14 DAY TRIAL // In order to make herself look normal, the 24-year-old girl spends hours in front of the mirror concealing the scars caused by dermatillomania, a condition that leads to compulsive skin picking. Similar to other obsessive compulsive disorders, it causes uncontrollable reactions in moments of stress or anxiety.
Besides the skin picking problem, Sophie Erhmann also suffered from trichtillomania, another OCD-type condition that made her tear her hair out. She kept everything hidden from her family and friends, out of fear, but recently decided to share her secret with a series of portraits showing the gravity of her “habits.”
“I am a very high strung person and to calm myself, I tear my hair and skin out,” Sophie explains, according to Daily Mail. In order to relieve herself from stress, she starts causing herself pain by ripping skin and hair from her legs, face, underarms, and other body areas.
The symptoms started when Sophie was 12 years old and were kept as a secret for years, scaring herself with tweezers while locked in her bedroom. This kind of behavior is as shocking as it gets, but people who suffer from OCD-related disorders don't have power to control their attacks and learn to live with self-inflicted pain.
When the condition got worse, the girl finally told her mother and was diagnosed with the dermatillomania and trichtillomania. After keeping it a secret for so long, the scarring was too severe to be repaired and the girl had to keep concealing her scars with make-up and covering clothing like long socks, knee-high boots, and tights.
“It sucks. I can't just leave my house wearing a cute dress baring my legs for all to see. I have to plan things out. I wish I had normal legs so I could just get dressed and wear whatever I want, without it being some big ordeal,” the 24-year-old New Yorker tells Daily Mail.
She finally decided not to hide her condition anymore and revealed the scars in an exhibition of Visual Art through an intimate photo collection. Sophie wanted people to see and be aware of the OCD-type disorders and maybe try to understand the ones who deal with this kind of conditions.
In her attempt to raise awareness about these bizarre disorders, Miss Erhmann is starring in a documentary about the lives of eight trichotillomania patients called Trichster, scheduled for spring 2014.