(Marked as potentially triggering for containing negatative self-talk)

I just watched Maya Schonbach's webinar titled "Why Shame Keeps Us Stuck and What Helps Us Heal" (11/04/2025) and I highly recommend it! I feel like I just learned more about myself and my skin picking in an hour than I have in personal therapy sessions.

One of my biggest personal takeaways was how my shame really does feed into the cycle of skin picking. I remember once finding the courage to tell a friend about my struggles with skin picking, and he replied that he had never noticed any sores, scabs, or scars on me and would have never known. Of course, this was by design, right? I purposefully picked at locations on my body that the public would never see. I carried that shame close to my chest, and in turn, my shame fed on my secrecy. "If anyone saw this, they'd know how gross you are," my shame would say. My mind would respond "but if you pick here, no one will ever know," and thus, the cycle countinues! Sometimes I would feel shame for acknowledging I have a skin picking problem. "Other people certainly have it worse; why should I get help?"

This webinar opened my eyes to how unfair that is to myself. I do deserve self-compassion! We all do!! I'm super glad to have found this community <3