ADD meds and face picking

[Jules_rules]

Sorry this is kind of a gross topic, but I'm wondering if anyone else started face/skin picking after taking Adderall. I was diagnosed with ADD as an adult, though I have shown signs of it all my life. I suppose I've also always done a little bit of picking, pimples, scabs,etc. I've also plucked my hair but never to the point of having bald spots. I know extreme versions of those habits are thought to be on the OCD spectrum, but I never thought of myself that way. Since I started taking Adderall, which by the way, has done so much to make my life more manageable, my picking/plucking has gotten much worse. I'm 43 but my face looks like a teenager because of all the picking. I'm reluctant to give up the Adderall, though I don't even take it every day, but I hate the way my skin looks now. I try to consciously stop myself from picking but honestly, sometimes, like when I'm doing homework or something requiring a lot of concentration (but not using both hands), I don't even realize I've been picking 'til I see the blood under my fingernails. Anyone else have this problem? I tried Ritalin when I was first diagnosed and it seemed to work for a while but that didn't last, however I don't remember having the urge to pick. Anyone have good results with other ADD meds without the urge to pick/pluck?

[manuel_moe_g]

I have a problem with psoriasis picking at the hairline behind my ears. It is gross. But I am so happy that my current meds keeps me level, that I don't want to try to throw another drug into the mix.

All I can recommend is mindfulness meditation like http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/ . It doesn't work perfectly.

Cheers!

[mgasavage]

i have been a bit of a picker since I was a little kid...picked scabs, poked a spot on my leg ad kept it sore, chewed my fingernails. However, when I was 13 or so I started to pull my eyelashes out and could not stop pulling them out for years. Plus, every few years into my late 20's I would also pull out dime or quarter sized spots of hair out of my head (one at a time). Fortunately, the head hair pulling resolved by itself before I was 30...still had bare spot in my lashes though. Then around age 35 I started getting psychiatric help for my anxiety and depression.
I have used one of this wonderful class of drugs from Prozac to Zoloft to Celexa to Lexapro since then. Changed my life...minimal side effect and amazing results. I NEVER get crazy anxious lose weight up all nigh crabby no perspecctive and make my friends hide from me cuz I am such a debbie downer.
My prescriber also taught me a behavioral modification thing that was fairly simple...I used a rubber band on my wrist that I would snap when I caught myself puliing out my eye lashes. Pretty soon I finally GOT a full set of eye lashes and found that if I used mascara I would keep my fingers out of my eyes. It was kind of a reward to be able to finallly USE mascara, too. Since then, I pull the occasional eyeslash but never worry about it getting out of hand.

However, the last few years I again started to love to pull out my hair!!! AND I cannot STAND to have a chin hair get long enough to feel it. And what is really weird - this obsession with the tweezers started during when I started taking adderal 7 years ago. Since then, my plucking is pretty constant...but I keep it channelled by carrying a tweezers wherever I go....and I tweeze in the car.....and I tweeze at my desk.......I tweeze when I watch TV. Hell, I even tweeze my NOSE hairs!

Fortunately, at my age there's no shortage of chin hairs, I have bushy eyebrows that look great tweezed AND since medication...!!!I don't paint houses anymore so I don't need my nose hairs so much!!! In 2002 - 2005 I finished my AA, got a Bachelors, and a Masters degree. Now I am a LCSW with a great job and insurance...miss painting some days tho.