Skin Picking Habit Disorder Treatments

Check out each report on skin picking habit disorder treatments below
and see what others have said.

Skin Picking Habit Disorder can become a major focus of life and can interfere with relationships, work, and general happiness. Not recognizing the problem as a real disorder, many do not seek treatment. People with Compulsive Skin Picking (CSP) may feel crazy and out of control, but not know what to do or where to go for help. Fortunately, CSP responds fairly well to medication and behavioral therapy.

The medications mainly used to treat picking are the same group as those used for OCD, including antidepressants. Drugs that help skin picking may take several weeks before they start working. Usually, 65 percent improvement from a medication is considered a good result. Medication should never be considered an end in itself, but a tool to help with therapy.

Cognitive-behavior therapy has been studied as a means of treating skin picking. Therapy may involve several different techniques, outlined below:

Habit Reversal Training (HRT) is a four-step process which teaches the person with how to relax, how to breathe and feel centered, and to perform muscle response exercises. HRT includes self-monitoring and stimulus control (described below) and social support.

Self-Monitoring is simply making the person with CSP more aware of their behaviors. As the behavior can often be unconscious, awareness can be improved by simply keeping a log of picking behaviors. The very act of recording the behavior can also interrupt the process and reduce the picking.

Stimulus Control (SC) is a behavioral treatment that helps sufferers identify and eliminate, avoid, or change the environmental factors, moods, or circumstances that trigger picking. The goal is to consciously control these triggers to create new learned connections between the urges and alternative, non-destructive behaviors. For example if picking usually occurs while alone, the person will be encouraged to spend more time with others. If the picking occurs in front of the mirror, then the person may be asked to cover the mirrors in their home.

In addition, some people benefit from natural remedies. The B-vitamin inositol, which seems to reduce the urge to pull or pick. It is broken down by the body into two neurotransmitters that enhance the activity of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin, is a brain transmitter that may be implicated in OCD and related disorders. Inositol needs to be taken in large quantities, but will not build up to toxic levels as it is a water soluble vitamin. In addition, be sure check out each of the reports below on natural Skin Picking Habit Disorder treatments.

Return from Skin Picking Habit Disorder Treatments to Health Product Reports Home