Dermatilomania! WHY DO WE DO THIS!? Podcast with a Psychologist

Friends, hello everyone. This is a psychological podcast to help you work on your brain a little. We do it every weekend, so I ask you not to leave now, but to sit down and listen, because, well, you should be knowledgeable in this area as well. At least for general development, know what happens if suddenly the signs that Bogdana and I will talk about today apply to you, your children, or your husband.

And Bohdana Valigura is next to me. Today we're talking about the processes when you do something with your skin, especially now during a period of, uh, anxiety disorders, depression, well, many other symptoms, illnesses that are present with you every day, and we live in difficult times, so if you do what we're going to talk about now, then you are, firstly, a client of a psychologist, and secondly, you have to understand what to do with it. Bogdanko, I'm glad to see you.

Mutually. Eh, listen, well, the story of a person doing something to their skin, I think it's mostly probably about teenagers who have problems, but nevertheless there is a part of people, and we see them on the streets, both men and often women, who can't calm down. That is, they need to constantly do something with their body, face, and skin.

What is it called and why does it occur? This is dyrmalania and this is the spectrum of OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder. And you are very right to point out, they cannot stop.

That is, it is a disorder in which when a person sees or feels some kind of unevenness on their skin, it is most often the face. And indeed, it is most often teenagers, because there is a hormonal explosion that affects both the skin and our hormonal processes in our head.

And the process begins when a person wants to get rid of an unevenness there, a pimple, or something else. And most often it strikes just when there is stress, anxiety, something is happening, a very difficult night like tonight, even without shelling, you just have a thunderstorm.

And you start to regulate this emotional intensity by causing damage to your skin, but not like when someone cuts themselves or something else in borderline personality disorder, but you just, well, get rid of these irregularities. This leads to the fact that, uh, a person ruins their skin, scarring, and its inability to heal, especially if there is acne at the same time.

A cosmetologist-dermatologist should always see this, because it is a completely different level of damage than when we see just acne. And this is accompanied by a huge amount of shame and guilt.

And very often, in fact, we know from statistics that the majority are women, but they simply come to these doctors, dermatologists, and cosmetologists. Men also suffer from this disorder, but we don't see them because it's usually, you know, we have a lot of prejudices about a man's appearance and men just live with it.

Although it is not actually a dermatological problem, it is an interdisciplinary problem of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and dermatology. Yes, but why does a person do this? Because there is an imbalance of brain neurotransmitters.

In general, the spectrum of OCD is quite broad. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone knows these stories about people who can't leave their house until they check all the locks, uh, all the outlets, wash their hands 20 times, and stuff like that. But in reality, the spectrum of OCD is much broader than that.

For example, people may have a fear that if I think I want to hit someone there, it means I will hit someone and I have to pray 10 times there to atone for these stupid thoughts. Or, as we see, this is dermatillemania, I have to blow out all my pimples.

Or, for example, it can manifest itself as a person pulling out their hair. And this can lead to a person completely losing their hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. That is, this is a large spectrum of disorders that is currently poorly researched because it is very complex.

And he is treated with the help of a psychiatrist, antidepressants, and psychotherapy. Now, many viewers who watch this broadcast will think about the word antidepressants, that they, well, know this word well, because each of us has thought about it more than once during this period, in recent times, tried it, I'll tell you more. And, well, we often discuss this in my circle, and I 'm quite cautious about using it, because it seems to me that it's a pretty serious thing that can affect many processes related to my efficiency.

Well, fortunately, I have n't yet reached the point where I understand that I can't do without it. However, Ukrainians are obsessed with antidepressants. Well, firstly, tell me, in this condition that we are talking about now, are antidepressants really necessary, and secondly, is it right to use them now? How do you feel about this? It's clear that no matter what, in general, when you stand in a pharmacy, there are 10 people in front of you.

Ugh. half of them will definitely buy something soothing. And this is the final, third sub-point in this whole context. Is it possible to find peace without depressants with the help of a psychologist? Only Ugh.

Well, regarding this condition, the OCD spectrum and specifically dermatilania, according to the protocols, the first line of care is cognitive behavioral therapy. That is, we teach a person to be more conscious in the process, because compulsive behavior is done unconsciously.

And the person already realizes that they have torn half of their face off, and begins to feel ashamed and guilty about it. And we teach people to be more aware, especially during trigger moments, because most often it's me who goes to the mirror, for example, or I look in it after a shower, apply some facial care, I see something and everything, as if in a fog, my whole face is torn again.

Or my hands very often, my feet very often where I can touch something and tear myself. And here we teach this mindfulness, that is, awareness, plus habit replacement training. Ugh.

And this is the number one helpline. That is, we try it and it will help many people and then we don't need antidepressants. It helped, everything is great.

Helpline number two. If a person, for example, or a person cannot afford psychotherapy, because we understand that psychotherapy is still an expensive pleasure, if we are talking about a long-term non-crisis intervention of a free helpline or something else, namely therapy, for example, for such a disorder, it will last at least 15-20 sessions. And not everyone can afford it now, especially in our conditions.

And then it could be antidepressants. They will relieve this imbalance of neurotransmitters. And a person, well, won't have this urge. And that's okay, that's great.

I am a person who used an antidepressant myself. I am a person who constantly refers my patients to psychiatrists to be prescribed antidepressants. And I feel about it this way.

If we can do without antidepressants, that's great, that's wonderful. We must learn to cope on our own. But if a person tries hard, but lacks effort, I'm using this as a metaphor.

It's like you've driven into a ditch and you're skidding, skidding, skidding, skidding. And antidepressants are conventionally three nitro. You know, like that afterburner that helps you get out of this rut and keep going straight.

Well, we have to understand that antidepressants are not sedatives. These are completely different drugs. And if sedatives, which, unfortunately, are sold almost uncontrollably in Ukraine, can cause addiction and have negative consequences.

These are certain drugs that are only available by prescription worldwide, but here you can buy them at almost every pharmacy. Antidepressants do not cause any addiction simply because they do not interact with the neurotransmitters that are responsible for this addiction.

How would you advise people to find what suits them? Only with a doctor. Only with a doctor. We now have a good medical reform and family doctors are doing a great job in this. Many family doctors are very competent in prescribing antidepressants.

I'm not sure if this applies to cases like dermatillemonium. But they still weren't taught about anxiety, depression, and the like. No, I'm not sure that every family doctor will be able to choose a drug specifically for such a case.

But if we are talking about depression and anxiety, then a family doctor can prescribe it perfectly. If it's something more complicated or the medication didn't work for you the first time, contact a specialized psychiatrist, because it can be, and it's normal.

and antidepressants are a kind of medicine with different auxiliary groups and we can choose a doctor, a psychiatrist can choose exactly what you need. This condition that we are talking about now can be influenced by various factors, that is, the question arises why a person brought himself to this state.

Well, a person does not directly bring himself to this state consciously. We always consider mental disorders through the prism of the biopsychosocial model, that is, biological. It can be heredity or simply a gene defect in this person.

And she has a certain biological predisposition to that. Socially, for example, a person at school, because this is most often the first manifestation, right in adolescence, starts saying something about these rashes, they don't want to communicate with her or something else, she wants to get rid of it. And parents, for example, are not in a position to notice that something is happening to their child and take them to a dermatologist in time so that he can prescribe medications to treat acne.

And the child starts to pull, and this has a certain result. She feels relieved and there may be some social pressure, some psychological beliefs. I have to look a certain way.

If I have a rash, then I'm either a bad person or a bad person, and no one will be friends with me. That is, it is a complete complex.

But we must understand that any mental disorders are a consequence of our having exceeded our stress level somewhere. We somehow didn't notice that something was happening to us or we ignored it.

We decided it wasn't that important. We didn't take care of ourselves in time because we weren't taught to. In general, our post-Soviet culture says that we should not be afraid to fall for Stalin, but to attack ourselves.

But, unfortunately, when we become exhausted, mental disorders come to the fore. We are really living in a rather difficult period of transition right now, even though we have been independent for more than 30 years. I mean, as a country, we don't have the things in public policy that were in the Soviet Union.

None. But this post-Soviet syndrome, this mentality, which is carried mainly by grandmothers there, but often by parents as well, depending on the age of the person watching this video now, is definitely reflected on us, on those who are younger. What is the difficulty? In the fact that things will no longer be the same as they used to be, and new habits have not yet taken root.

Therefore, you are the main person in your life. You are solidifying these habits for yourself. And what Bohdana talked about today, what we talk about every week in these videos, which we specifically make to adapt you to the modern realities of life and help yourself, is that you have to take care of your condition. Don't drag it out, don't put it in a state of absolute utopian existence in this life, help in the early stages.

Now you look, you feel bad, think about it, but there is no money for a psychologist. 5522 is a phone number you can call and receive free psychological help from Monday to Friday. There are super cool psychologists there, trained in the military.

You write to me, you write letters, but are there any military personnel? Yes, there are military personnel, there are civilians, and there are cancer patients. So please do it, watch the podcasts, subscribe to Bogdana's page.

We will put it in the description for this video. And you can also conduct the educational process using social networks, well, with those we trust. And we trust Bohdan Valehur.

I was glad to see you. Thank you. Mutually. Write in the comments whether you are familiar with what we talked about, what topics you would like to see in the future. And don't forget to subscribe if this is your first time here.