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If we were to need any further evidence of the difficulties of being human, we need only study the poignant phenomenon that psychologists call dermatillomania - more commonly known as skin picking.
如果我们需要进一步的证据来证明人类所面临的困难，我们只需要研究心理学家称之为“皮肤癖”的尖锐现象——更常见的说法是抓挠皮肤。
Those who suffer from it will, by definition, be at the anxious end of the spectrum.
根据定义，那些遭受这种痛苦的人将处于焦虑的状态。
Few days will be free of great worry, sometimes a specific concern with a threat that feels like it will be the end of us, or else a general eeriness and nameless dread.
没有几天没有巨大的担忧，有时是一种特定的威胁担忧，感觉它将是我们的末日，或者是一种普遍的怪诞和无名的恐惧。
In response, as we’ve probably done for years, we will start to pick.
作为回应，就像我们可能已经做了很多年的那样，我们开始抓挠。
Perhaps we reach for one of our hands and a very special zone we’ve almost certainly not told anyone about;
也许我们会伸出一只手去触摸一个我们几乎肯定不会告诉任何人的特殊区域;
a zone of hardened skin made up of extra layers that we begin to press or squeeze at, file down or unsheathe.
一个由额外的层组成的硬化皮肤区域，我们开始按压、挤压、锉平或撕扯下来。
Or we go to an area of our face and start worry away, pinching, squeezing, lifting, skewering.
或者我们到脸上的某个区域，开始担心，捏、挤、扣、刺破。
It might equally - or also - be a part of our lips we go to or a bit of our ankle.
它可能是我们嘴唇的一部分，也可能是我们脚踝的一部分。
In all cases, the skin buckles, damages, goes sore and on occasion, when we go too far, starts to bleed, perhaps profusely.
在所有的情况下，皮肤会被变形，受伤，疼痛，有时，当我们抓挠太狠，会开始流血，也许是大量流血。
If someone were to come into the room, they might gasp - though we generally do a good job of covering up the blood once we’re done.
如果有人走进房间，他们可能会倒抽气--尽管我们通常会在做完之后很好地掩盖血迹。
We know - of course - we shouldn’t be doing any of this.
我们知道--当然--我们不应该这样做。
But it feels, at the time, so nice, or more accurately, irresistible, like the only thing that is going to work, like exactly the action that will be able to deliver relief.
但当时的感觉，是如此美好，或者更准确地说，是不可抗拒的，就像唯一能起作用的东西，就像这个动作能带来解脱。
What can it matter, in the context, that we’ll be left with a pitted face or a bleeding foot or a purple raw thumb?
在这种情况下，我们会留下一张坑坑洼洼的脸，一只流血的脚，或者一个紫色的粗糙的拇指，这有什么关系呢？
It’s what we had to do - and have been doing, probably, for many years.
这是我们不得不做的--而且可能已经做了很多年了。
We know we do it, but it escapes and resists direct thought.
我们知道我们这样做了，但这种行为逃避和抵制直接的想法。
This might be the first time we’ve heard anyone else talking about it.
这可能是我们第一次听到其他人谈论这件事。
Dermatillomania, the psychologists tell us, has to do with anxiety; that much is evident.
心理学家告诉我们，皮肤病与焦虑有关，这一点是显而易见的。
What is distinctive is how the anxiety is being handled.
不同之处在于焦虑的处理方式。
Some will act out their pain in dramatic and noisy ways; screaming, insulting, cursing.
有些人会用戏剧性和喧闹的方式表达他们的痛苦：尖叫、侮辱、咒骂。
Skin picking is a quieter, more solitary way of trying to come to terms with alarm and self-loathing.
抓挠皮肤是一种更安静、更孤独的方式，试图与惊慌和自我厌恶达成妥协。
It is an introvert’s disease.
这是内向者的疾病。
The skin picker might well like to scream, panic loudly, tell someone to go away or collapse in another’s welcoming arms - but their characters have been shaped through aeons of solitude.
抓挠皮肤的人可能很喜欢尖叫，大声恐慌，告诉别人走开，或者在别人欢迎的怀抱中倒下——但他们的性格是在漫长的孤独中形成的。
They have no faith in any possibility of turning towards someone else for help.
他们不相信有可能向别人寻求帮助。
They are fundamentally alone.
他们基本上是孤军奋战的。
They only have experience of directing anger and sorrow in on themselves.
他们只有将愤怒和悲伤发泄在自己身上的经验。
They are taking their pain out on the only character they can reach.
他们把痛苦发泄在他们唯一能接触到的角色身上。
Knowing all this helps us to imagine what a cure might look like.
了解这一切有助于我们想象治愈可能是什么样子。
For a start, it will involve recognising the degree of solitude that has inspired the masochism.
首先，要认识到激发受虐狂的孤独程度。
No one ends up picking their skin raw who had an early consistent experience of tenderness and attuned care.
没有人会因为有了早期持续的温柔和适应的护理经历而最终把皮肤弄伤。
One does this kind of thing because absolutely no one was around or those that were did a lot of humiliating.
一个人做这种事情是因为周围绝对没有人，或者那些人做了很多羞辱的事情。
It may help to recognise that one is still now terrified pretty much all the time.
认识到一个人现在几乎每时每刻都在恐惧，这可能会有所帮助。
The targets may shift - losing one’s job, being made fun of, being sexually rejected, ridicule - but the essential drift is that one is a terror-struck person;
目标可能会改变——失去工作，被取笑，被性拒绝，被嘲笑——但核心的变化是，这个人是一个受到恐怖袭击的人;
we tend only to be in a position to acknowledge our distress when someone is on hand who could understand.
只有当身边有人能理解时，我们才倾向于承认自己的痛苦。
When we can compassionately realise that the picking is about fear and self-disgust (the legacy of neglect or cruelty), we are in a position to start to ‘see’ rather than merely be compelled by our pain.
当我们理解，并意识到，选择是出于恐惧和自我厌恶(忽视或残忍的后果)，我们就能开始“看到”，而不是仅仅被痛苦所强迫。
We need to find a better way of being worried.
我们需要找到一种更好的方式来担心。
We are trying to gain control over a cruel-seeming and cold world, but turning our index finger raw or taking a penknife to our heel isn’t where the issue lies.
我们正试图控制一个看似残酷而冷酷的世界，但让食指变得粗糙或将铅笔刀放在脚后跟并不是问题所在。
We need to know that this isn’t some un-analysable quirk.
我们需要知道这不是什么无法分析的怪癖。
It’s a known and very moving problem, one of the many things a sensitive mind will do in response to a lack of love and to a basic fear that’s had to be borne alone.
这是一个众所周知且非常动人的问题，这是一个敏感的头脑会做的许多事情之一，以应对缺乏爱和不得不独自承受的基本恐惧。
We need to start to pick at the real source of the agony and learn to leave our innocent bleeding body in peace.
我们需要开始找出痛苦的真正来源，并学会让我们无辜流血的身体平静下来。
