ForumGeneral Discussion ► Trichotillomania?
Does anyone have this? It's a impulse disorder that causes you to pull out your hair excessively. I have it, and wonder if anyone else does.
  
How do you cope?
  
Is there help for this?
  
I'd assume it'd be like any other impulse disorder: learning healthier ways to cope.
  
My friend has that. She pulls out her eyelashes/eyebrow hairs. Now, she wears fake eyelashes and she draws her eyebrows on.
On a sort of relevant note, I have pica. I also have really good self-control, so it's not that big of a problem when it comes to eating really weird things. I usually just eat ice nowadays.
  
... I used to eat paper all the time, or chew small pebbles. I now eat ice almost constantly if in front of me... I will not self diagnose I will not self diagnose.
  
I always lie about that. "Are you eating that?" "Um, no, I was just playing with it." or "No, I have a toothache, so I'm holding it between the teeth." It's not even conscious most of the time. I have been diagnosed, but the doctor just wanted me to take pills and the pills made me frantic and nervous, so now I just try to stop myself when I realize I'm doing it.

It has led to some digestive issues before.
  
No there isn't a way to cope, and I guess it's related to eating strange things... like pebbles... I chew on plastic or metal when I'm nervous
  
I know a girl who has the hair-pulling problem, but I don't think she actually does anything about it. She just has to wear a wig and I noticed that she rocks sometimes, and I guess that's her way of coping. She's cool as shit, though. I love talking to her.
  
I constantly play with my hair, and it often ends up falling out at the sides because it's been played with and pulled which makes it brittle. I don't compulsively, intentionally pull it out because of stress or anything though. My friends often shout at me because of it, and tell me not to so I guess it is very frequent. One girl said 'Jheeze, it's like you're on the verge of a mental breakdown' ... which made no sense.. and freaked me out. It's more of an absent-minded thing, or something I do subconsciously when my thoughts go haywire, so I don't think it's the same thing, are you stressed or upset when you do it, or is it quite constant?
  
Cracksinthesurface, there is a treatment for Trichotillomania (and many other disorders as well). There is something called Habit Reversal Training. When used in conjunction with medicine, it has a rather high success rate.
  
Really? I wasn't informed.
  
I am not sure of the widespread availability of such treatments, but they do exist. To quote one article: "Azrin and Nunn reported at least a 90% reduction in habit frequency by all subjects."

I would recommend doing some research and talk to your doctor about treatment. Here is a good place to start.
  
I actually have this. It's quite annoying.
  
You seem to have everything, Blake.
  
My thoughts exactly.
  
This one is unfortunately negative.
  
This seems to suck. I guess that it's just another way people have to cope with their stress. I hate it when people find out that somebody is like this and then they judge them. It must cause problems for social interaction. Ah well. I like things different. Different people are awesome!
  
I don't believe mine is stress-related. It's just my resting state if I don't consciously stop myself from doing it.
  
Same, blake. It kinda spikes at night or when I'm doing homework. I just need something to do...
  
I do that with my eyebrows...but I don't think it's the same thing.
  
I have this too. I started with my eyelashes when I was about 8, it was bad. But I don't do my eyelashes anymore, just my hair. It's not stress related, I'm pretty relaxed, but I do it constantly during tests, homework, reading, stuff like that. It's not so bad that I have patches or anything, my hair is actually really thick. And whenever I pull some out, I rub it on my top lip. I think it creeps people out, so I try to make it look like I'm just putting my hand over my mouth
  
I used to do that when I was a kid. Never realised it had a name.

I still do it on occasion, now I think about it. It's just...dunno, not stress, just a habit for me like biting my nails or cracking my joints.
  
Both my mum and my best friend do this in the form of plucking out their leg hairs one at a time with tweezers...
  
I'm no expert, but that sounds a bit different. My understanding is that Trichotillomania is unintentional. If there are tweezers involved, it doesn't sound like it's the same thing.
  
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