Scab Picking

Well i'm 15 almost 16 i've been picking at my cuts for as long as i can remember and i hve the scars to prove it. only recently i started to wonder why do i keep doing this i got to a point were i put a plaster on a scar i normally picked after a day or 2 with the plaster on i was still scratching i eventually cut myself around the plaster and started picking that. now i really want to kno wat is the cause of this and if i can get any help

What is crazy is that I am a scab picker and eater...and my daughter is 8 and came to me one night and said that she likes to pick and eat. I know it sounds crazy but could this be hereditary. What do you think? She never knew that I did this. I hide it from everyone.

i am a 15 year old girl and i incessantly pick scabs, bite my nails and anything else known to mechanically harm my body :( i want to stop but it is a severe addiction and i am hoping to seek medical advice...

im sixteen pretty young...and ive been picking since i was eight..the only place i do pick is my chest and it looks disgusting...my senior ball is coming up this year and i wanted to knw if there is a way to somewhat make the scars go away..any suggestions?

this is incredible, so many comments. im 15 and have been doing it since i was 8 or something. i never thought my scab picking might be part of a disorder, even though i could never stop myself. i only have scars on my face, so its not like i can hide it by wearing shorts or anything. i also bite my nails, i have this weird habit where i tear leaves but only on one side, and i feel at ease if i tear it off in a nice clean line. actually typing it it seems really obvious that its OCD or something, but this page is amazing.

wats OCD? i have stopped picking my scabs now and they look horrible now but Thankgoodness there arent much of it.
I stopped wen i was 13 and started like at 9-10 so i was picking for about 3-4 years and i had low self esteem that time and always putting my probs on my skin... urg... i can remember those horrible days... well i guess u just stop picking... i stopped wen my family/parents stopped complaining and just lost hope for me to stop and i actually stopped because my parents wer the problems that was i dumping on my skin... and art kinda helped as well and now that im in highschool my face is the victim... urg... started two years after picking scabs... annoying!

I have been having this issue of picking/creating a few scabs on my scalp, like a cluster about the size of a nickel but blotchy not just one single scab, and one little one in another area. It seems that as soon as the scabs form I eventually go to town on them. I pick them off with my fingernales usually to the point where there is a tiny bit of blood on my fingernail. It's so satisfying to get a nice scab then I eat it. I am liek wtf why I am so god damn weird and gross but thats me I am. Luckily it's only been a month or 3 but I am worried I am going to or already created a bald spot (its not visible in the mirror looking straight on so I cant reawlly view the area).

Someone actually commented oen night that my head was bleeding and I was like I bent down and when I srtaightening up I hit my head on teh corner of my mirror in the bathroom. Some dumb lie.

Why do I do this? Is this an addiction? I am a drug addict but I dont get what this is. I also bite/eat my cuticles. This started at a very young age.. actually I remember in kindergarden I had a safety pin and a very tough painless area on my thumb or somewhere I remembner I stuck the paper clip thrrough, and it made like the skin a little tougher, and I just remember I would always like chew at it.

I raced motocross growign up and had callousses on my hands, I would go at them, either with my teeth or even with a nail clipper, and its like mainly to eat them. I now only seem to bite my cuticles and fingertips that the skin is very tough from playing guitar. This isnt a pain thing becuase it doesn't hurt.. itsjust a thing thats so weird and embarrasing and stupid yet I continue to do it. SOmetimes my hands are healed up and I guess stress or something makes me go to dtown on them

THis scab thing is kidn of annoying though.. I try to leave it but I feel these like little lumps and I just wanna get that lil sucker off, use a comb get it through ym hair, then eat it, total satisfactions!

I seem to do this a little more when I am using drugs but drug or no drugs I do this really weird stuff. Like honestly today I was combing my hair and I kidn of pulled part of one half off by accident, and I was off to the races, I picked like every one in that little area then combed them out, then had a nice little meal. I am scared I am making a tiny bald spot.. like a splotch. Because sometimes a peice of hair with the part that goes into the scalp comes with the scab.

I know its stress related. And I know I have an addictive perosnality. Actually I am struggling with drugs really bad but the cuticle thing was way before I ever used. I cant imagine how gross someone would think I am if they saw me pick somethign otu of my hair and eat it.

Why am I so weird!!!!@!@!@ If I had a scab on my hand or soemthig id prob do the same but its like this little cluter of tiny scabs about 5mm. I dont wanna go get on zoloft or some5thing but is this somethign I can quit? Have yo had this prob with scabs and actually quit it?

Its not self mutilitation efven though sometimes it does hurt a little to get a good one. I would never make a post like this but I googled picking scabs on my scalp and there were so many people posting I was like HOLY c**p I am not alone. I never ever ever would have thought someone else would do this.

Also on the bottom of my feet the skin around my heel is a little tough so I go at it with like nail clippers oemtiems and pull strands of skin off and eat it. Thats it.. I am obviosuly a cannable. LOl I cant beleive I am actually telling people this. Does this mean I am probably a psychopath haha? Seriously growing up I was so normal, great life family, no drugs or alcohol until I was in college, I did have the callous eating prob and my dad always told me it was bad becuase this and that but I feel like if I can't quit picking these scabs how will I ever stop shooting dope and coke?

Oh y eah I am a drug addict since I graduated college. Started out eating a few perks and fast forward to a few years later and I am half in recovery half out shooting dope and coke but hating it yet I do it just like I hate how I pick my scabs but I do it.

Can someone tell me, am I just weak? Is there any hope I can quit doing the things I hate? Like I am weak with eating candy, a bit over emotional for a guy too and thats before i ever did drugs. Now that I have drug probs lifes just been totally c**p yet I stay stuck in this loop mainly of opiate addiction.

Wow it feels good to write this all but I seriously can't imagine how weird people must think I am drug use aside. I mean i eat my cuticles I love when my skin is tough o my heals and I can like peal it offf, sometimse I do it so much that I dont even realize but hte next morning itll hurt to walk around. LOL wow. holy c**p. typign all this I am actually realiizing how messed up I really am? and I feel so bad for my parents they raised me great yet why did I become a loser?

Some people use drugs or do whatever becuase they got molested or soemrthig.. well youd be hard pressed to find somethign bad abouty my child hood.

I just seem to cross every line I draw for my self and its a cycle that bring my lower and lower, draw line, cross it, feel failure, cross it more, plan to draw lines, never actually get there, or instead of drawing a line I spend 30 misn picking my stupid scalp scabs.

Imagine obama went on TV and he was like I have ocd scab picking guys!!

hey guys, 

i am a scab picker myself . dry skin makes scabs easy to pick at all i do everyday is pick at scabs.o.O

is this bad ? cas i kinda do it 

it jus irritates me tat there is something on my skin ...  when i see anyhing tat looks like a scab etc : weird carpet design ... ... scab on somebody else ... blah blah ... i feel like picking them .... stupid right ? 

I can so relate to everyone! I have been picking since I was a child and I am now 36 yrs old.  I do believe it is an obsessive compulsive disorder.  I pick without even realizing I'm doing it.  Currently I have 5 unhealed scabs on my face and neck, 5 unhealed scabs on my arm and two on my leg :-/.  And I have COUNTLESS healed scabs that have left scars.  I don't know what to do! As long as there is nothing to pick, I'm good (well, I just pick my cuticles).  But I tend to get ingrown hairs , boils and body pimples that always leave me with somethin to pick at.  I do not like how scars feel...the roughness.  And the sad thing is that I have grown into such an expert that I can tell how the "pick" will go @ whether it will bleed, etc.  I even get excited or feel some sense of accomplishment if I peel the scab in one peel and it doesn't bleed or puss....then I know it will scab over smoothly *sigh*.  This just happened to a scar I have on my shoulder that I had been picking at since JANUARY.  Like who does that??? Pick a scar for 9 months!?!?!? A scar that began as little as a small pimple and is now a HUGE black spot.  I am so ashamed of the scabs and scarring that I think it keeps me from getting close to people.  I haven't been in a serious relationship in over 10 yrs.  I like being able to stay home or have people not see me when I feel my scabs are at their worst.  It's really bad b/c I am an extremely attractive female and I constantly get attention from men but I think they would be so turned off if they could see how I self mutilate.  SO ASHAMED and EMBARRASSED and don't know how to stop *tears*

I pick scabs also but you can use bio oil cocoa butter any kind of bleaching cream vitamin E oil and lemon juice to help fade the marks they also have make up to cover scars (just as they do tattoo cover up)

Why am I addicted to picking scabs off my head?