A place to anonymously vent about the stuff in our brains that we feel ashamed of, scared of, can't tell anyone else.
Skin-picking
I pick and chew the dry skin around my fingernails and off my lips. It's pretty awful. I have rumination tendencies that are really awful too, and I can't work out which is better/worse!
Anyway. The key to kicking OCD is apparently resisting compulsions and sitting with your anxiety, finding that it's not so bad. But I don't know how to do this. Sometimes something works for a little while and then I find a workaround somehow or get accustomed, and I pick/chew so absentmindedly sometimes.
Have you managed to kick skin-picking compulsions? How?



I've put little sticky bandages on the affected fingers and that is helping lots! I can't do that with my lips though. Hmmmm.
Keeping in mind that everyone's OCD is different:
In my experience, OCD is like depression (which I also have) in that it's not something that can be really "kicked," just managed. You can reduce the obsessions and compulsions with medication, therapy, self-help stuff, but it never entirely goes away, and often the little things that lie beneath them will keep nibbling at the edge of your mind, with the additional flare-up tossed in there for good measure. It's an ongoing effort.
Managing OCD is something, don't get me wrong. Not factoring in other crap, I'd say that I go from functioning at maybe 20% capacity when OCD is unmitigated or during a flare, to about maybe 60-70% on a good day. So don't discount it or feel like there's nothing that can be done, just, if you find crap sticking around, don't blame yourself for it.
As for me, my compulsions don't involve skin-picking, so I'm unsure how much of this will be helpful. Most of what I do involves grounding when I notice things beginning to ramp up--stop, count round things in the room, take four deep breaths between objects. It's sort of like pulling your head out of an ooze and catching your breath. If a compulsion is especially hurting me, I "talk" to the OCD and tell it calmly that I'm going to do another, less dangerous compulsion, and then do that.
Usually, OCD flares are an indicator that something else is going on (since it's fundamentally a form of anxiety), and finding and knocking out some of the things that bother me tend to alleviate it significantly. It's not much help when the thing aggravating it is something you can't really control (e.g. the goddamn election, though voting early did help), but sometimes even just taking a walk, getting away from it for a bit mentally, things that help with general anxiety can help with OCD. It also helps to journal if you have spoons for it and see which things tend to set it off, and see if you can avoid them.
Hope some of that helps.
Thank you! I'll mull this over.
Re: not being able to ever get rid of OCD completely, is that really true? How do you know this?
Edit:
I probably should have worded it better. It's a case-by-case thing, and depends on how you define "get rid of." A lot of people never get of it in that even if the compulsions are under control, they're still nibbling at the edge of their mind and flare now and then. Some people get to the point where it's just a whisper and a whimper, and otherwise is no longer part of their lives, and are essentially cured of it. But even for the latter group, it takes years.
Still others try many medications, methods, etc, but are still noticeably impaired by it in life.
Like any illness, your experience with getting it under control or out of your life will vary. I can't say where you'll fall. Just, if you find that you can't cure it, please don't feel like it's because of some failing on your part, and understand that getting it under control to any degree is still admirable progress.
Ahh, it just sounds like you're saying I'll never be free of it. I don't know if I feel like having it is my fault or a personal failing, but it's probably on the list of things I'll find out as I go. Thanks for clarifying!
Yeah, I grew up being told that because mental illnesses were ~just in your head~, that you could power through them overnight and that failure to do so just meant you were weak. >.> Weirdly, I think understanding that there was a possibility these things wouldn't go away and that it was okay if they didn't helped me a lot.
Apologies for making it sound like you would be stuck with it - I'm certainly no seer! Hoping the best for you. :)