My wife puts on RyconRoleplays or ChristopherOdd in the background sometimes when she’s having trouble sleeping. Rycon might have the voice you’re looking for; Odd’s narration depends on the game he’s playing, he likes to set the mood in more atmospheric games, and he reads out every bit of lore.
Clarkesworld is a sci-fi magazine with free audio versions on their site, plus on Spotify as a podcast. I’d recommend “The very Pulse of the Machine” personally as an intro. It was adapted into a great episode of “Love, Death + Robots”.
Why? Have you ever experienced hypnosis therapy? Do you know what hypnosis can do?
Remember the stage hypnosis that you see on TV or on stage is for the benefit of entertainment. Propper hypnosis therapy is for the benefit of the client. I am a hypnosis practitioner and have helped people break habits such as smoking, drinking, etc. Even helped people with anxiety.
This is a medical condition, not just a bad habit. It is very treatable but will probably benefit from psychiatric treatment, not just counseling or friendly advice. As with OCD, this can include cognitive behavioral therapy as well as medication.
@aslafoo, don’t skip on this – this is the answer! I had a very bad experience last year that ended up causing me to develop OCD and it was mind-boggling how I couldn’t stop myself from giving into it, I’ve never experienced anything like it.
Finally brought it to my doctor, got prescribed medication that ultimately fixed the problem. Also was told to look into cognitive behavioral therapy, which I did, and found it extremely helpful as well (though I’m doing so well that I don’t want to risk coming off the meds just because the cognitive behavioral therapy practices were helpful). My doctor also gave me a referral to both a psychiatrist (in case I had side effects from the medication that lasted beyond the adjustment period and needed to explore other options, which I didn’t) and a psychologist (to be guided through cognitive behavioral therapy professionally, which I didn’t end up doing because my insurance no longer had a contract with them and by the time the American healthcare system re-referred me to another office I had no more symptoms). Basically my primary care physician gave me everything I needed to get my life back.
100% it was worth bringing to my doctor and I recommend doing the same. Don’t wait on it. Consider getting some cheap fidget toys to fill your hands in the days leading up to your scheduled appointment but schedule it for as soon as possible.
to be honest i started medical treatment with antidepressants around 3 years ago, 2.5 of which i spent speedrunning the entire pharmacy lmao in June this year i changed doctors and finally got on track (with venlafaxine and mirtazapine)
on top of that i started therapy in September i’ll try to bring up the skin picking again
i talked about this issue with my therapist earlier but despite my efforts i always end up relapsing so yeah thank you for thorough reply have a nice day
Skin picking can show up from other conditions such as OCD mentioned above, anxiety, and also ADHD. Try again to raise the issue with your therapist. If they are dismissive, find a new therapist. Sometimes it takes trying on a few therapists to find one who clicks with you and can be helpful.
thank you, i really needed to hear that i’m aware my “habit” probably stems from my anxiety, but it’s really hard to simply not be anxious all the time yknow? thank you for taking your time to respond have a lovely day
Just to let you know, picking skin is not inherently a symptom of some deep hidden trauma. Sometimes brains do things a little randomly without there being deep psychological reasons behind it all, and that’s fine, if that’s the case.
Talk to your therapist about it, but don’t think you need to go hunting down some secret trauma, if you don’t feel traumatized or don’t remember experiencing trauma. Because sometimes the answer is just “brains do be like that though”
I used to do this with my arms, I’d spend hours rubbing my fingers over my upper arms for pimples or anything similar. The excessive touching would inevitably cause more pimples, more squeezing and picking, more skin damage and scarring.
I stopped eventually in my late 20’s but it takes effort. Awareness is key. Try to be mindful when you do it. When you catch yourself, don’t beat yourself up, just recognise that you were doing it, remind yourself that it is damaging, remind yourself that you want to stop, and then stop doing it. Then do it again when you start doing it again.
You won’t succeed immediately and that is fine. This isn’t about hating yourself for your own behaviours or inability to act differently. This is about taking the active steps to train yourself not to act the way you have. It could take 6 months or a year, doesn’t matter as long as you try. It’s a behavioural addiction like any other that takes awareness and willingness to change.
And it’s true. We don’t survive the trials of life we just molt into the next version of ourselves.
If a certain transformation is going un-completed because it feels like death, it can be helpful to recognize that it is death. That’s no illusion.
To truly live life to the fullest, one has to sacrifice their self to a future person again and again and again. When you finally get there, it won’t be as the person you are now.
I tried sacrificing myself to a future person once. But the future person had the same feelings, interests, and shortcomings. Then the future person realized herself as being no better than the person who sacrificed herself to her.
You should try to talk to a doctor or psychiatrist about this habit, especially if it's beginning to bother you and affect your life in other ways.
As for things you can do right away, how about sticking bandaids on your sores, this will help them heal and it'll also keep you away from the area. And don't wait until it gets bad, but even put bandaids on prematurely if it'll get you to stop compulsively messing with your skin.
Another thing is to buy some basic skin care tools. As someone who has the habit of biting my nails, sometimes until they bleed or are painful, I know that biting them can lead to making them rough, which just leads to making me even more compelled to bite the rough bits. For me it can really become a cyclical problem that's also likely driven by anxiety and depression. But by clipping and filling my nails with proper tools I can quickly break the cycle, because my nails will start to generally feel better. So maybe you can do something similar with your skin by exfoliating and using lotion! It's worth a try!
Finally I want to say that cannabis has been good for my personal type/level of anxiety, though I hesitate to recommend it because when though I don't find it addictive I think it maybe isn't great to recommend to someone who is experiencing addictive or compulsive behavior.
In the end I think some combination of therapy, behavior pattern breaking and maybe drugs if necessary, might be able to help you get away from self-harming compulsive behavior. Good luck!
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