The act of skin picking and hair pulling is actually related to one’s mental health and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Dr. Tracey Marks, a general and forensic psychiatrist of over 20 years who makes mental health education videos, breaks down these body-focused repetitive behaviors.
Dr. Marks looks to a viewer's question to talk about body-focused repetitive behaviors, which refers to a specific type of compulsive behavior that causes self-injury. In this case, she’s referring to the two most common behaviors, which are hair pulling and skin picking.
These two have official names in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Hair pulling is known as trichotillomania, and skin picking is called excoriation disorder.
The thing that these disorders have in common is that they’re known as compulsive behaviors that you just can’t seem to stop. For those with trichotillomania, you pull out your own hair repeatedly, often strand by strand. Marks explains that the lead-up to pulling the hair is usually preceded by anxiety or a buildup of tension, wherein pulling the hair relieves the tension.
Sometimes people with this disorder have a certain kind of hair texture or place where they pull from that feels the best for them, so they might continue to pull until they get exactly what they want and relieve that tension and feel a sense of satisfaction.
Skin picking has a lot of the same behavioral characteristics as hair pulling. A lot of individuals who suffer from excoriation disorder tend to pick the skin on their face, hands, or arms to the point of causing sores or scarring.
Both of these disorders can be activated when the individual is going through puberty and usually become chronic, so they can last weeks, months, or even years.
To learn even more about these two body-focused repetitive mental health disorders, check out the video.
