Friday, October 3, 2008

The Aftermath of Obsessive-Compulsions

I love to pick*.

*"Picking" can be defined as any of the following: tweezing, plucking, scraping, popping, squeezing, wiping, or scratching.

Ever since I was a little kid, I have loved to pick. As a [very disturbed] child, I would sit in my room and pick at my toes and feet until I had severe ingrown toenails and would even rip my toenails until they bled!

Now that I am a [mature and confident] young woman, I pick my whole body. My obsession has evolved. I pick my face, my arms, my fingernails and cuticles, my armpits, my chest, my legs, my feet, my toes, and my secret girl parts. I do this as part of a nightly routine. I can spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours in the bathroom, staring into my 10x magnified mirror.

I have labeled my tools below:



So here's how a picking session might go:
1. Clean face/remove makeup.
2. Pluck eyebrows.
3. Use extractor to remove any whiteheads/blackheads.
4. Use tweezers to remove dead skin from nose/face.
5. Spend time focusing on nose/chin blackheads. Squeeze with fingers.
6. Squeeze the eczema on the back of arms.
7. Pluck ingrown hairs from the following (in order): armpits, chest, legs, vajay-jay. Extract any zits or eczema bumps.
8. Wipe up blood.
9. Trim cuticles on hands and feet.
10. Pick at toenails.
11. Wipe up blood.
12. Using cotton swabs, dab all picked areas on body with alcohol. (this will dry out the skin, use sparingly)
13. Using q-tips, dab all these areas with peroxide. (white foam is normal, that means it is killing the infection) Repeat step 13 as many times as necessary. This will sting and burn severely.

SO...next time you have a few extra minutes after you get out of the shower...Just kidding. Sort of. It's my vice, but would I recommend it? My shrink would say no. It's not a "healthy habit."

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