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Flawless: The Story of Dermatillomania
When Self-Grooming Gets Out of Control
Deborah Huffing, 66, from Dripping Springs, Texas, kept a secret well into adulthood. She constantly picked at her skin, peppering her back with scars and legions, and she managed to hide it from everyone, even her husband of 21 years, who she slept with in the dark to hide the damage she’d done to herself. She never realized other people did the same thing and that she could get help for it until she broke down crying in front of a doctor.
I never knew I could get help, either, even though I’ve picked at my skin since I was 11 or 12. The secret Ms. Huffing and I share is we have dermatillomania.
Dermatillomania, or skin-picking disorder, is characterized by picking that results in open sores on people’s skin and disruptions in their lives. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition classifies it as an “obsessive-compulsive and related disorder.” Afflicted people pick at scabs, cuts, calluses, pimples, tiny bumps, or normal skin on their faces, feet, heads, hands, cuticles, legs, backs, and arms, although they might pick at different parts of their body as time goes on. Without treatment, it’s usually chronic, with times of remission followed by varying intensities of symptoms that can go on for weeks or years.
