Some of the people who I've told about my picking over the years seem to think that picking is a choice akin to choosing cereal over toast for breakfast. "Why don't you stop?" they ask. "Just decide not to do it." When I was in college, one of my friends even told me that I should "own it," wear tank tops all the time, and retrain my brain. My friend had gotten impatient with me, and I thought what she said was hurtful and condescending. I know that the people who've told me to just stop are well-intentioned people who do not want me to hurt myself. What frustrates me to no end is that they don't seem to understand how hard it is. If I could just stop, I would. I don't want to hurt myself either. These people seem to think that the reason I haven't been able to stop is because I don't really care or that I'm not strong enough to do it. If I'd known then what I know now, I wouldn't have discussed my struggles with people who weren't capable of understanding what I was going through or willing to provide me with the support I needed. The people who imply that it would be easy to stop picking also seem to be the quickest ones to give up on you.
Another reaction to my picking that has kind of thrown me is indifference. "Oh, you pick? So what?" Some of the people who've been indifferent to my picking didn't seem care at all; others have just thought it was a small problem in relation to other problems (in the world and in their own lives). People really can be cold, sometimes. While I know that compulsive skin picking is not the worst problem in the world to have, it's not nothing. Picking can cause a lot of physical and psychological pain. I don't expect everyone to care about what's important to me, but at least my friends should.
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