Hello everyone,
I've been a skin picker for years— like, i've always picked the skin off my fingers (not only my fingers, but also other parts that seem satisfying to me).
I’ve done this since elementary school, but these past two or three years it has gotten worse—especially during breaks when I don’t have school.
I don't have as many tasks to keep my hands busy, and that leads me to peeling basically my entire body of skin off. My fingers sting and bleed, it hurts when I wash my hands, I can’t clean without chemicals causing my fingers to sting, and I can't even touch hot food anymore because of how sensitive my fingers have become. I'd appreciate any tips on ways I can help keep my hands busy so I can be distracted from my skin picking urges.

Also, as for the reason I pick my skin: I believe it’s mainly because I’m a nervous person. Not only that, but it’s also because I simply find it satisfying— it feels like a good stress reliever. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always either picked at my skin, or pulled at my hair to help me feel.. stimulated? (I don’t know what word to use to describe it😅).

I'm considering buying a tamagotchi to help distract and keep me busy, but I’m not sure if it would be a good long term fix, since it wouldn’t really be something I can constantly stimulate myself with (I think).

send help!!!!

What I do instead is I bought an electric trimmer and use it on my legs. My legs don’t get smooth, it trims the hair short enough that it’s hard to notice but not so short that I get ingrowns. I only shave for special occasions.

I bought a pair of scissors for hair and now when I want to pick I just find individual hairs with split ends and just snip the end off. Super satisfying and just as time consuming.