hey i have been picking for a year. if i look in a certain light i can see the scars, but mostly no one else notices them. but i was wondering like if you STOP picking. does everything heal up so it looks like new again ?? ? anybody ?
Don't pick, it can lead to permanent scars. I pick myself. Its so hard not to pop these damn pimpless. But they will pop themselves and heal faster if you leave em alone. I know this isnt much, but thats all I got to say.
Picking does leave scars..I to have them...I'm using differin which has helped along with Klaron lotion..I e spots from past blemishes..trying hard ot not pick it truly makesa big differnce so dont squeeze,pick or pop!
I honestly, CANNOT stop picking. Just tonight I popped everything I could because I just couldn't take it anymore looking at these zits that were just begging to be popped the whole week. And just not picking isn't helping either. For some people it does, but for me it doesn't. They won't go away for like ever unless I pop them. Arg, I'm so frustrated.
My face is wierd, because I have these little white heads that just sit under the skin, and you can see them when I stretch my skin.. they are on my inner cheeks and nose mostly, but I will squeeze them out and most of the time there is no zit that forms but by the next day.. more white crap is there .. I don't pick at them ..i just squeeze.. but it seems if i don't squeeze them I will start breaking out from them ..its really a mystery.. they won't go away
I feel ya Diva... it is sooo hard not to pick, pop or touch them when you know that they are waiting to be popped. I can not help it as well, I tell myself that if I dont then my face will clear up faster but its frustrating cause it looks bad and it hurts and I find that they never go away if I dont. People can say if you leave them they will eventually go away but mine honestly dont...
Kriss: I have the same problem as you... I dont get alot of those but once in awhile I will see them just underneath my skin. Accept when I get the white stuff out the next day I will notice that it sometime forms a bigger and sore pimple... so I try not to touch those and just leave them... which like i said above is hard to do!
I am also a picker. This past summer it got really bad and i would stay in my bed and sleep all day because I was too depressed to go out. I began seeing a cognitive therapist who helped me to stop picking. She gave me ways to resist the temptation. For example, when u feel the urge to pick, squeeze your fists together for 3 full minutes, and the temptation might pass. Also find something u can do to keep your hands busy when u do feel the urge...just as taking up knitting. Notes are also a good idea...or even take a pic of yourself after you have picked and your face looks really bad and post it so that you can see it in the bathroom. Seeing yourself look so bad will remind you of the damage that picking can do. I still do sometimes pick but it isn't nearly as bad as it was. I am on retin a micro and it has helped my face so I don't have that much to pick at anyways. For me, I picked spots that you could hardly see, like little keratin plugs. I don't know if your situation is the same. I think it is ok to pop a pimple if there is htis huge white head on it. I don't really have any scarring and I did pick some spots pretty deep. I do get the hyperpigmentation but that will eventually go away. I also find that putting neosporin on a scab w/ a bandage can help it heal faster. I don't think neosporin will cause you to break out...I haven't had a problem with it. Good Luck!
msu studnet. did u hear u correctly? no scars ?? and u picked like crazy like me ?
you guys the othe thing i do beside compulsively picking is using too many products. like i think i have chemcial burns from all the products i have used and washing my face to many times.... does that scar ?? i have had my whooe face red and inflamed during the time i was picking also, does that make a diff???
i dont pick anymore. i am jus left wit the scars. betsy when u say it WILL scar are you talking about those red mark scars or worse more permanet scars ?
I have been a picker for 20 years and don't have scars that I can tell. My friend who is the same way just got dermabrasion & it uncovered all these scars under the surface of her skin! I hope mine's like that, but I'm not getting dermabrasion! I stopped for a while when I had a job where I couldn't wear makeup, cuz it does make your face more red, but it didn't seem to help anything not picking (or not wearing makeup).
I don't know what they looked like - I don't live near her so I didn't actually see this, it's just what she told me. She had to just keep going with the dermabrasion till they got past the scars.
*Correction to my post - I meant to say I hope that is NOT the case with me!
oh that sucks! so she didnt have any scars BEFORE dermabrasion ?? or ? yeah i sure hope you hope NOT ! lol jk mine r mild shallow scars and some ice pick ones. blah! so you have like NO SCARS from picking for all those years ? were u like a major picker??? did u pick for hours and hours ?? did u use one of those extractioin tools ?
No. she didn't have scars before (well I guess they were there underneath), she only got dermabrasion cuz she started getting wrinkes!
It seems like I am definitely in the minority as far as not getting scars, so you might be wiser not to follow my example, but... I'm 38 now and have had acne since high school, so over 20 years. I pick every morning before I do my makeup and sometimes at night too, or whenever I see or feel a new poppable zit. I wouldn't say "hours", but long enough to get everything out that I can find! I have tried extraction tools and the Igia Pore Cleanzer (worthless), but it was easier to just use my fingers/nails & sometimes a pin. I do try to make sure I'm squeezing from far enough underneath so that I don't force the stuff further down into the skin. If I get a spot that's particulary messed up, I put a little antibiotic ointment on there. This will probably all come back to haunt me later, but heck, I'm already an old married lady & getting wrinkles too, so who will care? LOL.
jelohi - wow you are so luckky you have not scarrred! do u examinme your face closely in a magnifaction mirror or anything ??? that sucks for your friend. i tink i will think twice about gettin dermabrasion. maybe her doc messed up her face and blamed it on that. those extraction tools scarred me. did u push hard with yours ?
Yeah, I use a magnification mirror every day for picking! I looked extra close for scars last night after talking to you & maybe I have a couple shallow ones - not very noticible.
I only really tried the extraction tool once or twice - it didn't do the job for me as well as fingers, so I quit using it. I'm talking about the metal thing with the loop on the end - I assume that's what you meant.
hey jelohi ! yes i meant that loop thingy. i feel that is what scared me the most. i also use a 5X magnifcation mirror to look for scarring. i also have some very shallow ones. im hoping they get better not worse tho. im goin to keep using that neutrogena healthy skin lotion with glyoclic acid and hope within a year they are gone. i wlll report back.. i still go thte damn white heads under my skin too. ugh!!!
lol jk mine r mild shallow scars and some ice pick ones. blah! so you have like NO SCARS from picking for all those years ? were u like a major picker??? did u pick for hours and hours ?? did u use one of those extractioin tools ? 
