zealous grooming

July 29, 2005

hi everyone. my 17 yr old daughter has overgroomed herself since her

ocd behaviors started at puberty and she got diagnosed. since she hit

puberty, i had showed her how to shave her legs, and she began shaving

her legs, arms (the whole arm!), her belly, her eyebrows...whatever

she could reach. then she bit hr fingernails (still does) to the

quick, giving her fingers infections. pimple-picking makes her face

look devastated. at one time she was clipping skin off the soles of

her feet and eating it. lately she has been plucking leg hair out

instead of shaving, and this makes her legs get covered with scabs.

the doc suggested i hide the tweezers, but that i cannot stop her from

doing this, and i may make it worse because my telling her not to do

it shows my displeasure and makes her feel guilty, which in turn gives

her more anxiety and she overgrooms to decrease anxiety. is this a

hopeless situation? is there nothing i can do? just let this

compulsion run its course? i'm feeling pretty bad about this. Sher

July 30, 2005

Hi Sher-My 16yo picks her scalp and eats it-yuk-and

yet i have to bribe her to really clean her face

good(tons of blackheads).I`ve paid $75 twice now for

her to get a deep pore cleaning facial.She picks her

nails and skin down to nothing-I said i would pay for

acrylic nails if she let them grow a little-she IS

trying.As to shaving...well,let`s say when she was

about 10yo-she shaved her eyebrows...we didn`t notice

at first,but we wondered why she continually looked

" surprised " ..lol-no eyebrows!You might want to join

the ocd " pickaderms " group to get some more insight.

best-sue12771

--- sher202020 <ms4k@...> wrote:

> hi everyone. my 17 yr old daughter has overgroomed

> herself since her

> ocd behaviors started at puberty and she got

> diagnosed. since she hit

> puberty, i had showed her how to shave her legs, and

> she began shaving

> her legs, arms (the whole arm!), her belly, her

> eyebrows...whatever

> she could reach. then she bit hr fingernails (still

> does) to the

> quick, giving her fingers infections.

> pimple-picking makes her face

> look devastated. at one time she was clipping skin

> off the soles of

> her feet and eating it. lately she has been

> plucking leg hair out

> instead of shaving, and this makes her legs get

> covered with scabs.

> the doc suggested i hide the tweezers, but that i

> cannot stop her from

> doing this, and i may make it worse because my

> telling her not to do

> it shows my displeasure and makes her feel guilty,

> which in turn gives

> her more anxiety and she overgrooms to decrease

> anxiety. is this a

> hopeless situation? is there nothing i can do?

> just let this

> compulsion run its course? i'm feeling pretty bad

> about this. Sher

>

____________________________________________________

Start your day with - make it your home page

http://www./r/hs

July 30, 2005

We went through the shaved eyebrows too, I think for my daughter

(when in middle school) it was a way to relieve the obsession with

tweezing and getting it just right, or constantly thinking about it

during time she was away from mirror.

She no longer has problem with brows (but they've never come back

fully). But she went from picking to cutting her face. The tiny razor

cuts I believe relieves the obsession and constant ruminating about

wanting to pick, and/or fear she will give in and pick. Hard to say

whether it is better or worse, but it does heal ok (maybe better

than picking) but of coure there is alot of stigma, it is visble and

she wears bandaids.

She is meanwhile using the Habit Change Workbook to journal triggers

etc and practice substitute behaviors. She does this with a

therapist, I don't really know details at this point (she is 17) but

I think not using a mirror is one approach she is using.

sigh...what we see and deal with, it is hard...

nancy grace

>

> > hi everyone. my 17 yr old daughter has overgroomed

> > herself since her

> > ocd behaviors started at puberty and she got

> > diagnosed. since she hit

> > puberty, i had showed her how to shave her legs, and

> > she began shaving

> > her legs, arms (the whole arm!), her belly, her

> > eyebrows...whatever

> > she could reach. then she bit hr fingernails (still

> > does) to the

> > quick, giving her fingers infections.

> > pimple-picking makes her face

> > look devastated. at one time she was clipping skin

> > off the soles of

> > her feet and eating it. lately she has been

> > plucking leg hair out

> > instead of shaving, and this makes her legs get

> > covered with scabs.

> > the doc suggested i hide the tweezers, but that i

> > cannot stop her from

> > doing this, and i may make it worse because my

> > telling her not to do

> > it shows my displeasure and makes her feel guilty,

> > which in turn gives

> > her more anxiety and she overgrooms to decrease

> > anxiety. is this a

> > hopeless situation? is there nothing i can do?

> > just let this

> > compulsion run its course? i'm feeling pretty bad

> > about this. Sher

> >

>

> ____________________________________________________

> Start your day with - make it your home page

> http://www./r/hs

July 30, 2005

My 16 yr old daughter does this too. She absolutely cannot stand any body hair.

She also clips the skin off her feet although I don't know of her ever eating

it. If she can't find her tweezers, she goes almost insane. I don't know what to

tell you, because I don't know how to handle it myself. Actually, I have never

really worried about the hair thing. To me it was minor compared to some of the

other things, like carving an " X " in her chest. I am not sure why she did this.

She has a sunken chest (a birth defect), & I don't know if it has something to

do with that or not. She won't talk about it.

Ramona

Interested in working from home?

Ask me how or visit: http://4my2kids.momexecs.com