Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRB’s) is an umbrella term for any chronic behavior that causes a person to consistently cause physical damage to oneself unintentionally through a compulsive act in order to relieve anxiety. BFRB’s are pathological grooming behaviors that are thought to be driven by similar impulsive urges, linking them together but manifesting differently in the following ways…
THE article to share on BFRB’s - very informative.
I have some interesting things to share, but first, would you guess who was there? April from Dr. Phil’s “Distorted Beauty” episode. Crazy, right? I can’t tell you much because she is not supposed to discuss the show. But I can tell you that for those of us who were skeptical about the focus on April’s supposed BDD and the lack of focus on her dermatillomania (which seemed to be the real issue)…we were not wrong. It sickens me how television shows warp situations just to appeal to the audience with a gripping, dramatic, superficial plot line. Christina, founder of TLC was telling us about the shows who had come to them. The Oprah Show even expressed interest but it never worked out, most recently because they were asking for a very vulnerable person. They were told that was inappropriate, because as Christina pointed out, if someone does not have the support and security with their picking or pulling, they could very well go home after the show and kill themselves. This is so true and I wish the general public knew that these BFRBs are destroying our lives and even putting them at risk. My mom was the one who saw April and spoke with her. I was, at the time, talking with other kids, adolescents, and young adults. There were some amazing people there and I will protect them with my heart and soul. I am sick of these incidents like the Dr. Phil episode, John Cloud’s Time article, and the idiotic show, “My Strange Addiction.” I feel that I must take further action in some way.
More on all this later.
Videos from the fall showcase are up! (or some of them) This is “Dermatillomania.”
wow, this had me in tears.
Absolutely! You may take whatever steps you would like to protect your identity when submitting, and I am fully able to simply avoid crediting your work OR to put “anonymous” instead of a name.
Number of Participants:
50
Age range of Participants:
14-32
Place of Participants:
Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, United Kingdom, United States
Disorders of Participants:
- Derma (D)= 4
- Derma (N/A)= 4
- Derma (SD)= 28
- Trich (N/A)= 2
- Trich (SD)= 1
- …
Someone came up with this before but I really want to see it happen:
Derma viral video to raise awareness.
- Film a clip of anything derma-related: talk about it (you don’t have to show your face), picking, your scars, what it feels likes, what you’ve tried, artistic interpretation (dance,…
The pleasure of picking is going down it seems.
This is wonderful.
Normally I would be jumping up and down but my depression is really hitting me from the other direction, and lately I’ve been very detached and dissociated. Anyone ever feel this way? It’s like nothing is real. Nothing means anything. Nothing’s worth anything.
So those are kind of scary thoughts for me to have. Especially when self-harming thoughts had never been a part of me before. I feel safe yet unstable and unsure. There is still only one person that makes it better. Not my psychiatrist and not my antidepressants but this music therapist who is more of a family friend actually. We connect. He tells me all these beautiful, hopeful, legitimate things about the world that I’ve never thought about. In some ways the existential things make me feel even more unreal, but only in that context. Like sitting in a mental partial partial program building. But I feel like if I just lay on the ground and stare at the stars, everything would make sense. Once I started crying while stargazing. That was the day before the weekend of hell when my depression came back with a vengeance. I don’t know. I just adore him and adore being with him and talking to him. And then I feel better until I leave, and all I want is to talk to him or just hug him for the rest of my life.
For such a harmful, unhealthy, unsanitary disorder it is very difficult to imagine my life without it.. Without my stress outlet. I’m trying to search for other ways to take the place of my skin picking, but I haven’t found it just yet. I hope I find it soon.
I know what you mean…it is such a reliable resource for many of us to relieve stress, feel better, etc. I’m searching for alternatives as well, especially because a key step to recovering is finding a different habit/addiction to take its place (preferably a healthy one). I try flossing sometimes, but it doesn’t have the same effect :/
I picked. :/
I am meeting **him** downtown in like 4 days. No more relapses! Not allowed.
all the while I have to keep focusing on the not counting the days but NOT PICKING, right nOW. thing. it was going well.
