Trichotillomania

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AKA pulling out hair. I read about some of you having it in some other posts, but I don't see a post ALL about it. So here is one! Post ways that help you from pulling, and how to deal with other people putting you down for it/asking "why don't you have eyebrows?? weird!!" etc.. I've tried everything to keep from pulling out eyebrows and eyelashes. I mostly do it when I'm half asleep. I'll wake up to find myself with my hand on my eyebrows pulling out hair and unable to stop. The only thing that has helped a little is cutting my fingernails waaaaay down to where its painful and hurts to touch anything. I tried wearing gloves, putting tape on my fingers, covering my eyes with masks and other things, etc. My family has made comments like, "You're trying to make people think you have cancer so they will feel sorry for you." because when I wear a hat my hair doesn't show either. It annoys me when people say pulling out their hair hurts them, and ask how it can't hurt when I do it. Its so stress relieving when I pull my hair out. But I hate how I look with no eyebrows and eyelashes and I want to stop.

I don't know if i have trichotillomania... I have some hair-pulling problem, but it isn't so bad, cuz you can't actually see it since i do it on my legs and sometimes on head. The worst thing is, if hair is weak i pull it out with skin... -.- So i'm covered with acne-like wounds ;o

I think it'll be good to try pulling out somthing else, like, form the parts of your body you don't need hair on XD or from dolls etc... it's hard to change object of your interest, but it's quite effective... At least I don't care what hair i'm pulling out, i only need to do it.

Had this since I was 10/11 years old and I am now 31. I have tried numerous times to stop, but only lasted brief periods without doing so. I have forgotten what I look like with eyebrows it has been so long since I had any, and yes, it does upset me a lot. I have cut my nails down to the quick, but I still managed to pull them out. Lashes too. My mother longs for the day when I turn up with a full set of eyelashes and eyebrows. I used to pull out the hair from my head too. It happens when I am stressed or bored generally. I find I have to be doing something with my hands or I go insane, to be honest.

I also pick the skin of my lips...I can clearly remember the times my father would be telling me to stop picking my lips. Lol, even have that line on the one and only holiday video we took.

I seriously do think this is a stim.

I think it is more an OCD than a stim. NTs also get this. My daughter is pulling out her eyebrows and I'm very concerned.

I have never actively pulled hair out but I did used to sort of twirl the hair on my head which caused it to fall out and gave me a bit of a bald patch. After I realised what I was doing; my hair has always been cut fairly short so it is sort of impossible to do. My main vice like that though is picking and biting my nails; I have tried to stop but it is so ingrained now that I do it completely unconciously a lot of the time.

wow i am very glad some other ppl have this. i have had trich for 6 yrs one time to the point where i was completely bald and had to where a wig which SUCKED! right now i have hair down to my neck (right to the top of my neck) but there is a big bald spot in the back which isnt good so i have to where hats all the time. does anyone else have trichotillomana to this degree? id anyone does how is it going? have u ever stopped pulling? how did u stop? i wanna know!!

I pick my arm hairs sometimes when I feel anxious, but I don't do it regularly.

I think I may have this.

I pick the skin off my lips too. I've been doing that since I was like 4. I've only been pulling out hair since I was 14-15.

I spoke to a developmental psychologist yesterday (my daughter is being tested for proper educational placement) and she told me that hair pulling is common with depression. Hmmm.

Hair twirling, I think, is a stim. I used to hair twirl and still do twirl the end of my ponytail.

What can't trichotillomania be both an obsessive/compulsive disorder and a form of stimming? I know when I get anxious, the urge for me to pull my hair out increases with the level of stress I'm under.

I've heard that changing your diet can help, and that eliminating refined wheat products, artifical sugars and yeast products will reduce the urge to pull. Right now I'm off the diet wagon, but the few times I tried it, it seemed to help. But that also might have coincided with times of low stress/been a placebo effect. I do wonder if it has any link with Candidia, though, like we're more super sensitive to it than other people coupled with a propensity towards high anxiety. But there is no proof of that, but it might be worth a try.

I've had trich this bad since I was 11 years old (I'm 26 now), and in 5th and 6th grade it was so bad I didn't have eyebrows and had to wear a wig. Its never been as bad as it was then, when I was 80% bald, but I always have two spots (one on the very tip top of my head and one on the right side behind my ear, under most of my hair) that I pull from and it grows in size from completely un-noticable some years to big, impossible to hide holes other years. Right now its the worst it has been since I was 15, and am going to have to break out the scarves to hide the top of my head. I hate going to the hairdresser, too, and have stopped seeing anyone who pokes at it or makes a big, loud deal about it being there. It took me a long time to realize I don't deserve a hairdresser's abuse for a physical difference, and the power was in my pocketbook to find someone appropriate and compassionate.

Its almost like an itch, almost a burning itch, a physical pain in my hairs that I have to get out, and pulling the "right" hairs out makes it go away (for the moment). I find that these hairs are usually coarse and differently textured and/or have a different type of root from others, and when I pull them out I feel great relief. I also need to bite the end of the hair when it has this kind of root. I do not know what is up with that, and if anyone else ever told me they did it, I'd think its totally gross, but I find I need to do it. Its something I never tell/talk about, and if people have noticed me doing it, they never say anything to me about it.

I also have really curly hair and it also seems to be intensified when I let my hair be curly or put a mouse or gel product that makes it easier to grab onto, so I also use A LOT of conditioner and a straightener, which also seems to help the urge sometimes.

I know there isn't a lot of information about it out there (it took me forever to be diagnosed in the southern U.S.) and I'd love to hear more about people's experiences with this/how it feels to them/management techniques. I hope this helps someone struggling with the same.

am used to live with a profound autie who had trichi...,and she almost had no hair left all the time/pulled close to scalp,she also had severe OCD,so dont know how connected it is.

That describes exactly what I feel when I have to pull my lashes. That "pain" usually happens more when I am stressed. I find that the 'right' hairs have a thicker root than the others, and they come out more easily. The pain goes away when I pull those certain hairs, but not others.

Does that count as Trich, though? It seems to be physical, not psychological. You can actually feel and see the difference.