The New York Times (9/5, Gellman) reports, “For many people with body-focused repetitive behaviors, the predominant effects are cosmetic, and the consequences [are] emotional and social.” For example, “skin-picking behavior” is “relatively common,” as “are a family of related habitual behaviors that include hair pulling, nail biting and cheek biting, among others.” The Times adds, “While there’s no easy fix,” such behaviors “can typically be treated in a psychotherapy setting by a clinician trained in habit-reversal therapy and other behavioral-therapy methods.” The Times adds, “The behaviors are classified in the” DSM-5 “chapter covering obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. This edition” of the DSM-5, “published in 2013, was the first in which the American Psychiatric Association included detailed information about skin picking.”
Related Links:
— “Fighting the Shame of Skin Picking, “Lindsay Gellman, The New York Times, September 5, 2019