Excoriation Disorder - Symptoms, Causes, Risks & Treatments

Excoriation Disorder is a common mental health condition that develops because of stress and anxiety. However, one can easily treat it with the help of medications and therapy sessions.

It is also important as this condition can result in severe self-mutilation leading to bleeding, infections, bruising, scars, or even lifelong laceration to the skin. So, keep reading to get details of treatment and more.

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What Is Excoriation Disorder?

Excoriation (Skin Picking) Disorder is an obsessive propensity of repeatedly scratching, rubbing, touching, or picking at the skin to erase minute irregularities or imagined flaws.

However, a more voguish term, body-focused repetitive behaviour (BFRB), is also used as a betoken to repetitive persuasion of self-grooming activities such as picking, tugging, biting, or scraping the hair, skin, or nails, resulting in bodily harm.

What Are the Symptoms of Excoriation Disorder?

A few of the symptoms of excoriation (skin picking) disorder include –

Tissue harm.
Scaling sores.
Eczematous skin.
Anxiety, stress, and depression that lacks self-control.
Removing scabs by hand, massaging scabs, or touching them.
The sensation of "trance" when they pick at their skin, scalp, lips, or nails.
Dismay that people will judge you and will withdraw you from social settings.
Picking skin results in blemishes, scalp issues, skin diseases, infections, and scars.
Picking at scabs or skin that squanders several hours each day.
Skin picking affects your lifestyle and is characterised by anxiety tantamount to worrying about when, where, and how one will pick their skin in the future.
Spending a lot of time attempting to hide blemished skin with makeup, clothing, first aid supplies, etc.

What Are the Causes of Excoriation Disorder?

Although the exact reason behind the cause of excoriation disorder is nebulous, medical professionals glean a few probable causes. A few of those include the following –

The urge to banish skin flaws such as tiny bumps, acne, pimples, and scabs on the skin or scalp.
Symptoms emerge from some medications or in response to a lack of stimulus or boredom.
Reaction to tension, worry, or fear.
Habit resulting from a skin condition, such as head lice, seborrheic dermatitis, acne, or damaged skin or hair follicles.
Some people could also practise OCD skin picking. OCD skin picking is the practice of picking at one's skin as a compulsion to relieve anxiety, doubt, or disgust.
Skin plucking may happen in people on medication for ADD or ADHD.

How to Diagnose Excoriation Disorder?

In order to effectively identify excoriation, medical professionals must pay particular attention to background and reasons.

For instance, a person who knowingly injures themselves by cutting, burning, or clawing oneself may exhibit many external symptoms of excoriation, distinguishable from self-harm. The medical expert must also discern between ordinary and problematic skin-picking activities.

Regardless, your doctor may inquire about the following to ascertain this–

How frequently do you pick your skin?
Duration: How long does choosing take overall?
Intensity: How much harm are choosing habits doing?

In addition, if a person satisfies the requirements for excoriation disorder, it will be clear from the responses to these questions.

How to Treat Excoriation Disorder?

Skin picking has the potential to take over one's life and compromise relationships, employment, and well-being in general. Unfortunately, many people do not seek professional help because they do not recognise the issue as worthy of medical attention. Also, patients may feel zany and out of control, but they may not know how to get treatment or where to look.

Medications

The majority of the medications used to cure skin picking belong to the same class as drugs used to treat OCD, which includes antidepressants (SSRIs). However, these medications may take many weeks to show effective results. In addition, they might not show any effective results in some cases. Hence, you should view medication as a tool rather than a therapy providing perfect results.

Natural Remedies

In a few cases, the B vitamin inositol helps since it quells the desire to pull or pick. Moreover, the body converts it into two neurotransmitters that boost serotonin's action in the brain, which plays a role in OCD and other associated illnesses.

Psychotherapy

Medical professionals presume that skin-picking and related illnesses have the potential prospect of cognitive-behavioural therapy. Hence, several distinct strategies, including those listed below, may be used in therapy –

Habit Reversal Training (HRT): The four-step Habit Reversal Training (HRT) method teaches people how to breathe, relax, feel sedate, and conduct muscular response exercises. HRT also entails social support, self-monitoring, and stimulus management.
Stimulus Control (SC): It is a behavioural therapy that succours patients in identifying, axing, eschewing, or altering the environmental facets, emotional states, or situations that affect picking. So, to develop newly learnt links between desires and alternate, non-destructive actions, it is essential to manage these triggers intentionally. For instance, if choosing is typically done alone, the individual will be encouraged to interact with people more often.
Self-Monitoring: Self-monitoring entails making patients more conscious of their actions resulting from excoriation disorder. For example, keeping a journal of picking activities might raise awareness since the action is frequently unconscious. Additionally, even reporting the conduct can respite things and palliate picking.
Competing Response: Using the competing response strategy, the patient is given an alternative. This can include fidget tools, knitting, beading, or other hand-occupying activities.

When to See a Doctor?

Anyone exhibiting the symptoms of excoriation disorder must consult a doctor before getting dire. Also, you may have co-occurring disorders, such as trichotillomania, OCD, body dysmorphic disorder, mood disorders, such as depressive and bipolar disorders, and anxiety disorders. In that case, you must see a doctor immediately.

How to Manage and Prevent Excoriation Disorder?

Managing excoriation disorder can be onerous. However, you can do it by keeping track of your behaviour and by self-control. Additionally, there is also no ideal and facile way to prevent it. So, it is advisable to meet a doctor as soon as you see symptoms, as early diagnosis exponentially increases the chances of a cure.

Regardless, it may seem intimidating to ask for assistance with skin picking, but it doesn't have to be. An individual can lessen the signs of an excoriation disorder by recognising the issue and realising the value of treatment. So, seek out expert help if excoriation or other obsessive-compulsive disorders adversely impact your life.

FAQs About Excoriation Disorder

All

Is excoriation disorder common?

Excoriation disorder is a fairly common disorder. According to the International OCD Foundation, it affects nearly 1 in 20 individuals.

Can excoriation disorder cause cancer?

Till now, there is no science-backed evidence to confirm that skin-picking or excoriation disorder can cause cancer.