I have always been a picker. I remember it from my earliest playground knee grazes—the irresistible urge to peel off the scab as soon as it formed; to see the bright white flesh beneath. I knew I wasn ...

Scabs get a bad reputation because they’re dry, crusty, and inconvenient, but they are one of the body’s most effective protection systems. From a biological standpoint, a scab is your skin’s ...

A fear of being alone triggered my new habit. It was almost the holidays, and another good friend — one of the few left unmarried — became engaged. Immediately, the fear I'd had since childhood of ...

I sat nervously in the exam room, staring at the floor as my mom sat nearby. At age ten, I’d never been to a dermatologist before, and I didn’t know what to expect. My pessimistic mind pictured a ...

One local non-profit is raising awareness for a little-known, often misdiagnosed, and life pervasive disorder. The “Picking Me Foundation” advocates for people struggling with compulsive skin-picking ...

One thing that has become abundantly clear to me is this is less of a ‘cosmetic’ surface-level skin issue and more of a mental health one. Lydia agrees, noting that “skin picking is one in a set of ...