New member/My related experience

[BELAwesome]

Hi all! I joined HealthUnlocked a few years ago and had a long break where I hadn’t been on here. Got an email about the app so I thought to check it out again. I’ve seen been diagnosed with things I wasn’t aware of before. One of them is related to OCD. I don’t have the “stereotypical” OCD symptoms. As I seem to switch between different things I focus on. This can include all in the mind, like obsessing/thinking about the same things so much. Almost like an addiction.

I’ve been diagnosed with depression and anxiety before but not clear about OCD but once in an appointment the Dr noticed my skin that I had been messing with. I didn’t realize I could actually have a condition (dermatilloma/excoriation/skin picking disorder). It started with having skin blemishes and just feeling the impulse to clear it somehow. And it turned into a stress reliever/distractor but then it turned into being hard to stop on command and overdoing it/causing marks. Recently was one of the worst bouts of it where I ended up getting scabs on my face for it :/

I’ve been so embarrassed about it. It’s not necessarily an every day thing and I don’t always want to do it. But I do think stress plays into it.

Does anyone else here deal with this or something similar? I haven’t been told too much about this or personally know anyone with it and I feel embarrassed and kind of alone with it. I felt I related to OCD but didn’t know I actually fit into it somehow. Hope we are able to be a support to each other 😊.

[JoeS00]

Since I was a kid I always pulled my hair or bit my lips and it was uncontrollable. When I developed OCD later on at the age of 15 I felt like they were related. I have a suggestion. Instead of skin picking try to grab a soft ball and squeeze on it. It might help. Or make fists with your hands. It can lessen the skin picking. This helps me when I feel compelled to pull my hair.

[BELAwesome in reply to JoeS00]

Thank you!

[Hidden]

I'm not sure, but the general idea (and I'm so worried I'm gunna like misread what you just typed, lol) that there's no specific obsession, or that there MIGHT NOT BE a specific obsession, and it's just your capacity to, in a very general sense, just stick on to things and not let them go, rings true bells for me.

I think I have this thing where, I started eating snacks (potato chips, whatever else I could get my hands on) at like 3 am. It started off as nothing, but I think I recall (and this is where the "I think" comes from) that I started becoming concerned that this behaviour of mine, could spiral out of control. Nowadays, it actually is worse. I'm distressed by the fact that it could keep growing, so I don't know if that rings true bells for you too or not (less distressed by the mere action itself).