Anyone else have trichotillomania?

noobletmcnugget · May 2015

I've suffered for the past 5 years with pulling hair from my scalp. It's gotten worse recently due to exam stress. I've tried so many times to stop but haven't been successful.

Anyone else struggling with this? Or anyone who's managed to stop with any advice?

Thanks.

rainbowbow · May 2015

I have trich but mostly do my eyebrows. I also skin-pick on my lips, and mucous-fish from my eyes.

I have good days and bad days. I may look down at my fingers covered in blood from picking my lips after watching tv or doing any other "boring" thing when i'm stressed. Sometimes i look up and my eyebrow is completely gone. It's especially bad when i'm having a bad ocd-day and i feel that one peice of hair that is thicker than the others and HAS to be removed and it feels... good?

Sound familiar at all? I only used to pick on the bottom-back of my scalp but stopped and it has moved to the above places.

My best advice would be to control anxiety, stress, depression, and the underlying causes in your life. Find something to do at all time and never let yourself just "zone out" (where you can pick nonstop).

I suggest you see someone who has experience in providing therapy for this disorder. Usually it's comorbid with something else (like mine with OCD).

Some things i've done to stop picking:
Wear a rubber band and snap the s$$t out of myself when i feel the intense urge to pick.
Wear super heavy nail polish/thick lip gloss/any substance/item that takes pleasure away from picking
do something with my hands that makes them feel dirty, like pottery/painting/putting on glue and then ripping it off when it's dry/wearing supergreasy hand lotion, etc.

of course the best course of action is to identify, remove pleasure/need, control/stop

best of luck to you!

NaurielR · May 2015

For me, If my hair is pulled back and held in a bun, without the ends sticking out, I barely pull at all. I also wear a headband to keep the short strands out of my face. If I can keep it tightly contained and out of my face I don't pull. A pony tail isn't enough: the loose ends will tempt me. It has to be a bun.

Wearing band aids around the tips of my index fingers also helped me. I really liked the feel of rolling a strand of hair between my finger and thumb before pulling. The bandaid blocked that sensation, so I didn't want to pull as much.

I've also noticed that when my hair feels dirty or greasy I want to pull more. Keeping it clean helps; i shampoo 2-3 times a week and then rinse it with water on non shampoo days

These are some tips that have helped me. I second the suggestion that you focus on managing stress; my pulling was at its worst when I was in college and going through a stressful time.

Hope this helps.

LisaMahlet · May 2015

Awwww.....you never know how others suffer. So sorry to hear of this! Hugs!

BlueInkDot · May 2015

I have trich too. As Naurie said, I wash with shampoo and I pretty much don't use conditioner anymore. Keeping my hair on the dry side decreases my urge to pull - as opposed to greasy hair which causes me to pull more.

If it's getting really bad I'll just wear a hat or a handkerchief over my head. That helps to keep me away from it. Braiding my hair back helps sometimes too.

For the dermatillomania (picking at my skin) I have to moisturize like crazy. So much moisturizing. Also drinking water. Also putting soft clean cloth over the place where I pick to block my fingers.

Obviously the biggest helper is to do anything and everything you can to decrease stress. Drink chamomile tea, get yourself un-addicted to caffeine, meditate, get nice smells in your apartment like lavender or lemongrass, regular exercise helps too.

You're not alone. This is a thing a lot of people struggle with. We're here if you need to talk about it.

AllOutof_Bubblegum · May 2015

I had it BAD for about 3 years in elementary and middle school. Big freakin bald patches on the top pf my scalp, I looked like a real freak. I was going through some *kitten* and it was my way of coping with depression and stress. Even to this day I can't NOT play with/run my hands through sections of my hair, even though I don't feel the compulsion to pull it out anymore. I do notice I feel the urge to play with my hair more whaen I'm stressed, deep in thought, or on edge (like when watching a suspenseful movie, for instance.)

Try stress-reducing tactics, honing time management skills, getting enough sleep, and taking time for yourself to relax. I notice I "play" with my hair a lot less when there's hairspray/gel in it, because I don't like the feeling of products on my hands. Or wear a hat when you feel like you can't resist.

Also, you are a guy, have you considered buzzing your head during high-dress times, like finals?

KaratTrack · May 2015

http://www.trich.org/ A friend does therapy with folks with trich and other bfrb's. You might find TLC's resources useful (the link).

tarheelntx · May 2015

I do. I didn't even realize that it was a condition from which many others suffered until recently. I just finished "Life is Trichy," and the author provides some wonderful insight into the condition and gives a list of helpful resources. I have mostly "grown out" of the desire to pull. However, when I am bored, I sometimes battle the urge to pull. One blessing for me is that my hair has gotten wavier the older I get. If I style my hair to enhance the waves, the texture isn't quite as enticing (mine's definitely a tactile thing). Hopefully knowing you're not alone helps, too.

noobletmcnugget · May 2015

AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »

I had it BAD for about 3 years in elementary and middle school. Big freakin bald patches on the top pf my scalp, I looked like a real freak. I was going through some *kitten* and it was my way of coping with depression and stress. Even to this day I can't NOT play with/run my hands through sections of my hair, even though I don't feel the compulsion to pull it out anymore. I do notice I feel the urge to play with my hair more whaen I'm stressed, deep in thought, or on edge (like when watching a suspenseful movie, for instance.)

Try stress-reducing tactics, honing time management skills, getting enough sleep, and taking time for yourself to relax. I notice I "play" with my hair a lot less when there's hairspray/gel in it, because I don't like the feeling of products on my hands. Or wear a hat when you feel like you can't resist.

Also, you are a guy, have you considered buzzing your head during high-dress times, like finals?

I'm actually a girl (sorry, my pic is misleading!)

Sorry you had to deal with it too. How did you stop pulling? Did it kind of just phase out? I get the urge to pull every time I sit down and am doing something that doesn't occupy my hands (e.g. studying, reading, watching tv)... which unfortunately is most of the time seeing as though I'm doing a pretty intense degree.

Maybe I'll try using hairgel or something that makes me not want to touch my hair - I usually don't like the feeling of products either!

Thanks for the reply

noobletmcnugget · May 2015

tarheelntx wrote: »

I do. I didn't even realize that it was a condition from which many others suffered until recently. I just finished "Life is Trichy," and the author provides some wonderful insight into the condition and gives a list of helpful resources. I have mostly "grown out" of the desire to pull. However, when I am bored, I sometimes battle the urge to pull. One blessing for me is that my hair has gotten wavier the older I get. If I style my hair to enhance the waves, the texture isn't quite as enticing (mine's definitely a tactile thing). Hopefully knowing you're not alone helps, too.

Thanks for the reply! I might give the book a read too. Unfortunately keeping my hair wavy makes me pull 1000x more. I just can't stand feeling any rough hairs.

noobletmcnugget · May 2015

NaurielR wrote: »

For me, If my hair is pulled back and held in a bun, without the ends sticking out, I barely pull at all. I also wear a headband to keep the short strands out of my face. If I can keep it tightly contained and out of my face I don't pull. A pony tail isn't enough: the loose ends will tempt me. It has to be a bun.

Wearing band aids around the tips of my index fingers also helped me. I really liked the feel of rolling a strand of hair between my finger and thumb before pulling. The bandaid blocked that sensation, so I didn't want to pull as much.

I've also noticed that when my hair feels dirty or greasy I want to pull more. Keeping it clean helps; i shampoo 2-3 times a week and then rinse it with water on non shampoo days

These are some tips that have helped me. I second the suggestion that you focus on managing stress; my pulling was at its worst when I was in college and going through a stressful time.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for reply! Putting my hair in any sort of hairstyle doesn't help me. I pick from the roots not the ends unfortunately. I might actually try the baid aid thing though - that's a really good idea since it's usually feeling the texture of the hair that makes me want to pull.

I've also noticed that I want to pull more when it's greasy so make sure to wash it regularly.

Currently revising for a big set of exams coming up. Hopefully it'll be easier to stop during the summer holidays. My problem is though that even if I manage to stop for a few weeks when I'm free of stress, as soon as I get stressed or nervous again it's like a switch flips in my brain and I just go back to pulling a lot.

noobletmcnugget · May 2015

rainbowbow wrote: »

I have trich but mostly do my eyebrows. I also skin-pick on my lips, and mucous-fish from my eyes.

I have good days and bad days. I may look down at my fingers covered in blood from picking my lips after watching tv or doing any other "boring" thing when i'm stressed. Sometimes i look up and my eyebrow is completely gone. It's especially bad when i'm having a bad ocd-day and i feel that one peice of hair that is thicker than the others and HAS to be removed and it feels... good?

Sound familiar at all? I only used to pick on the bottom-back of my scalp but stopped and it has moved to the above places.

My best advice would be to control anxiety, stress, depression, and the underlying causes in your life. Find something to do at all time and never let yourself just "zone out" (where you can pick nonstop).

I suggest you see someone who has experience in providing therapy for this disorder. Usually it's comorbid with something else (like mine with OCD).

Some things i've done to stop picking:
Wear a rubber band and snap the s$$t out of myself when i feel the intense urge to pick.
Wear super heavy nail polish/thick lip gloss/any substance/item that takes pleasure away from picking
do something with my hands that makes them feel dirty, like pottery/painting/putting on glue and then ripping it off when it's dry/wearing supergreasy hand lotion, etc.

of course the best course of action is to identify, remove pleasure/need, control/stop

best of luck to you!

Thanks for the reply!

For about a year at the beginning I pulled from my eyebrows pretty badly, so can relate to that. I ended up replacing it with pulling from my scalp... oops. Dermatillomania sounds so difficult to live with - I'm sorry you're having to deal with it! I bite my nails badly... have done since I was about 4 years old. If I'm stressed I'll often have bitten them until my fingers bleed without noticing.

But yes, I can completely relate to that feeling of a hair that's thicker or more wiry, or which just isn't smooth and has to be pulled. I remember this whole thing started out from me picking my split ends trying to improve the quality of my hair, and then I started pulling out wiry hairs which I didn't like, and now that's translated into any hair with even the slightest imperfection.

I don't know how to control anxiety and stress. I'm doing a pretty intense degree at university at the moment, which is causing a lot of stress for me with exams coming up. I can't really get rid of that

But yeah, I'm going to try to make sure that if I get into one of those 'zones' I'm going to just get up and do something else and distract myself. I'm also going to try the rubber band thing.

Thanks so much for your reply!

Anyone else have trichotillomania?

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