Stimulus Control
A stimulus is anything from the light and images emanating from your computer screen right now — conveying the meaning of FingerFreak.com to your brain, through your eyeballs — to the noxious chemical compounds in and around a white blood cell that trigger the auto-immune response against cancer in the body.
When it comes to behavioral and cognitive disorders such as Impulse Control Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, or any in the so-called spectrum of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders — controlling stimulus that leads to compulsive finger picking or compulsive skin picking is the name of the game.
Much like Behavior Modification treatment, Stimulus Control helps treat behavioral problems — compulsive finger picking, compulsive skin picking, trichotillomania and dermatophagia — by helping sufferers identify and then and eliminate, avoid, or change the environmental factors, moods, or circumstances that trigger the picking.
The goal of a Stimulus Control therapy regimen is to consciously control these behavioral triggers to create new learned connections between the urges as well as to introduce alternative, non-destructive behaviors.