Why do people like to crush pimples so much? 5 facts about this phenomenon

There is hardly a person in the world who has not tried at least once to squeeze out pimples on the face or body with his own hands. But if some people do this very rarely, then others literally "itch" to suppress something... or watch someone else do it.

It is not surprising that more than 3 million people have subscribed to the page of cosmetologist Sandra Lee, who calls herself a "pimple doctor". The videos of the girl are so disgusting that many will not even be able to watch them to the end, nevertheless they are in demand. And we tried to find out why.

Disgust and fear are very important emotions from the point of view of evolution, which help people to protect themselves from problems. Having once been in a dangerous place and having an unpleasant experience, in the future a person will try to avoid it. For example, if we are poisoned by any food, we will not even be able to look at it for a very long time, remembering the terrible consequences. But do you agree that it is much easier to find out that someone else is suffering from severe abdominal pain than to experience it personally?

It is for this reason that people are so interested in videos of accidents, catastrophes, footage from horror films and other unpleasant sights.

Daniel Kell, an assistant professor of philosophy at Purdue University, believes that the desire to crush acne has something to do with the desire to experience unpleasant experiences without sacrificing yourself too much. The same goes for videos in which someone crushes pimples — often people watch them, disgusted, but still continue to do it.

There is a rare mental disorder that manifests itself as an increased obsession with acne, which is called dermatillomania. With dermatillomania, a person gets pleasure from the very process of" picking " a pimple. And if there are no pimples, healed wounds, dried crusts, burrs, and even the skin on the lips will do.

In many cases, dermatillomania is part of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Squeezing out a pimple is a compulsion, an action that a person feels they should perform. Only after he fulfills it, there is a feeling of satisfaction. If you experience something similar, squeezing out pimples, there is a reason to think…

Trypophobia is the fear of cluster holes, various holes, dimples, bubbles, and the like. Although the American Psychiatric Association does not list trypophobia as a mental disorder, it affects millions of people around the world. The main signs of this fear are a feeling of nausea, itching, discomfort, anxiety and nervous trembling at the sight of various holes.

Naturalist Yevgenia Timonova believes that trypophobia is directly related to the desire to crush acne — it's like the reverse side of it. And this phenomenon was born in the process of evolution. Primates quite often suffer from tropical African miasis — large boils with holes, from which the larvae, deposited by the fly pathogen, look out. Primates spent so much time cleaning their fur and removing parasites from their relatives that this habit became firmly embedded in their lifestyle and even remained in humans.

For some, squeezing out pimples is a great way to calm down. Moreover, fans of this process find solace not only in picking the skin, but also watching videos where someone does it. Subscribers of cosmetologist Sandra Lee often wrote to her that watching such videos even helps them fall asleep.

There are special toys that simulate squeezing out pimples

Perhaps it is also the fact that the woman accompanies all the actions on the video with her comments. Lee's soothing voice and the sight of bursting pimples act on many as an ASMR pathogen.

ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) — the so-called "goosebumps" that occur in people when listening to various sounds, music, watching videos, feeling odors, and so on.

All cosmetologists in one voice declare that it is strictly forbidden to crush pimples yourself! Thus, you injure the skin and bring dirt into it, which leads to inflammation and the appearance of new pimples in the future.

If the trypophobic craving for getting rid of skin imperfections is so strong that you can not cope with it, immediately contact a professional. Only a cosmetologist can clean it safely and correctly, saving you from possible scars, post-acne and age spots.