Guilt From Picking

In the complex interplay of emotions associated with compulsive finger picking, guilt plays a major role.

The act of picking can leave one feeling guilty for many reasons:

• Guilt over the damaged, callused — often unsightly — skin that grows at the spot that is picked
• Guilt over intentionally causing self injury
• Guilt and shame that one can’t help the themselves to stop the destructive impulse to pick (impulse control disorder)

Of course, all this guilt causes anxiety — to the point that a full-blown anxiety disorder may result. The tangled web of emotions and psychological issues can be bewildering to the sufferer, especially when it seems that they all feed off of — and reinforce — each other. One’s problems can seem as though they are spiraling out of control, with no hope of halting the spread of bad feelings and damaged skin.

Fortunately, there are many, many treatments — for both the underlying causes and resulting effects of compulsive picking — that can help alleviate guilt.