How to Stop the Urge to Pick your Face

By Emily

Acne sucks. But what sucks even more is self-inflicting yourself with scars from picking your acne. I am a severe offender of face-picking and it's one of my most shameful habits. Not only is it gross, it makes your acne hurt more and makes the marks stick around longer. But when your face is covered with huge protruding bumps that are often dry and flaky from your acne medication, it's often all too tempting to pick at them.  Picking scars inhibits the healing process, so if you occasionally indulge (like me) you NEED to stop! I haven't stopped completely yet but I have come up with a few ways to resist the urge:

• Stay moisturized: if your skin is dry and flaky it's very tempting to pick. But if you put moisturizer on, it becomes a lot more difficult to find spots to pick. Whenever I am in my apartment, I wash all my makeup off and repeatedly put facial moisturizer on to make sure I never feel those dry, flaky spots.
• Wear a face mask: if I'm sitting around doing work on my computer or reading a book, I sometimes mindlessly pick my face. To prevent this, I'll put a face mask on. Then there is literally a barrier between your fingers and your face to stop yourself from picking.
• Keep nails trimmed/paint nails: if your nails are short it's a lot harder to pick at your face. Trim them down on a regular basis and file them to make the edges dull.  Also, if I paint my nails or get my nails done, picking my face can cause the polish to chip. As an incentive to not ruin your manicure, you’ll pick your face less
• Wear gloves: I wear gloves whenever I'm outside and sometimes in the house to avoid touching/picking my face. A lot of times just mindlessly running my fingers over my face causes a full on picking attack. Wearing gloves helps prevent this.
• Spend time in crowded places: because I know how disgusting picking your face looks, I'm a lot less likely to do it in public places. I do work or read in coffee shops (especially places with a lot of attractive people) so that if I do get the urge to pick, I'm reminded that someone could be watching me do it.
• Tell your friends/significant other to stop you if they catch you: I don't personally do this because I don't have a significant other and I'm not close with my roommate, but I have noticed my friend’s boyfriend telling her outright to stop picking her face if he sees her do it. My mom had our family members do this if we see her bite her nails. Yes, it's embarrassing and yes, the person who gets caught will probably be a little mad, but it's surprisingly effective.

Well, those are my tips! I implement them whenever I can. Hopefully, soon I will have kicked my picking habit and won't beef them anymore. Until then, good luck everyone!