A young woman with a rare OCD-related condition has revealed how she spends hours each night clawing at her skin until she bleeds – leaving behind raw wounds, scabs and deep holes in her face.
Julia Yuro suffers from dermatillomania – a compulsive skin-picking disorder that drives her to tear at her own face in search of “impurities”.
What starts as an innocent skincare routine quickly spirals into hours of intense, painful picking that leaves her face raw, bleeding and covered in deep scars.
The 23-year-old says she can’t stop herself and describes it as being stuck in a trance.
Her sessions, which can last anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours, usually begin after her evening shower.
What’s meant to be a relaxing routine instead becomes an exhausting ritual of self-destruction, with Julia obsessively scanning her face for bumps, scabs or clogged pores that she believes she needs to “fix”.
“My skin condition impacts my life every day,” she told Need To Know.
“There hasn’t been a day that has gone by in nine years that I haven’t thought about how my skin looks.
“When I was younger I would allow my skin condition to determine whether or not I left the house.
“When I do go out, my main focus is how other people are perceiving my skin and if they think I look disgusting.”
Julia first began picking her skin at 14 but says the habit became compulsive around age 16.
She thought it was normal teenage behaviour until it started consuming her nights and leaving her too ashamed to leave the house.
The disorder, which affects around two per cent of people and is more common in women, is classed as an obsessive-compulsive condition.
For Julia, from Monmouth County, New Jersey, it has shaped nearly every part of her life.
She said: “My skin is actually very smooth when I don’t pick it, but I search my face seeing what ‘gunk’ I can get out.
“Depending on how badly I pick, I usually create what I would call divots in my face.
“There are deep scars that kind of look like holes that won’t go away unless I get laser treatment done.”
“I also have a lot of scabs on my face from when I pick until the wound begins to bleed. It usually takes weeks for these scabs to heal and they always turn into deep scars afterwards.”
Dating hasn’t been easy either.
Though no one has ever directly commented on her skin, Julia says she often feels timid and self-conscious.
Even when she forces herself to go bare-faced, she avoids eye contact and can’t shake the thought that her date might be judging her appearance.
Julia’s worst experience came during a visit to a new dentist, when the practitioner and her assistant openly discussed her skin in front of her – assuming it was “just bad acne” and suggesting she switch dermatologists.
She said: “I’m always more timid and self-conscious when I feel like my skin is looking bad.
“Typically, when I go on dates, I’m always worried whether the guy is wondering why my skin looks like that.
“The worst thing that was said to me regarding my skin was when I went to a new dentist for the first time.
“At the time of my appointment, I was really sunburned because it was summer and my skin was peeling, plus I picked my skin really badly the night before.
“I’ll admit that my skin did look insane, but I never thought anyone would point it out.
“As soon as I sat in the chair and the dentist came in I wanted to run out of the office.
“The dentist put the chair down and began to look at my teeth while making small talk.
“She talked about my family asking how they were, and then she asked if I liked the beach.
“The dental assistant then asked, ‘Oh, is all of that caused by the sun?’ and she was talking about the wounds on my face from picking.
“The dentist then responded with, ‘No that’s not from the sun, that’s just bad acne.’
“I wanted to start crying immediately and I couldn’t say anything because her hands were in my mouth.
“The dentist then continued to tell me about her dermatologist and how I should see him.
“When the cleaning was finally done, I was holding back tears.
“I have never felt so insulted in my life and I couldn’t even defend myself while these two grown women talked about my biggest insecurity directly in front of me while I got my teeth cleaned.
“I never went back to that dentist again and now I’m always scared to go to different doctors because I don’t want them to mention my skin.”
After nearly a decade of confusion, Julia was officially diagnosed with dermatillomania in July 2025.
She now sees a dermatologist every three months and attends weekly therapy sessions to try to break the cycle.
Cognitive behavioural therapy and medication have helped her manage the compulsions, but she admits real recovery will take time and mental retraining.
She said: “I’ve spent years feeling like a prisoner in my own skin, but I’m finally learning that healing isn’t about perfection – it’s about forgiving myself for the scars.”
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