Yeah, people make assumptions thinking all people with OCD are fastidious and clean freaks. I also do this. Not with others, but on myself. I am lost as to how to stop it.

Yup. I pick at skin too. When I was younger I would pick at my the dry skin on my feet. My mom had a nickname...Marcy Pickafeet :) Now I scratch my hands (prob bc they are dry) or I will pick at skin around my nails. The sunburn thing is something my mom loves to do (and she doesnt have ocd). So dont feel bad. I will pick at skin and it will bleed too. Yesterday I asked my bf if he had a bandaid. He knew I was picking. He is will catch me and tell me to stop.

I do it too. I hate the scars that are left behind.

Yes, I pick my ears. There are sores in them that haven't healed, because when they start to heal, I pick the scabs off. I know it sounds weird, but you're not alone.

I do this also, I pick the dry skin on my feet alot of the times, it bleeds,my kids and my husband call me on it everytime, they see me, I have started wearing socks ALL the time, this seems to help me a little bit. Hope things get better for you.

Yes, I scratch my skin and pick at it. I hate it. I peel the bottoms of my heel, and it hurts when I walk. I stop myself for a while because of the pain, and I even cut my nails to stop it.

Yeah, I am a picker also. Anything on my face or feet. It can get pretty awful sometimes. I don't know how to stop doing it either.

Yeah I pick at stuff unfortunately. I think it's more related to my trichotillomania than my OCD but these behaviors are all intertwined.

yes i had that too and it is ocd i used to pick my face with a needle cause i thought if i didnt people would think i was ugly with spots it is so horrible i no i stop by geting stuff from docters and said to my self this is better then picking with a needle .

oh yeah. i used to pick the skin on my fingertips till i got water-blisters. i've mostly stopped that, but i LOVE picking at peeling sunburns, and i actually can not even LOOK at peeling paint becasue i will pick at it. i get really intense when i'm picking at paint, i don't know why, but i concentrate on it really hard and it calms me down.

That's me too! I basically have no toenails because i pick at them so much. I hate to admit this because I'm also a type 1 diabetic which means i have to be very careful with my feet......UGH. Everyone lectures me, saying "you HAVE to stop of you'll lose your feet!!!". I KNOW! I hate that, i know it's dangerous but nobody understands ocd...i can't stop doing it! which i do it i'm frantic and anxious because i know i have to stop but i can't. It's always...."just this one last piece, this last corner, this last nail, this last sharp spot" all while i'm sweating, and anxious because i know people think i'm just being blindly destructive and careless as a diabetic. Really tough, and really dangerous

I can relate, having a real but misunderstood condition known as Morgellons. Nobody knows yet what causes it. I can spend hours trying to get at all these tiny things (some call them "fibers") which multiply under my skin. I've found that certain things I eat or drink or use as cleansers help (actually benzoyl peroxide acne treatments seem effective, though it isn't acne) but the disease runs in cycles--sometimes my skin is clear and sometimes it flares up.

I've found that it seems to require tremendous effort of will to break out of it. The problem isn't that it isn't a "clean" problem, it's that you're so anxious about feeling unclean that you're obsessed about getting rid of the offending blemishes. The best advice I can think of right now, besides keeping as healthy as you can, is to find some way to break the obsessive cycle by distracting yourself with some other practical matter. The mind can't fill itself with too many things at once, and sometimes replacing one thought with another that's healthier is the only way. If you believe in God you can try praying.

Good luck on curbing this distressing tendency, I know it can be a bummer.

Joanie, I totally get you ont the "just one last..."

I go crazy with the cuticle clippers sometimes. There won't be an cuticle left when I'm done, but I still have to trim an loose pieces, no matter how small.... usually my partner has to insist on me handing over the clippers when I start to make myself bleed.

I've had to have surgery on one of my toes because of the toenail picking. I had a chronic ingrown toenail with a nasty chronic infection as a result of picking. They had to permanently remove part of the toe nail and nailbed. And I don't have diabetes, but many of my family members do, and I would say the same thing.... find something else to pick at... lint from sweaters, peeling wallpaper, pet hair on the sofa, anything at all, because in your case picking too much could result in having your feet amputated, and once they're gone, you can't get them back.

YES! I do that! Several times I have picked scabs so much that they end up getting infected. It is weird because with certain things I am crazy clean about but I have no problem picking.

One of the replies mentioned their kids calling them out on the picking. How does everyone respond to that? When my husband says something I just deny that I was picking. I did the same thing when I was a child and my mom called me out on it. It is embarrassing and hard to explain.