As an ex-nail-biter, I am very familiar with how skin picking feels and how it can affect one’s self-esteem and confidence. Further, my aunt adopted the terrible skin-picking habit and has been doing it since I have known her.

It’s terrible because the face is our first encounter with the outside world. When we go somewhere or meet someone, the first place they look at and how they recognize us is our face. The face is the first representation of ourselves to the outside world.

Skin picking is not only a big concern as a nervous habit but also, this habit may raise questions about self-love and self-acceptance. Skin picking can easily turn into a habit that affects your day-to-day life, relationships with others, and most importantly, with yourself!

This is where hypnosis comes into play. You may have already heard about how hypnotherapy can help with breaking addictions. That’s just one aspect of hypnosis. Even though skin picking may not seem to be an addiction to you, there is the behavioral habit, nervousness, anxiety, and coping aspect to it.

What is skin picking?

Skin picking is actually a recognized disorder and It has a name!: Dermatillomania or Excoriation disorder.

To put it simply, skin picking is compulsively picking at your skin which can cause bleeding, inflammation, rash, or even dryness on the skin.

Most skin pickers feel an uncontrollable urge to pick at their skin throughout the day. Most of the time, without even recognizing it, they may be picking their skin. Even though this picking can create a short term sense of relief, quickly this relief turns into disappointment, upset, and a sense of shame.

Many people who deal with skin picking often feel embarrassment, shame, guilt, worry, stress, self-conscious or they may fear that they won’t be able to get rid of this fear. As a result, they may unconsciously turn to skin picking as a form of coping which creates a vicious toxic cycle.

What causes skin picking?

Just like many other habitual behaviors, unfortunately, there is not one simple cause for skin picking (dermatillomania). However, DSM-V (Book of psychiatric diagnoses), classifies skin picking under obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD).

Additionally, according to Webmd.com, skin picking is considered to be a type of “Body Focused Repetitive Behavior” which also includes other behavioral habits such as nail-biting, hair pulling, or hair picking.

That is to say, clearly, there is a significant anxiety component in the skin picking habit. If you are dealing with anxiety, skin picking can be related to that.

Skin picking can also be a learned behavior from peers or family members growing up. Once subconsciously we associate the behavior, we become more prone to developing it later in life since we observed it previously in people that we trust.

Finally, if you find that you pick your skin only at certain periods such as when feeling nervous, it may be a coping habit for you. If you find that certain circumstances exacerbate the urge to pick on your skin, you may be using it to cope with difficult situations.

Treatments for skin picking

Treatments for skin picking seem to be centered mostly around habit modification therapies. The most common therapy treatments for skin picking are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and habit reversal therapy.

Hypnotherapy is another common and powerful subconscious therapy that not only targets behavioral change but also aims to resolve the core issues that may be causing this habit.

Hypnosis for skin picking

Hypnotherapy can be a very comprehensive approach to skin picking. With hypnosis, we focus on the skin picking issue from multiple angles that will not only bring long-term relief but also help with symptoms in the short term.

Hypnosis helps with the triggers 

Everyone has different reasons for skin picking. Some may do it out of boredom, stress, worry, or even nervousness at times. Regardless of what your trigger is, you may not even be aware of what triggers you.

Hypnotherapy can help with increasing awareness in daily life as well as breaking the habit of fulfilling those triggers. Hypnosis is a great state to rewire those old impulses that make you engage in an unhealthy habit.

Hypnosis helps with replacing the habit 

Obviously, picking skin helps with releasing the trigger for a short time in a very self-destructive way. It’s important to recognize that your trigger very well may be a valid need that still needs to be fulfilled, but in a positive way.

With the help of hypnosis, you can replace this toxic way of gratification, with positive behavior instead. This way, you will still be able to provide yourself relief without disappointing yourself!

Hypnosis helps with the root cause

Anxiety, OCD, coping, early exposure to trauma or other personal unknown reasons can be fueling skin picking habit. Without addressing the root issue, every attempt to stop the habit may fail in the long term.

Hypnosis can give us space to discover the root cause that may be contributing to the main issue: skin picking. Whether it is via regression therapies or discovery journeys, hypnosis is a wonderful state to become more familiar with your subconscious beliefs, memories, and patterns.

Hypnosis helps with breaking the toxic cycle

Remember the toxic cycle mentioned above? Almost everyone who deals with skin picking gets stuck in that cycle at some point. Just breaking that cycle can provide a huge sense of relief sometimes, which can lead to eventually getting unstuck.  

When someone engages in skin picking, they often resent themselves, and feel a sense of shame and embarrassment. These are powerful emotions to deal with. The negative pressure adds back to the urge to skin picking again.

With the help of hypnosis, we can work on releasing these emotions subconsciously, which helps create more unconscious space for motivation.

Subconscious releases can feel more powerful than rationalizing these emotions. The subconscious mind is where we suppress urges and emotions in the first place. With hypnosis, since we work specifically with the subconscious mind, the relief will be more significant.