SISP-Self Injurious Skin Picking is an actual condition, which I am currently trying to beat. According to www.stoppicking.com, "SISP is a repetative behavior characterized by recurrent mutilation of the skin via picking, scratching, or biting." "People who engage in these behaviors can spend large amounts of time doing them and cause serious scarring or other deformity."
Hello, my name is Jill. I have been involved with SISP for...well let's see...when did this begin? I think it was back when I was about eight years old when my grandmother was beginning to introduce me to womanhood. "This is how you push your cuticles back, she said and she demoed with the nail of her index finger how to gently recede the persistent skin that is constantly growing towards the tip of the nail. She said that if you don't push the skin back it will cause your nail to stop growing, so it should be done frequently.
Well I took this to the extreme and began removing the cuticle all together in this terrible act of picking away until sometimes they would bleed. Thus began a viscous cycle. I pick because there are things to pick and there are things to pick because I pick.
I can think of three reasons to stop this barbaric habit:
1. It's hideous
2. It promotes infection
3. It would make my mom happy
It was actually my mom, three years ago, who furrowing her brows behind thick rimmed glasses, called from her lap-top, "you have a case of SISP!" Apparently there is a support group which you can join; you share your story and get help from other self-skin-mutilators.
So today is day three of the 30 day challenge. I read online that one of the steps you can take to shake a bad habit is by giving a friend $100 dollars which you will get back at the end of 30 days. I don't know how I feel about that...
Now that I am more conscious of the urge to pick I catch myself about to pick through-out the day, whenever my hands are not occupied. So I decided that every time I have the urge to pick, I make a fist. It's been working.
Day 6 of no picking!the temptation to do so has drastically been reduced. I have been massaging coconut oil and bag balm into the nail beds and I have been trying not to stare at my fingers because that's when I spot impurities and the urge to pick rises.I can almost hear my cuticles sighing with relief.
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