Rachel's story - getting her life back
Rachel, one of my recent clients wrote her story which she’d like to share:
"I am a 30 year old woman. When I was about 7 or 8 years old I began to pick at my skin, mainly my legs. I would sit on the bathroom floor for what felt like at least an hour, picking every scab I could find. I would re-open it until it bled. I looked like a mummy from all the bandaids that ran across my legs, and at sleep-overs I had to wear PJ pants when all the other girls were wearing shorts. I didn’t know what made me do this, I just knew I had to pick, and it was embarrassing.
When I was a teenager, the picking moved from my legs to my face. I picked at pimples until they turned into scabs, and I became very good at hiding them with makeup. My worst day was once someone said to me, “what happened to your face” and I lied and said a mosquito bit me and I had a bad reaction to it.
When I began college, the picking became more out of control, I would sit in front of the mirror, curled up on the sink, picking at my face for hours, looking at every pore, trying to squeeze something out that wasn’t even there. I skipped out on going out with friends, I wouldn’t go to places like the gym or grocery store without it taking a long time to prep my face with makeup and a lot of times I avoided even going to these places because it was a hassle to put on makeup, and I have even been fired from a job for being late multiple times— right before I was ready to leave for work I would give one last look in the mirror and begin picking again, then try to cover it up, and over and over doing this made me late for work. I was out of control, picking was taking over my life and I hated it. Once I began living on my own, alone, I didn’t have to “face” anyone if I didn’t want to. Nothing was off limits now- I picked my legs, arms, face and anywhere else my hands could get a hold of. I became super depressed and would try to pass the day by sleeping. My way of dealing with things was to pick and then sleep, it was awful.
I am a nurse, and it has been a struggle for me to not pick— but I absolutely cannot pick and risk having open cuts, I knew I needed to do something, fast. I began searching online for tricks and tips and found some national organizations where I could talk to other people that had the same problem. I had no idea others had this problem! As I continued my search, I found Annette’s book for sale so I bought it and read it and it helped me understand some of my problems and solutions for it. This is where my healing began. Eventually I got in touch with Annette and she told me she had individual coaching sessions through Skype.
During the time I spent with Annette, I learned so much about picking, myself, and the best ways to not pick. We came up with creative ideas— ones I had never thought of, and it really worked! After over 20+ years of torture from picking, I finally found a way to not pick. It was incredible to see my progress, but not without putting in some work. I had a day where I didn’t pick. I almost didn’t believe it, I had a day where I did not pick. I wanted to cry, I was so happy. Now a days my picking has gone from over a hour prior to seeing Annette to usually just 1-2 minutes a day. My life used to be overwhelmed and consumed with picking— sometimes I couldn’t wait until I got home so I could pick, now it is a quickly passing thought that I do not act on. Annette really helped me when nothing else nor no one else could help. I feel like I have my life back.
Thank you so much Annette!! With Love, Rachel"
My pleasure, Rachel! Read success stories of many more of my clients on my testimonials page.