What is Dermatillomania

Dermatillomania is a term used to describe a compulsive skin picking habit that interrupts your day to day life or causes distress. People with dermatillomania often pick, poke, scratch, tear, squeeze, rub or otherwise irritate their skin. This happens sometimes without them even knowing they are doing it. Other times they may realize what they are doing, but not be able to stop. The compulsion means that stopping could cause a spike in anxiety, stress, or depression, or feelings of impending doom or that bad things might happen. While a lot of people pick at their skin, it is not considered dermatillomania until it starts to affect your life. Anxiety, retreating from normal social behaviors such as hanging out with friends, and ignoring basic needs to pick at your skin are a few examples if this.

Excoriation disorder (also referred to as chronic skin-picking or dermatillomania) is a mental illness related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is characterized by repeated picking at one’s own skin which results in skin lesions and causes significant disruption in one’s life