I'm doing 34 things
I’ve wanted to stop in the past. I’m 27 and have been scratching and picking at anything that I would consider an imperfection for as long as I can remember. I know that I was already tearing off scabs when I was a young child.
I have a pretty understanding husband, but he doesn’t quite get how frustrating it is to stop. He rarely comments on the wounds or scars anymore. This is good AND bad, of course—the embarassment and shame do go a ways toward motivating me to stop.
So anyway. I’m on day 4 since I decided I was going to stop. Day 1 was easy, of course. Day 2 was harder. Day 3, I picked at 3 (one pimple, two scabs). Today, I picked at one pimple and I managed to stop myself before scratching a scab off my back.
The first two days, I literally wore about 40 bandaids each day -mostly on my back, shoulders, and neck. But as the wounds closed, I found it a bit easier not to scratch. Yesterday, a lot of the scabs that had formed before I decided to stop were ready to fall of, so I exfoliated gently in the shower and I’ve now got a lot of fresh pink skin on my back. I’m trying to do damage/scar control now, so I’m using Palmer’s skin therapy oil and Aquaphor VERY regularly. I’ve set jars and bottles in all the places I would usually stop and scratch. Just the sight of the bottle usually helps me think a little – and the texture of each makes it near impossible to get a good enough hold on my skin to pick at anything…although scratching is still possible to a certain extent.
I find that rubbing the areas where I want to pick or scratch helps. I usually do it with my knuckles or palm instead of my fingertips, though. If I touch anything on my skin that has a slight rise, it’s very difficult for me to resist picking or scratching it off.
I’m going to try to keep this going as long as I possibly can. Right now, I’m counting by days, but I hope that there will come a time when I can count by weeks.
