People with dermatillomania have an obsessive need to pick at their skin. This compulsive disorder affects around 900,000 people in France.
Scratching, drilling, pinching, rubbing… Also called excoriation disorder, dermatillomania results in an uncontrollable and repeated urge to pick at one’s skin. Little known, this OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) generally appears during adolescence and affects 900,000 people in France, mainly women.
Affected people cannot help but carefully inspect the condition of their skin and remove the slightest imperfection, real or perceived. Indeed “it happens that this imperfection is really there, but most of the time it is imaginary”, underlines the psychoanalyst and psychotherapist Rodolphe Oppenheimer.
The patient is looking for the slightest scab to scratch or the smallest blackhead or pimple to pierce, causing wounds and scars. The parts of the body affected are generally the face, stomach, shoulders, scalp, neck, hands, but also the pubic area.
This grinding ritual can last for hours and brings a kind of relief. However, once the crisis is over, “a feeling of guilt and shame invades the individual”, notes the specialist, emphasizing that he “will tend to hide the stigma by hiding them under makeup or clothes” .
What treatments?
This type of behavior is due to “nervous disorders, anxiety disorders or depression,” he emphasizes. And to deal with it, there are several treatments. “Firstly, “dermatological treatment must be undertaken in order to heal the skin wounds”. Then, “this must be accompanied by psychotherapy”.
Indeed, “it is necessary to know what factors trigger the crisis. These can be physical or emotional in origin. Medication treatments such as antidepressants may also be prescribed by a doctor.