{"id":26213,"date":"2025-04-18T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26213"},"modified":"2025-04-18T09:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:31:07","slug":"a-tiktok-influencer-opens-up-about-her-skin-picking-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=26213","title":{"rendered":"A TikTok Influencer Opens Up About Her Skin Picking Condition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Millions of people compulsively pick their skin or pull their hair. Social media is helping some of them to recover.<\/p>\n

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Sarah Redzikowski tilted her head and leaned closer to her phone camera, examining the redness that spread from her cheekbones to her chin. She traced her fingers over her swollen skin and sobbed, placing her face in her hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate that I do this to myself,\u201d she said<\/a> softly.<\/p>\n

Ms. Redzikowski, 40, was talking to her TikTok followers about a secret she had kept hidden from even her closest friends and family for decades: Since age 12, she has compulsively picked her skin, often to the point that it bleeds and scars. As desperately as she wants to quit, Ms. Redzikowski, who has a mental health condition called dermatillomania, simply cannot stop.<\/p>\n

She estimates that she spends at least two hours per week scraping at the skin on her face \u2014 and her scalp, arms, back, chest and legs. \u201cI\u2019ve spent at least 125 days of my life bent over a mirror,\u201d she said in the video. \u201cAnd that\u2019s 125 days I\u2019ll never get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wiped her eyes and squirted cleanser onto her palms, massaging it over her face until it started to foam. Then she began the familiar routine of trying to repair the damage she had done. She waved a high-frequency wand over the constellation of lesions on her cheeks, willing them to heal faster. She slathered her face in spot treatments and serums.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, her skin was angry, bleeding in some places. And she was angry with herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an internal battle, because I do know it\u2019s not my fault, and I\u2019m not wanting to do this,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cBut it is my hand. I did do the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

People with dermatillomania or other conditions like it, such as uncontrollable hair pulling or nail biting \u2014 which are known as body-focused repetitive behaviors, or BFRBs \u2014 can feel a sense of shame so debilitating, they will not admit to the behaviors even in anonymous surveys, medical experts said. After all, it\u2019s their fingers plucking strands of hair, their nails digging into their skin.<\/p>\n

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Millions of people compulsively pick their skin or pull their hair. Social media is helping some of them to recover.Sarah Redzikowski tilted her head and leaned closer to her phone camera, examining the redness that spread from her cheekbones to her chin. She traced her fingers over her swollen skin and sobbed, placing her face in her hands.\u201cI hate that I do this to myself,\u201d she said softly.Ms. Redzikowski, 40, was talking to her TikTok followers about a secret she had kept hidden from even her closest friends and family for decades: Since age 12, she has compulsively picked her skin, often to the point that it bleeds and scars. As desperately as she wants to quit, Ms. Redzikowski, who has a mental health condition called dermatillomania, simply cannot stop.She estimates that she spends at least two hours per week scraping at the skin on her face \u2014 and her scalp, arms, back, chest and legs. \u201cI\u2019ve spent at least 125 days of my life bent over a mirror,\u201d she said in the video. \u201cAnd that\u2019s 125 days I\u2019ll never get back.\u201dShe wiped her eyes and squirted cleanser onto her palms, massaging it over her face until it started to foam. Then she began the familiar routine of trying to repair the damage she had done. She waved a high-frequency wand over the constellation of lesions on her cheeks, willing them to heal faster. She slathered her face in spot treatments and serums.Still, her skin was angry, bleeding in some places. And she was angry with herself.\u201cIt\u2019s an internal battle, because I do know it\u2019s not my fault, and I\u2019m not wanting to do this,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cBut it is my hand. I did do the damage.\u201dPeople with dermatillomania or other conditions like it, such as uncontrollable hair pulling or nail biting \u2014 which are known as body-focused repetitive behaviors, or BFRBs \u2014 can feel a sense of shame so debilitating, they will not admit to the behaviors even in anonymous surveys, medical experts said. After all, it\u2019s their fingers plucking strands of hair, their nails digging into their skin.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26215,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26213"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26216,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26213\/revisions\/26216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}