OhJoySexToy

Dermatillomania

Added 2019-03-27 07:01:59 +0000 UTC

You get so used to the fabric covering the bathroom mirror that you don’t even see it anymore, until the times a new visitor comes over and asks “Hey, uh, what’s with the shroud?” and then you tell them your memorized shpiel about how some birds attack their reflections because they think the creature in the mirror is their enemy. “I’m like that,” you tell them. “I see my reflection and I just start attacking it.” You say it like a joke even though it’s completely true.
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Of all the forms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that exist, I was blessed with Dermatillomania, which means I pick at my skin until it looks like its gone through a meat grinder. Seeing my reflection is an instant trigger; I lean in to squeeze just one clogged pore and then I go into a trance and when I come to my entire face is swollen and red and oozing various fluids. People tell me my acne scars don’t really show that much, but they’re all I can see when I look at my pock-marked face. .

I could share my psychoanalysis, what I think are the causes and symbolism of my special form of compulsive obsessive self-harm, but it’s funnier (and still accurate) to just liken my brain to an idiot bird that thinks the other identical creature in the mirror is my mortal enemy who must be fought off through violent pecking and scratching.

So that’s why all the mirrors in our house are covered! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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So like I said, I posted the above on Instagram originally and, dang, it got a big reaction from my fellow pickers which made me remember, hey, I did a whole freaking comic about dermatillomania over a decade ago for my journal comic, DAR! So here, too, is my 2007 comic about my very special form of OCD. The version I'm sharing here is the cleaned up one used in the first printed book (It's long out of print, but $5 patrons get the PDF for free), which is a bit tidier than the original web version ;)