when I feel it - slowly and steadily.