What Is Obsessive Skin Picking?
UNDERSTANDING THE DISORDER
OSPA members understand Dermatillomania, Excoriation Disorder, or compulsive or obsessive skin picking as a progressive illness that can take many forms. Although members do not regard it as curable, they believe it can be arrested through recovery.
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Picking blemishes or perceived imperfections on many or selected areas of the body.
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Aggressive scratching or interfering with wound healing.
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Using fingernails, teeth, or implements.
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Repeatedly scanning or obsessing on the mental map of skin.
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Nail biting, hair pulling, or extracting bodily material.
What It Can Look Like
How It Can Affect Life
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Repeated infections, open or unhealed wounds, significant scarring, or disfigurement.
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Elaborate efforts to conceal damage using makeup, hairstyles, clothing, or tattoos.
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Shame, secrecy, isolation, and disruption to relationships, social life, or work.
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Repeated unsuccessful attempts to stop.
OSPA’s Approach to Recovery
Members believe that following the Twelve Step program can interrupt destructive patterns and support physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. The program invites members to accept powerlessness over the illness, stop trying to “white-knuckle” abstinence, and develop a relationship with a Power greater than themselves.
Through meetings, sponsorship, the Steps, and reaching out to others, members describe returning to more normal patterns of living, restoring relationships, healing shame, and discovering that helping another suffering member strengthens their own recovery.