My Trichy Weeks

The last few weeks have been bad for pulling my hair. I have been stressed, and as many trichsters know – stress means pulling.

I find my arm constantly up on my head, stroking my hair and waiting to find hairs to pull out.

Stress is definitely a factor in trichotillomania at times, but not always. I think the problem is especially that the stress recently has made me feel tired, which will also lead me to pull. But in truth I do not usually see my trichotillomania as something caused by stress, more just a sort of ‘habit’ or ‘urge’.

Anyway, it has been bad. I have no idea how many hairs I pulled out. I know that my hair is thin around my crown, but luckily I have enough hair to stop it showing for now.

Trichotillomania Support Sites Available

If you have trichotillomania, or if your child or someone you know does, you will find that there is a wealth of support and advice online.

When I first had trichotillomania I did not know what it was. Even when I learnt what it was, I was too scared and embarrassed to force myself to think about it, let alone join a support forum.

It is only after having trichotillomania for 11 years that I decided to look for online support. Whilst my trich is physically not too bad anymore, I feel that emotionally it is important to accept trichotillomania as a part of you and to talk to others about it. I find it hard to talk to people in real life, so I talk to people online.

The forums I have joined:

Trichotillomania Support Online – This site has a wealth of information on trichotillomania as well as an active forum.
UK Trich Support Site – This site’s forum is not so active, but it provides friendly support and you will feel like part of a community here.

It is important to seek support whether you are helping someone deal with trichotillomania or dealing with it yourself.

Are you a member of any trichotillomania forums? How else do you seek support?

Does Childhood Trauma Cause Trichotillomania?

There are many theories behind the causes of trichotillomania, and I believe that there are different causes for different people. For me, I don’t know exactly why but having a hair braid led to me fiddling with my hair a lot, which led to me pulling.

However, psychoanalytic theories suggest that trichotillomania may be a way with dealing with childhood trauma – this could be unconscious conflicts as well as factors such as sexual abuse.This is not true for me, but could be true for others.

Here is a quick overview of the theory. To read more please see the study “Child Abuse and Trichotillomania” by A. Saraswat which you can download here. I have used this article to put together this summary.

Basic Theory

• The factors present with development of trichotillomania in childhood are similar to those of sexual abuse.
• This can include starting at times of stress in the family, periods of separation and developmental problems.
• The article also quotes 86% of women with trichotillomania identifying with some sort of history of violence – this can involve between siblings, parents, or abuse by parents and others.
• It is important to remember that not everyone with trich has been abused. Childhood trauma may include moving homes, moving schools, parents splitting up, bullying and so on.

Your Thoughts

As I have said, my experience does not show obvious childhood trauma, though I do wonder as to whether there are unconscious conflicts as mentioned above.

Do you believe that your hair pulling is caused by childhood trauma? What else may it have been caused by?

Does Your Child Pull Their Hair?

<p style=”text-align: left;”><a title=”Father’s Strength by Shavar, on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/shavar/39525423/”><img class=”alignright” src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/24/39525423_c58a423e5e.jpg” alt=”Father’s Strength” width=”258″ height=”170″ /></a>If you have noticed that your child pulls out their hair, maybe without noticing or even in their sleep, then</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>they may have <strong>trichotillomania</strong>. This is a big word but please don’t panic.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>*If you have come to this page without ever having heard of trichotillomania it is basically the impulsive pulling of one’s own hair, from any area of the body. Please see <a href=”http://ontrich.com/2008/07/30/do-you-pull-out-your-hair/ “>this article</a> or <a href=”http://www.trich.org/articles/trich_guide_for_clinicians_children_new.html” target=”_blank”>this site</a> for more info.*</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”><strong>Will Your Child Recover?</strong></p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>The good news is that the younger your child starts pulling out their hair, the more likely it is that they will just grow out of it. However, if you feel it may be a problem or that it is persisting for a long time please visit a doctor for an official diagnosis.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Even if this is something your child does not grow out of on their own, you can work with them to help them deal with this and to let them know that they are not alone.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”><strong>What Can You Do To Help?</strong></p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>*It is very important for any child who pulls their own hair that they have supportive parents.*</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>If the child is very young, he or she may not even know or care about what they are doing. But children with trichotillomania may soon find that other children notice their condition, especially if it results in bald patches.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Please do not tell your child off for pulling their hair. Instead be honest with them, and let them know you understand that it is not something they have control over.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>There are a number of other ways you can help your child: keep them busy with activities that distract them from pulling, asking them to wear gloves if they pull hair in their sleep, letting them talk about any stress and problems that may lead them to pull, providing them will a healthy diet to reduce compulsions to pull and so on.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>This post is an introduction to how you may help your child who has trichotillomania. For more advice please check this blog often, and <a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/TrichotillomaniaBlog” target=”_self”>subscribe here</a>. You can also visit related sites for in depth information about trichotillomania:</p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><a href=”http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/74835″ target=”_blank”>An article on children with Trichotillomania</a>
<a href=”http://www.trichotillomania.co.uk/Parents/small1.htm” target=”_blank”>Advice for parents of small children</a>
<a href=”http://www.trich.org” target=”_blank”>Trichotillomania Learning Center</a>
<a href=”http://www.squidoo.com/helpotherswithtrichotillomania” target=”_blank”>How to help others with trichotillomania</a>
<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>Do you think your child has trichotillomania? Please contact me if you just want some personal advice about how I wish I had been treated as a child, or if you have any advice of your own.</em></p>

Impulse Control Disorders

Impulse control disorders are mental health disorders. They are disorders defined by a lack of control, rather than obsessive control. As such, the actions relating to impulse control disorders can happen without a person thinking, and can cause much distress in their lives.

Types of impulse control disorder:
- trichotillomania (hair pulling)
- dermatillomania (skin picking)
- intermittent explosive disorder (hot-headedness)
- kleptomania (stealing)
- pathological gambling
- pyromania (starting fires)

*For more information on any of these conditions please click on them to be referred to the Wikipedia article.*

Whilst these disorders may seem very different, they are based around the impulse that the sufferer has to perform certain actions.

Impulsivity

Impulsivity is what links all of these disorders together which leads to sufferers seeking short term gain or feelings with the result of a long term loss. For example, the short term relief of pulling hair is met with the long term loss resulting in feeling bad about yourself, baldness and so on.

Sufferers act on impulse rather than on thought. This happens to everyone to some degree in everyday life, but more people are prone to certain impulses than others for a variety of different reasons. Boredom can also lead to an increase in impulsive behaviour, as can the desire for certain sensations even if they may have negative long-term results.

Impulsivity is also linked to obsessive compulsive disorders and addiction.

OCD

Impulse control disorders are within the spectrum of obsessive compulsive disorders. Whilst OCD is commonly characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsion, both OCD and impulse control disorders involve rituals. In the case of trichotillomania these may include eating the hair, pulling ‘bad’ hairs and more.

Conclusion

This is an extremely brief overview of impulse control disorders. I am planning to learn and write more about all of these disorders, but there is a lot of information available online. Please see some of the links above for information on individual conditions.

What do you think?

Do you see the link between OCD and impulse control disorders? If you have one or more of the listed disorders, do you think it is similar to any of the others? Does your disorder involve rituals?

A VERY Bad Hair Day

Everyone has bad hair days, and I have two types of bad hair day. One is the usual type – something is just wrong about the hair, it won’t do what I want, it looks BAD. Two is the bad hair day associated with trichotillomania. In other words it isn’t my hair’s fault that it’s bad, but it is my fault for pulling it.

Today I have pulled a lot of hairs. Not only this but my hair is getting really fluffy. No bald patches, just a bit fluffy at the top. Otherwise I have a lot of hair which is always a good thing.

I can’t tell when the second type of bad hair day is going to happen, but when I have the first type my hair usually just doesn’t feel nice and soft when I wash it, and it’s downhill from there….

What are the features of your bad hair day?

How to help others with Trichotillomania #2

POSTED BY: mspennylane

Don’t judge: Your first reaction might have been to think that it is ‘weird’ or ‘why do they do it to themselves?’ but you need to realise that everyone has something like this: biting nails, picking skin, grinding teeth, picking split ends, cracking knuckles. True, these conditions are not all the same or for the same reasons but the more you learn about them and about trich, the more you realise just how ‘weird’ absolutely everyone can be.

This is part two of a series of posts every Saturday on how to help people who have trich… This can also be found at Marmalade Skies, my personal blog.

Talking About Medical Conditions

Have you ever heard anyone in your life talking about trichotillomania? Have you heard it on the news? Even if they weren’t using the technical terms, have you ever heard of people talking about pulling hair out compulsively?

I don’t think I ever have. It it strange because I talk about it online a lot, but never in my life did I learn about the condition through people talking about it, to me or on the news. It is such a hard thing because so many people never even know about the large number of medical conditions that others have, and those that have them are reluctant to talk about it. At least through blogging it makes it easier for us to talk about conditions we might have.

That Tingling Feeling

Depending on where you pull your hair, you may or may not agree with this annoying feeling I often experience. The feeling is ‘tingling’. I am pretty sure it is a psychological feeling, though it almost feels phsycial. I am constantly aware of that patch where I want to pull, and it makes me feel uncomfortable, especially when others touch it. It is not always there. I can manage to distract myself but at the worst times it really bothers me.

What feeling do you get where you pull your hair?

Bald Patch

I have not been one to check up on developing bald patches, though that is probably because I haven’t been pulling too bad. Today I noticed a developing bald patch around my crown. I really have to stop this now.