Premiere of Scars of Shame Documentary

A cartoon my niece made on Facebook with the Bitstrips app for my sister Pam. Caption: Pam can hardly wait to watch Angie's documentary for the first time.

Scars of Shame - Documentary Film Screening

• 20th Annual National Conference on Hair Pulling & Skin Picking Disorders at Renaissance Newark Hotel, New Jersey, USA
• Saturday, April 20, 2013: 8:30 - 10:00 p.m.

The premiere of the first skin picking documentary! In the film, Angela Hartlin, author of Forever Marked: A Dermatillomania Diary, invites us into her world for an intimate portrait of her daily struggles as she deals with skin picking disorder. A brief Q & A will follow the 46-minute film. Parental discretion is advised.

20th Annual National Conference on Hair Pulling and Skin Picking Disorders

Angela Hartlin will be speaking at the 20th Annual National Conference on Hair Pulling & Skin Picking Disorders - April 19-21, 2013 | Renaissance Newark Hotel, New Jersey

She will facilitate two sessions at the conference and unveil her documentary film on Saturday, April 20, 2013:

Session 4 - Tickets to Happiness
1:00 to 2:15 p.m.
Finding activities that build self-esteem is vital to helping us feel better about ourselves! In this workshop, kids will choose “tickets” that list various activities that we either like to do or would like to try. Once the tickets are given out, we will paste the tickets onto a piece of paper that will help us remember the things that make us happy, and when we feel stressed or anxious or sad, we can turn to our list for ideas on how to relieve anxiety. This list will also give parents insight into motivations for their children.

Session 6 - Fearing Intimacy
4:15 to 5:30 p.m.
This workshop is for adults 18 and over. Intimacy can be a frightening idea for a sufferer of a Body Focused Repetitive Behavior (BFRB). When the time comes to find a partner, it can be daunting because the sufferer must learn how to be open about their insecurities, be honest about all feelings, and engage inter-personally to help a relationship blossom. In an open forum, we will talk about what it means to be intimate with another person. Intimacy of physical and emotional natures will be the focus of this workshop; having an honest discussion about these feelings many of us are ashamed to have accompanying our BFRBs can help identify specific issues so we can come up with solutions and bring clarity to them.

Scars of Shame - Documentary Film Screening
8:30 - 10:00 p.m.
The premiere of the first skin picking documentary! In the film, Angela Hartlin, author of Forever Marked: A Dermatillomania Diary, invites us into her world for an intimate portrait of her daily struggles as she deals with skin picking disorder. A brief Q & A will follow the 46-minute film. Parental discretion is advised.

The official DVD cover:

Updated: March 21, 2013

What a beauty

Some of my granddaughter's first steps: 1 year 3 months

Niece officially launches Dermatillomania website

I posted a couple blog entries over the years when my niece's book came out and when the documentary was being filmed. Here are those links:

December 2009 - Forever Marked: A Dermatillomania Diary

February 2011 - Scars of Shame

Today, I received an email from my niece today that she has officially launched a Dermatillomania website. Here is her email:

Hey everyone!

Who sends out mass emails anymore when we have social media to satisfy our self-promoting needs? Well, I'm giving it a shot because this is the most important project I've taken part in that brings together all of the work I've done to spread awareness about Dermatillomania.

With the help of my better half, Jason, I have launched an official website to promote awareness about this disorder with the main goal of having it become a vital source of information about the disorder while having a platform to invite people to look at the work I've done for the cause.

Please visit www.skinpickingsupport.com to see the hard work Jay and I have put into this website! If there was ever a time I needed you to share a link, THIS is it! Please share this site through email, social media sites you are associated with, forums, blogs, anything! Any type of share means the world to me!

If you want to subscribe to my website blog to be updated about upcoming changes/ additions to the website, please click http://www.skinpickingsupport.com/

Thank you all so much!

Angie

Updated: March 9, 2013
20th Annual National Conference on Hair Pulling & Skin Picking Disorders - April 19-21, 2013 | Renaissance Newark Hotel, New Jersey

Child labour?

I'm not sure what this says about the drywall trade, but our daughter reports that Moss actually did a pretty decent job mudding. Mina was a bit sloppy in the corners, but nothing some on-the-job training couldn't fix.

Use genetic research to improve help for mistreated children, study says | CTV News

Use genetic research to improve help for mistreated children, study says | CTV News

The researchers said abuse in the early years is tied to long-term changes in brain circuitry, problems in the nervous and hormonal systems and other changes that "influence health and quality of life across the lifespan."

A dark ages Halloween

Princess Mina and her gallant protector, Sir Mosselot on his trusty steed.

Happy 32nd birthday!

This free digital ecard generated with Smilebox

Today my daughter turns 32. Goodness, how time has flown.

So many lovely memories. She was such a sweet child with a myriad of nicknames like 'Bunny Girl' and 'Chickadee'. During the teen years, there was quite a saucy little break but adulthood rekindled her innate sweetness.

The pictures inside this birthday card are evocative for me.

Her favourite toy was a very tattered, well-loved, white kitty that eventually lost its tail. As often happens with favourite toys, Kitty got lost. What a panic! Fortunately, I was able to replace it after a lengthy period of scouring every local toy store. Then, fortune struck again and Kitty resurfaced. She promptly renamed both to 'Kitty with no tail' and "Kitty with a tail'.

Her second love affair revolved around her homemade Mary Maxim, bunny sweater. One day, while I was driving and glanced into the rear-view mirror, I saw her stroking the sweater and cooing, "Ooooooh...bunnies!". This spawned her nickname 'Bunny Girl'. That is one of those memory flashes that will probably endure to my grave.

Happy birthday, Elizabeth. You are the sweetest, kindest person I know.

Scars of Shame

Following up on my post called FOREVER MARKED: A Dermatillomania Diary, there is now a trailer posted on YouTube for the documentary called Scars of Shame, which features my niece's story of her struggles with the condition dermatillomania (a compulsive skin picking disorder).

Director: Lisa Heyden
DOP: Darryl LeBlanc
Editor: Darryl LeBlanc/Lisa Heyden
Sound Mix: John Rosborough

You can also view other videos on Angela's YouTube channel.

If you wish to contact Angela about her book or her story, visit her Facebook Fan Page for her book, FOREVER MARKED: A Dermatillomania Diary. You can also email her at or email her at forever.marked@yahoo.ca

Updated: March 9, 2013
20th Annual National Conference on Hair Pulling & Skin Picking Disorders - April 19-21, 2013 | Renaissance Newark Hotel, New Jersey

November 25, 2012
Niece officially launches Dermatillomania website

R.I.P. Fluffy

Owning Fluffy was pure pleasure.

Fluffy
June 15, 2002 - September 11, 2010

Forever Marked: A Dermatillomania Diary

My niece wrote this book. It's a heartbreaking 2006 diary of Angela's struggles with a disorder causing permanent mutilation.

Her purpose for sharing was to reach out to others suffering in silence because very little is known about Dermatillomania besides that it falls under the impulse control disorder umbrella. Unfortunately, those who practice this usually cannot find the proper help, if they seek it at all; their shame isolates them.

If you are interested in reading it, you can contact Angela through her book's Facebook page or email her at forever.marked@yahoo.ca

Updated: March 9, 2013
20th Annual National Conference on Hair Pulling & Skin Picking Disorders - April 19-21, 2013 | Renaissance Newark Hotel, New Jersey

November 25, 2012
Niece officially launches Dermatillomania website

Updated: February 3, 2011
Scars of Shame

20 years

This week, hubby and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. It's the second time riding the marriage roller coaster for both of us.

How did we make it this time, when other marriages fell by the wayside? Commitment, pure and simple. We are just ordinary people, living our lives 'in the moment'.

Our life together is based on a simple concept. There are 3 living entities in our home: me, him and our relationship. We are individuals who have and embrace our own diverse interests but also respect that our individuality cannot be acted out in a way that compromises our relationship.

I don't claim that we always succeed but the wins far outweigh the fails. Every day brings a new, and happier, history.

I am grateful for the gift of our relationship and our blended family.

Our life:



My blended family:

Expecting a grandbaby

Congratulations to our daughter and her husband, who are expecting their second child in March 2010. We are so excited!

What's your name?

Our beautiful grandson

Happy 32nd anniversary, Pam & Wayne

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