Hands at Rest: Skin Picking Recovery Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe skin picking disorder, or dermatillomania. Writers describe how it started — acne, razor bumps, a single scab, exam stress, grief, a newborn at three in the morning — and where it happens: magnifying mirrors and bright gym lights, long drives and traffic lights, night shifts, video calls, marking papers, debugging code. There is the hiding: long sleeves in summer, concealer, dreading wedding photographs and in-laws, hands kept under the desk. Writers describe finding the name, often after years of being told to just stop, and what helped to varying degrees: habit reversal training and learning to notice the urge, hydrocolloid patches, fidget tools and gloves, ADHD treatment that turned out to be the missing piece, antidepressants, and N-acetylcysteine taken under a doctor's care with mixed results. There are infections that frightened people, scars, relapses and starting again. Contributors include men, a therapist, a makeup artist, a hairdresser, a veteran after deployment, a teenager, a writer overwhelmed by sensory input, and older people who hid it for sixty years. Later chapters cover parents, a daughter with the same habit, and counting progress slowly.

Who it's for

For anyone who picks and was told it is only a bad habit, parents worried about a teenager, partners who see the marks, and therapists and dermatologists who want to know what patients say actually helped.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 231 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.