Skin Picking Disorder (Excoriation) Tips & Treatment

Many people pick at their skin once in a while, but sometimes it crosses the line into a condition called skin picking disorder (excoriation).
When this happens, picking at the skin -- for example, picking a scab or the skin around your nails -- can become so frequent and intense that it causes bleeding, sores, and scars. 

What Are the Signs of Skin Picking Disorder?

• Does picking at your skin take up a lot of time during the day?
• Do you have noticeable scars from skin picking?

• Do you feel upset when you think about how much you pick your skin?

• Does picking at your skin get in the way of your social or professional life? For example, do you avoid the beach or the gym because people might see your scars? Or do you spend a lot of time covering up sores before work or social events?

How Does Skin Picking Disorder Develop?

Skin picking disorder happens in both children and adults. It can begin at almost any age. Skin picking disorder often develops in one of two ways:

After some kind of rash skin infection, or small injury: You may pick at the scab or rash, which causes more injury to the skin and keeps the wound from healing. More itching leads to more picking and more scabbing, and the cycle continues.

During a time of stress: You may absently pick at a scab or the skin around your nails and find that the repetitive action helps to relieve stress. It then becomes a habit. Skin picking disorder is considered a type of repetitive "self-grooming" behavior called "Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior"(BFRB). Other types of BFRBs include pulling or picking of the hair or nails that damages the body. 

Treatment

Skin picking disorder is treated with therapy and medications. There are two main kinds of therapy for skin picking:

Habit reversal training. The therapist helps you identify the situations, stresses, and other factors that trigger the skin picking. Then your therapist will help you find other things to do instead of skin picking, such as squeezing a rubber ball. This will help ease stress and occupy your hands.

Stimulus control. This therapy involves making changes to your environment to help curb skin picking. For example, you might try wearing gloves or Band-Aids to help prevent feeling the skin and getting the urge to pick. Or you might cover mirrors if seeing facial blemishes or pimples brings on picking behavior.

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Liz Skincare 

2200 SW 16 ST Suite 224 Miami, FL 33145

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Do Women of Color Need Special Skincare Products?

It surprises many people when they learn that darker skin tones do not require special skincare products. It seems contrary to what you would expect, but the fact is skin color is not a skin type! 

None of the research indicates that skin color has anything to do with the skincare products you need. It's not that darker skin tones don't have some physiological differences from lighter skin tones; it’s just that those differences don't impact what products you should be using. 

Skincare is Color Blind

When it comes to skincare needs, skin is skin—no matter the color. Think of it like your diet: Regardless of our ethnic background, we all need the same nutritious foods that supply antioxidants, vitamins, and omega fatty acids to be healthy. The exact same concept applies to skin. 

Skin is the body’s largest organ, which is why everyone’s skin needs the same helpful ingredients to address issues like dry skin, clogged pores, signs of aging, sun damage from unprotected sun exposure, uneven skin tone, oily skin, sensitive skin, and so on. All of those problems affect every ethnicity in the same way with only minor variations, but those variations don’t affect how you take care of your skin. 

It is also important for everyone, regardless of skin color, to avoid problematic, skin-aggravating ingredients such as SD and denatured alcohol, menthol, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemon, lime, and natural or synthetic fragrances as well as scrubs and stiff-bristled cleansing brushes. Exposure to these skin-provoking ingredients will exacerbate any skin problem you have or create skin problems you don’t want. Bad products and unhelpful ingredients don’t care what color your skin is!

What You Need to Know

• Always use a gentle, water soluble cleanser (avoid bar soaps; they are too drying, can clog pores and cause skin to look ashy and feel dry).

• Always choose products that are appropriate for your skin type (i.e. gels and serums for oily or combination skin; creams and lotions for dry skin).
• Always use a well-formulated sunscreen during the day (the most typical cause of uneven skin tone for women of color and the appearance of signs of aging is sun damage).
• Always use products loaded with state-of-the-art ingredients including antioxidants, skin-replenishing ingredients, and skin-restoring ingredients.

These are the universal basic needs for all skin types regardless of ethnic background or skin color. This is the essential diet everyone’s skin needs, just like everyone’s basic diet for a healthy body has the same food group needs.

Dark Skin and Sun Damage

Having darker skin color does have an advantage over lighter skin tones because darker skin color does offer some amount of protection from sun damage. Essentially, the darker your skin tone, the more natural defense your skin has against the sun. 

Applying a broad spectrum sunscreen 365 days a year, rain or shine, is as basic as it gets to having beautiful, healthy skin. Even if you’re inside all day, the silent but skin-damaging UVA rays of daylight come through windows. Sun damage isn’t pretty for anyone. Uneven skin tone, early signs of aging, rough skin surface, dry skin, mottled skin, and loss of firmness will occur for everyone if skin isn’t consistently protected.

Having the best skin of your life truly starts with sunscreen. Believing darker skin will somehow protect your skin from visible damage is dangerous thinking. No matter what skin color you have, it can absolutely be damaged by the sun. We repeat: Everyone needs to apply and reapply broad-spectrum sunscreen every day of year.

Health and Beauty tips

Liz skincare

2200 SW 16 ST Suite 224 Miami, FL 33145

Please “like” & share! Thank you!

I hope you’ve found some of my tips helpful!

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Teen facial acne removal by Liz Mesa

Skincare for Teens

Liz_Skincare-39, a photo by lizskincare on Flickr.

Miami Skincare & Beauty Expo by Liz Skincare

How often should teens have facials? This truly depends on the skin issues of each teen. Depending on the severity of problem skin, I recommend every 2 weeks for those who have plenty of issues with acne and once a month for maintaining healthy, clear skin.Teaching teens the importance of caring for their skin with regular facials is a great gift that not only affects their appearance, but also their self-esteem.

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Teen facial acne removal by Liz Mesa 

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