Trichotillomania

AlixClockHeart
AlixClockHeart Posts: 30 Member
edited November 2024 in Chit-Chat
Just wondering if anyone else out there has trichotillomania or dermatillomania.

Replies

  • cubsgirlinny
    cubsgirlinny Posts: 282 Member
    of course someone out there has those conditions, otherwise they'd remain unidentified. :-)
  • batalina
    batalina Posts: 209 Member
    i don't have a diagnosis, but i pick. more fervently at times of extreme stress. when i was a kid i was often at the doctor's for prescription antibiotic cream because i would pick the skin off my scalp and it would get infected :-/ classy, no? now i can *usually* stop before i draw blood... or move to a different spot... but my fingers are always finding stuff that they want to pick at/dig out/. i do it to my husband, too. he jokes that i need mittens.
  • AlixClockHeart
    AlixClockHeart Posts: 30 Member
    I mean here, on MFP. I'm getting better at stopping before it gets too bad and catch myself before I start picking sometimes. I play with my boyfriends hair when we lay together and if I start to go to pull a strand out he'll pull my hand away. I don't realize it most of the time.
  • Pfauxmeh
    Pfauxmeh Posts: 259 Member
    I used to pick at my scalp til it bled and, less frequently now, pick my face continuously. I just find something and have an urge to purge the abnormality. I'm working on it, and I have been doing better.

    I have never been diagnosed nor do I think what I do is considered a disorder, but I don't know.

    I feel for people who have been, though.
  • batalina
    batalina Posts: 209 Member
    same here, it's weird how unconscious it is!
  • Cinnamonie
    Cinnamonie Posts: 138 Member
    Exactly - Most of the time it's not even in my head that it's happening....just notice that I'm doing it when my boyfriend yells at me. It's hard to stop when you don't even realize you're doing it!
  • WingMan380
    WingMan380 Posts: 2,139 Member
    I don't have enough hair to pull out.
    :happy:
  • AlixClockHeart
    AlixClockHeart Posts: 30 Member
    Sometimes it's conscious for me and other times it isn't. Or sometimes it's like I'm in a trance and I know I should stop but I can't. I do this with my face, squeezing stuff out of the pores for up to an hour at a time.
  • Pfauxmeh
    Pfauxmeh Posts: 259 Member
    ^ This.
  • coliema
    coliema Posts: 7,646 Member
    Please message me.
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
    My son had/has it. His developed when he was 10-11 years old due to anxiety and stress. It's a very hard thing to break.
  • TrichotillomaniaSupport
    TrichotillomaniaSupport Posts: 1 Member
    Hello, these are very common conditions and are much easier to cope with if you have friendship and support. It's great that you took the step to ask if anybody else has the same thing. You can also find help online with help sites like ours (www.trichotillomania.co.uk) Trichotillomania Support UK
  • shmiracles
    shmiracles Posts: 105 Member
    i too am a picker. i have been as long as i can remember and it might fade away for a few weeks but it always seems to come back. i have successfully changed a lot of things about myself that i wanted to, but this one is still a problem.

    right now it's a little worse that usual and i was feeling helpless, which is why i searched dermatillomania in the message boards and found this thread.
  • silvergurl518
    silvergurl518 Posts: 4,123 Member
    i have OCD. i definitely understand...

    also, i pick at pimples, scabs, ingrown hairs. blech!
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