Evie has channelled her experience of skin picking (also known as dermatillomania) into her artwork creating posters to raise awareness and understanding of this little known condition.
“For one of my final year university projects, I decided to base it around a subject close to my heart – Body Dysmorphic Disorder. I created these two posters in the hopes of shedding light on something that has truly affected my life for many years – skin picking. Growing up, I never knew it was part of a disorder to get help for as I had never seen or heard anyone talk up about it. It was almost pushed under the carpet. I felt ashamed and embarrassed at what I was doing yet I couldn’t stop and never understood why.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have parents who were understanding when I opened up to them about it five years ago and they have supported me ever since. However, I have become increasingly aware that there are many others out there who pick their skin and struggle alone because they think it is something to be embarrassed about. But I am here to tell them it’s not. I used a 3D print of my face as a canvas to display skin picking. At first I was scared about doing this because only my close friends and family know about it, but I am sick of hiding and want to be able to try and squash the stigma around it so that others don’t feel so alone the way I did growing up. There is a QR code that takes anyone who sees the posters to the best source of information (the BDD Foundation) to either read about and educate themselves on BDD or to find the best help if they are struggling.
My goal is to get the posters out in as many places as possible to help others like me and be a part of raising awareness for Body Dysmorphic Disorder!” – Evie Horrell
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