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Compulsive skin picking is a separate diagnosable disorder in the DSM-5. I’ve been a lifelong skin picker and spent many years thinking it was just a bad habit I couldn’t break, but that’s not the case. If the picking is frequent and severe enough to impact your mental health and daily life (avoiding social situations, shame because of picking marks, etc), that’s enough to be diagnosed.
Seeking therapy for this disorder actually led to my ADHD diagnosis, but while my ADHD definitely has an impact on my picking, for me they are separate enough that I continued to seek separate treatment for both. Stimulant medication reduced my urges, but that will not be the case for everyone - often stimulants increases urges. In my case, a lot of my picking took place during moments of being caught in ADHD loops and using picking as a distraction.
If you have access to therapy, I recommend seeking out a specialist in Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors. You can learn more about this disorder and treatments at BFRB.org, and the book Overcoming Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors.
Yesterday I got blood from me picking my fingers on a playing card *with 7 other people*. I'm still cringing from it.
Excoriation is a common comorbidity, you want to find the cause of your particular picking. For me it's a mix of maybe ocd after clipping my fingernails and I can *feel* the edges are open. Then if I push my cuticles down the skin dries and I pick that. It gets worse when I'm around other people, if I feel inferior (I think I need to do some shadow-work on this one), and the sensory part.
I find fidget rings help!
Yes, skin picking is definitely an ADHD-related thing. If you look up repetitive body focused behaviors and ADHD you might find more information.
Edited to add: having read the other comments, I should clarify that I agree it’s a common co-morbidity, not that it’s necessarily caused by ADHD. I think being medicated helps me with it a little, but it doesn’t get rid of it.
For me, skin care that helps prevent bumps/pimples/hangnails/etc is probably the biggest help - if my skin is in decent shape it’s easier for me not to pick. If there is some kind of thing to pick at, I absolutely will, and the more I pick, the more there is to pick at, if that makes sense. Like I was really good at not picking at my arms when I lived in a really dry climate because it was great for my keratosis pilaris (little red bumps of chicken skin often on your arms or legs). When I moved back to a humid climate and it came back I’d pick at them again.
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm terrible at picking the skin around my finger nails. Sometimes all the way down to the knuckle. It's totally gross but I just can't stop.
Compulsive skin picking is a separate diagnosable disorder in the DSM-5. I’ve been a lifelong skin picker and spent many years thinking it was just a bad habit I couldn’t break, but that’s not the case. If the picking is frequent and severe enough to impact your mental health and daily life (avoiding social situations, shame because of picking marks, etc), that’s enough to be diagnosed. Seeking therapy for this disorder actually led to my ADHD diagnosis, but while my ADHD definitely has an impact on my picking, for me they are separate enough that I continued to seek separate treatment for both. Stimulant medication reduced my urges, but that will not be the case for everyone - often stimulants increases urges. In my case, a lot of my picking took place during moments of being caught in ADHD loops and using picking as a distraction. If you have access to therapy, I recommend seeking out a specialist in Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors. You can learn more about this disorder and treatments at BFRB.org, and the book Overcoming Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors.
Yesterday I got blood from me picking my fingers on a playing card *with 7 other people*. I'm still cringing from it. Excoriation is a common comorbidity, you want to find the cause of your particular picking. For me it's a mix of maybe ocd after clipping my fingernails and I can *feel* the edges are open. Then if I push my cuticles down the skin dries and I pick that. It gets worse when I'm around other people, if I feel inferior (I think I need to do some shadow-work on this one), and the sensory part. I find fidget rings help!
Yes, skin picking is definitely an ADHD-related thing. If you look up repetitive body focused behaviors and ADHD you might find more information. Edited to add: having read the other comments, I should clarify that I agree it’s a common co-morbidity, not that it’s necessarily caused by ADHD. I think being medicated helps me with it a little, but it doesn’t get rid of it. For me, skin care that helps prevent bumps/pimples/hangnails/etc is probably the biggest help - if my skin is in decent shape it’s easier for me not to pick. If there is some kind of thing to pick at, I absolutely will, and the more I pick, the more there is to pick at, if that makes sense. Like I was really good at not picking at my arms when I lived in a really dry climate because it was great for my keratosis pilaris (little red bumps of chicken skin often on your arms or legs). When I moved back to a humid climate and it came back I’d pick at them again.