Skin Picking: The Freedom to Finally Stop Paperback – April 11, 2014

Skin Picking: The Freedom to Finally Stop by Annette Pasternak, PhD is a unique, holistic self-help book primarily written for those who compulsively pick their skin, but also helpful for those who pull their hair or experience other Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs). It is a huge addition to the literature, small as that literature may be.While Dr. Pasternak is not a trained mental health professional, with her degree in chemistry, she is trained as a health coach. Probably her most important qualification is that of a recovered picker. She has lived the pain, shame, trying a number of different things before finding a recovery plan that worked for her. She is very open about her own story, which most will appreciate.There are many helpful suggestions. While some can be found elsewhere, she focuses a good deal on diet (especially sugar), mindfulness, and meditation. She also encourages the use of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) which is tapping at meridian points. There is a link to a very well done Youtube video by Tammy Fletcher, MA, LMFT on how to do the EFT and apply it for skin pickers. While EFT lacks significant research support, I'd encourage folks to try it. It may be very helpful, with no significant risk if it doesn't work for you.Some of information presented was new to me, ex. that dairy can make acne worse. I still don't have a good understanding of Ayurveda, an Indian conceptualization of balancing of energies, but I'll put that on myself, not Dr. Pasternak.Overall, this is a very well written, compassionate guide for a variety of strategies that can be part of one's recovery plan. I will encourage my clients and others to read this excellent book.

I've been struggling with skin picking since before I can remember. I've also had acne from adolescence into adulthood which has only worsened the problem - it's as if they feed into each other. A few years ago my anxiety peaked to a point where I was forced to seek professional help, and I was diagnosed with panic disorder. Also having struggled with chronic depression, I went on SSRIs which did help. However my acne and skin picking seemed to become worse than it's ever been. I decided to take control of my life through diet, exercise and mindfulness to control my panic attacks from the source instead of living with the side effects from the drugs. Affording therapy wasn't an option for me so I spent the next few years reading as much as I could. I'm happy to say that I now live a very healthy lifestyle and am free of panic attacks and depression completely. However my skin continued to plague me. It wasn't until I decided to do an Internet search for "skin picking disorder" did I actually realize it was an anxiety related disorder. Made sense - anxiety has always been my #1 combatant. I also stumbled upon a therapy center in Los Angeles that specializes in skin picking disorders, but again a tight budget kept me from being able to go that route. I've read several books on Amazon but they were unhelpful and vague. I don't know why it took me so long to read THIS book. The author has actually struggled with the disorder herself and has attended the therapy center in Los Angeles that I was contemplating attending. So I decided to give one last book a chance before putting myself into therapy and in glad I did. This book has the most relatable, applicable, effective information I have yet to read anywhere on the Internet or in a book. She has done the research and seen the results with herself and her clients. Much of the diet stuff I knew already from my own research and learning, but she really covers the entire spectrum of emotional, mental and physical health to give you the best chance at fighting this thing. I've started putting most of what she has to offer into practice and am improving greatly. Even my setbacks aren't as upsetting as they used to be. I highly recommend this book!!

I found the book to be very helpful.

If you pick compulsively please read this book. Period.Implementing a few of the strategies in this book in conjunction with therapy for the past 14 months has reduced my picking beyond what I even thought was possible. Just understanding that the behavior makes sense is so validating. She writes so honestly about her experiences and thoughts and behaviors, she explains what's going on psychologically, and she gives you real things you can easily implement to start intervening and changing your behavior. This has sort of a CBT/DBT approach, so it doesn't work on trying to change your thoughts but rather to change your behaviors and the environment. It promotes mindfulness and self-care and other really holistic and sound strategies. I found blocking strategies to be critical for me. NO LIGHTS was key during the first 6ish months...taped the light switch in the bathroom (so well that it would take so long to untape it that I had time to let the urge reduce). Keeping my fingernails trimmed and filed smooth all the way down to the quick (to the point of pain sometimes) was also critical for me during times of high stress when more vulnerable. The act of filing kinda satisfied some of the urge in and of itself, but just not having any way to do damage when I did give in to the urge prevents going overboard as well as the distress of damaging the skin and not being able to go in public til it heals...She covers everything in this book, and it's really the only quality book on the market at this point for this under-recognized and misunderstood disorder. Read it.