To Pick or Not to Pick

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who pick and those who don't.

My entire life I've tried to be among the elite--among those with either the extraordinary discipline or lack of passion necessary to not pick.

But I'm a picker. I pick my skin. I pick and pick and pick until I make my skin much worse than it was and would've been if I just picked at it. But I keep picking. Why?

I used to think I simply couldn't help myself, that I suffered from a compulsion or addiction...perhaps even a control issue--and this could still be the case. But then I discovered that whenever I have little or nothing to pick, I don't pick at all. I don't seek for something to peek. So my problem is not necessarily that I pick; my problem is that I have something to pick to begin with and that I feel compelled to pick it once I spot it.

I've also come to grips with the fact that picking my skin is a source of great pleasure hard to turn down. There is such as thing as a pick-orgasm, I swear! Ironically, the climax is followed by feelings of guilt, emptiness and low self-esteem not unlike those commonly experienced by addicts after giving into their addictions or after alcohol-induced one-night stands.

To remove something out of where it either shouldn't be (a myth, because if it shouldn't be there it wouldn't be there) or out of where we don't want it to be can give a person a deep sense of accomplishment, control and satisfaction, one that, in my opinion, can be topped only by a total loss of consciousness under the effects of anesthesia, a remarkably good night sleep with no tossing or turning, or a smooth, effortless dump.

The problem is...well...the bigger problem is when the skin starts taking longer and longer to heal after a night or day of total abandon to this habit. Not only the skin looks like crap but one feels like crap because of it. What to do?

While not anywhere near as gratifying, nose picking can serve as a substitute during skin-picking withdrawal--you know, kind of what like methadone does for heroin addicts in rehab--as it allows the subject to pick something without causing significant damage to the skin or tissues.

However--and must there always be a however?--nose picking comes with its own risks: viral and bacterial infections, some mild and some severe, that spread from person to person via touch and that gain access to our innards though nose picking or finger licking.

The hands, particularly the nails and fingertips, are said to be loaded with microorganisms that can spread disease. So, when we pick our noses we risk introducing some nasty shit in our bodies hardly worth (and this is debatable) the harmless snots we get to peel out of our nasal cavities. Yet, I must admit I find picking out the thick crusty ones extremely satisfying.

In conclusion: picking of any kind is not rational nor beneficial past the initial high seconds after the picking (therapeutically, picking has a very short half-life) and can be dangerous to our health.

But so is smoking and street drugs and pills and driving fast and eating junk food and eating too much or not enough and drinking and having unprotected sex and making shady deals and giving the finger to a bandanna-wearing dude driving an old Chevy pickup truck in the highway with a riffle hooked on the back windshield and walking alone down a dark alley late a night on a low-cut tight sleeveless shirt, micro miniskirt and fuck-me shoes.

Given the choices, I think I'd rather pick.


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