The Freedom Companion: for Stopping Skin Picking

I purchased this along with Annette's Skin Picking book for my 10 year old daughter with dermatillomania. She loves it and fills it out carefully every day. It has really helped her identify her triggers and also been a great way for us to talk about her day together in a really gentle non confrontational way. We are both huge fans of Annette Pasternak's work. I showed this to our child psychologist and he was very impressed with both books. Thank you from Sydney Australia.

I am really liking it so far. My favorite parts are the affirmations and what I learned today. So far every day I can identify something I learned about my picking habits that helps me the next day.

I have been a hair puller for 23 years now and I have discovered that the more you seek the more you find the exact same answers staring you back in the face. This book along with other references and tools including Dr Pasternak's videos, 12 step groups etc were exactly what I needed to take my understanding and awareness of this "issue" that I have to the next level, which is a journey of recovery. As she mentions in her video it is almost impossible to recover when you are plagued with guilt and shame from "not be able to stop" and just when you think you've mustered up enough stamina to try again and that this time it will be different, you "fail" and lose all hope and stay down for so unnecessarily long. This book, along with her videos, will teach you to recognize your picking or pulling as inevitable results of certain behaviors and states of being, like touching for example, and instead of getting down on yourself which makes it impossible to get back up you just say okay I touched and I know whats going to happen when I do that, so next time lets just work on not touching again etc. I have released the shame that comes with not being able to stop and the damage it did to my self-confidence, and now associate a set back as simply " Hey I didn't follow my plan." My abstinence is flourishing, and when I have a set back, its just that, a bump in the road on the way up still. No matter where you look, thriving people will tell you the importance of a morning routine/ daily routine for your success in the future, and this book will help you do just that. Track your progress, see the goal and walk there slowly step by step. Don't worry about falling down because you're still on the path. It really is your companion. I highly recommend this book to get you going in the right direction.

The simple truth is we cannot change something we are not aware of. In my own recovery process many years ago, I found that tracking my behaviors, emotions, mental states and sense of spiritual grounding, or connectedness, was a tremendous accelerator for my own BFRB relief.This little book can HELP you get to know yourself better! I thought I was SO aware; "got it all handled," etc., only to find that I was stunned after 4 months of good recordkeeping how much EVERYTHING tied together! I could actually SEE how 3 days before I started menstruating, I would tend to be more judgmental, easier to irritate, eat more junk, and my BFRB behaviors would increase; I could SEE that after the first day of my flow, I would revert to more of my "norm;" I could SEE how having a lack of good sleep for a couple days would lead to more pulling, more picking. I could SEE how arguing with a good friend and not resolving the issue impacted my emotional state and increased my BFRB behaviors; the list went on and on.Once I had this information, it became much easier to identify healthier decisions and elp myself manage life much better; I learned what supplements helped with PMS, I learned good sleep hygiene; I learned how to resolve conflict as much as possible; I learned how I felt better and reduced unwanted behaviors if I ate what my body needed instead of what my mind wanted. Today I have more than two decades of solid BFRB recovery under my belt, so do not tell me it cannot be done! I have found that there are many many pathways to recovery; and tracking can be a tremendous asset! Kudos, Annette! Thanks for doing this!Christina PearsonFounder, TLC Foundation for BFRBsVisionary Director, Heart & Soul Academy for BFRB Living SkillsWhat Annette Pasternak has done is created an easy to use template to bring all your observations together, in a lovely and cohesive little book. Even if you have tracked before, I highly recommend this book as a way to see what's going on in your life today!

During a decade long journey to figure out once and for all how finally stop my skin picking (which I really didn’t believe I could ever do) I finally stumbled upon Annette Pasternak and ordered this book. For the first time ever, I understood myself, forgave myself and was finally able to jump over huge mental and emotional hurdles and head down the final stretch towards recovery.I still use tools everyday and I still have moments where I’m compelled to pick, but they are very few and far between. If I catch myself, I’m able to stop and quickly move on.I have never been more comfortable in my own skin or felt so confident.I cannot recommend this book enough. It was life changing for me!

I am a licensed psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs) like dermatillomania, and have long been a fan of Annette Pasternak's work in this area. As with her first book, Skin Picking: The Freedom to Finally Stop, Annette offers tried and true methods to help her readers recover from chronic skin picking. This book would be an excellent adjunct to therapy. Helpful checklists are a way to identify triggers, monitor progress, and above all, maintain positive thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors to support success. I highly recommend this helpful book!

Words fail me! If you have suffered silently (or maybe protested your life against the awkward moments you've left evidence of picking), I URGE you to read Annette's book and follow her programme. I'm in the UK and have been treated very badly for decades. I used this companion to accompany the book and my Dermatillamania I have renamed the residue of stress! The simple act of recording has immensely helped but the ideas are key to keeping in control. One day, I wish to meet Annette. She has literally saved me in so many ways.* Nb you won't find anything like this on the NHS. There are no dangerous side effects, no pain, just FREEDOM..........

Very disappointing. There are 106 pages in this book but there are only 7 pages of text which explain how to use it, 2 pages of graph paper to plot your results, and the remainder of the pages consist of one basic checklist repeated throughout but with different irrelevant quotes at the top. This is not worth the £15.99 I paid for it. I could have just printed a checklist off the Web and copied it multiple times or written it in a notebook. This is a waste of money and I cannot recommend it in any way whatsoever.