![]() Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre in Toronto. Peggy Richter, a psychiatrist and the director of the Frederick W. ![]() “People suffering from it can’t stop repeatedly and intensely picking at their skin, to the point of damaging it,” explains Dr. Officially recognized as a mental disorder since 2013, excoriation disorder (or skin-picking disorder) is, like trichotillomania (hair pulling), believed to be directly related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. According to Anxiety Canada, I’m not alone: 1.5 percent of the population-mainly women-is afflicted with excoriation disorder to differing extents at some point in their lifetime. At the first sign of a blocked pore, a blackhead or a blemish, it was game on: I’d pinch, rub or pierce it into oblivion. This habit turned compulsion had been part of my day-to-day life since I’d first started suffering from acne. My obsession with picking at my skin was now bleeding into my professional life, and it was time to confront reality. Her words hit me like a ton of bricks-not because it was the first time someone had said it but because I needed to test this particular treatment for an assignment. ![]() He aesthetician stood in front of me and gently explained that she could not perform a laser treatment on my skin because it was too damaged. ![]()
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