Some people pick their skin from time to time, but it isn’t a chronic condition. In others, picking their skin can be a habit that they find impossible to control. When this is the case, it is known as “excoriation disorder or dermatillomania.” The picking is so damaging to the skin because it causes it to bleed and often leads to scarring. For these people, this behavior is a habit that they cannot break. Excoriation disorder is a condition that is related to “obsessive compulsive disorder” or OCD. Therefore, if a patient has been diagnosed with OCD, it wouldn’t be unusual for him or her to also be diagnosed with excoriation disorder.
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How can i find help?
Online excoriation disorder therapy can help! “BetterHelp” and “Findyourtherapy” are websites that offer counseling services for excoriation disorder online.
How about other excoriation disorder therapies online?
Doctors choose between the following therapies for the treatment of excoriation disorder:
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Therapists use cognitive behavioral therapy to treat excoriation disorder in most cases because they found this therapy to be highly effective for treating this disorder. With this therapy, counselors teach their clients techniques that can take the place of the picking behavior. Patients interact directly with their therapists to ensure that the therapy works. For this purpose, they must keep a daily log of where they are when they begin to pick their skin. They also need to record their thoughts right before they begin the picking behavior and after they complete it.
With this log in hand, the therapist has a good idea of how she can develop an intervention that will reduce the behavior. The point is to make it so that the patient doesn’t consider the behavior to be a positive thing. If the therapist can keep the patient from seeing the behavior as a good thing to do, she will help her reduce her need to perform the picking behavior.
Therapists use several techniques to help their clients stop the picking behavior. For example, they will also introduce cognitive restructuring to the therapy sessions. It is the therapist’s job to help a client recognize the irrational or negative beliefs that present themselves before the picking behavior usually begins. Then, the therapist changes those beliefs with cognitive restructuring. This includes helping the patient recognize that emotions and thoughts are harmless and that they can be allowed to pass without the need to pick the skin.
Acceptance and commitment therapy
Acceptance and commitment therapy came from cognitive behavioral therapy and other traditional behavior therapies. With acceptance and commitment therapy, clients learn that they must stop struggling with negative emotions, stop avoiding these emotions and stop denying that these emotions exist. Instead, they learn that these emotions are appropriate responses to the current situation and that it is unreasonable to allow these emotions to disrupt their lives. When they learn to see their emotions in this manner, they learn to accept them, and they can make the changes they need to make without being concerned about their thoughts and feelings.
Clients learn that trying to control negative memories, thoughts and feelings is not a healthy way to confront a negative emotion. The behavior doesn’t truly work, and it doesn’t stop the negative thought from popping into their heads again in the future. What it ends up doing is causing the person to feel worse. Rather than try to deny that a thought or an emotion exists, therapists help their clients commit to a particular behavior or pay more attention to their personal values. If these patients change their behaviors at the same time that they accept the emotions that they are experiencing, they will be able to change the way they feel about their issues.
Self help
Some people are wary about seeking help from a therapist for many reasons. They may have had a bad experience with a therapist in the past, and they don’t want to repeat it. They may also believe that they can handle their problems on their own, and this may be true. Self help is the act of engaging in interventions or actions that you can perform by yourself without assistance from a therapist.
Self help involves taking the first step of identifying what you need. Once you know what you want to accomplish, then you can take the actions that cause the changes to take place. Personality traits and habits are not necessarily ingrained in a person for life. You can change them, but it may take a little effort.
Medications
If a therapist treats a patient for a mental health disorder, the disorder may be the cause of the patient’s dermatillomania. When this is the case, the patient may respond well to medications. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs are antidepressants prescribed for patients diagnosed with depression. These drugs prevent the reuptake of serotonin in patients’ brains so that there can be an increased amount of serotonin. The result is that an increased number of messages can be sent between the neurons. Along with depression, these medications also treat anxiety.
Other drugs that may be prescribed to treat dermatillomania are “anticonvulsants.” Doctors prescribe anticonvulsants to stabilize their patients’ moods when they have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. These medications work to calm hyperactivity.
Antipsychotic medications treat bipolar disorder. They are prescribed to reduce serious symptoms, such as mania, delusions and hallucinations. These drugs may also be prescribed to treat anxiety. They are known to prevent people from acting recklessly or impulsively.
The best places to find help for excoriation disorder.
BetterHelp is one online platform that has treatments for dermatillomania online. People shy away from treatment for mental health disorders because they are concerned about the cost, but at BetterHelp, therapy is very affordable. The website employs several therapists, and the platform also serves as a meeting place for patients and their therapists.
Findyourtherapy is another online platform for people searching for help with excoriation disorder. It is similar to BetterHelp and allows you to choose between live chat sessions, phone calls or video. The therapists on both websites are equally as educated and trained as therapists in more traditional settings.
How does the service work?
When you join BetterHelp, you must sign up for the platform by taking a questionnaire. You will answer questions about yourself so that the system can determine which therapist would best suit your needs. Then, your therapist will contact you so that you can set up your first online meeting.
The system works similarly for Findyourtherapy. First, you choose the type of therapy you would like. You may choose individual therapy, couples therapy or LGBTQ therapy. After the system finds a therapist for you, you will receive a message. Then, you can plan to meet your therapist for the first time.
You will be able to choose the device you will use to attend your therapy sessions. For example, you can decide to use your laptop or tablet, but you can also have your sessions over the phone. If you would like to have a face-to-face experience, you can choose to have a live chat or a video call. As some people are very shy about discussing their intimate issues with a stranger, these platforms make it easy for you to maintain your anonymity during your therapy sessions. For example, you may use a pseudonym rather than your real name when you sign up for a live chat.
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What is the best choice for dermatillomania treatment?
BetterHelp only hires psychologists, marriage and family therapists and clinical social workers with licenses in their states. Every therapist has earned a master’s degree or a doctorate. They must also have at least three years of experience practicing their professions.
The psychologists that Findyourtherapy hires have experience with several mental health conditions, including OCD and anxiety. Each therapist has a master’s degree and has been licensed to practice in his or her state.
How much does the service cost?
At BetterHelp, the system will charge between $60 and $90 per week. After four weeks, the system bills your credit card or PayPal account. You can choose to cancel your subscription at any time.
At Findyourtherapy, the payment system works in the same way. People love this way of paying for their therapy because they don’t have to pay a bill after they finish every session. With the subscription plan, they can schedule a therapy session as many times throughout the month as they need to do so, and they will only need to pay for these sessions at the end of the month.
Online therapy is preferable to the traditional type because traditional therapists will bill your insurance company for payment, and not all insurance plans adequately cover the cost of online therapy sessions. The truth may be that you would have a higher co-payment for each therapy session than you would have to pay for one month of therapy sessions for online therapy. Therefore, online therapy is very affordable for people with or without insurance.
Conclusion: Finding treatment for dermatillomania.
It doesn’t have to be hard to find a dermatillomania therapist near you. It’s as simple as searching for a trained and competent therapist on the internet. When you are finished, you will be able to attend your therapy sessions on the website as well. On top of that, you will be able to easily afford these sessions, so start your search today.
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