dermotillo
mania (aka
Compulsive Skin Picking CSP ) is the little known cousin of
trichotillomania. It is a kind of
OCD (
obsessive compulsive disorder) A person with dermotillomania picks at their
pimples (or what they think are
pimples) obsessively. They may
zone out and pick for hours and hours. Some times they pick so long that their legs fall asleep. Often the
acne is not that bad to begin with, but the picking only makes it worse. The fixation is not unlike
SI (
self injury or '
cutting') however since it is not as destructive as taking a
razorblade to the sole of the foot or palm of the hand it is not given as much
medical attention.
Still it can severely disrupt the lives of the
sufferer. One not only loses hours of the day due to the
pointless exercise, but the
damage done to the skin can cause already low
self esteem to plummet further.
There are some resources online for people with this problem:
http://
saveface.tripod.com/
http://www.ocdla.com/compulsiveskinpicking.html
Often it is
co-morbid with
depression,
anorexia or
avoidant personality disorder.