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Trichotillomania
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Has anyone ever had Trich? Or know anyone who does/has? I have been browsing the internet for information and i think i may have a mild form of it. For about two years now, i have been picking at/playing with, my eyebrow hair. The result is one of my eyebrows is very sparse, the other perfectly normal, as i only do it on one of them. Ive read this condition is psylogical and stress, maybe even depression related. I wasnt aware of this before, and believed it was just a habit, for when theres nothing to do with my hands. But when i think again, i realise i do it mostly at stressful times, ive been doing it alot lately as i have exams approaching. Does anyone have any advice on this? It would really help, as i have become very self concious. I dont think my parents take much notice all they say is "stop picking your eyebrow" and my siblings laugh at the lack of hair. It gets me down. any help or information appriciated.
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That's what I was thinking. It might actually not be a medical condition; just a habit. (Which is what someone said to me last year I think when I went through a phase of constantly washing my hands)
a compulsion?
to the OP - there is info here, and also links and whatnot.
it has links with OCD and anxiety disoders, and is rarely simply about pulling out hair.
Is there a fancy name for picking one's nose too?
Compulsive Skin Picking and (sometimes)Body Dismorphic Disorder are also anxiety related and theres loads of info on all of them on OCD-UK
Try getting one of those stress balls, or start making friendship bracelets or something along those lines to give you something to do with your hands. If they are occupied with something else then you cant pull at hairs! I have problems with my skin and obsessively pick at it, this was the advice I got and it has helped. As has regular nagging.
Boring lipsalve or a nail file is good too, you can file a nail or put some more lipsalve on instead.
I cant remember how i stopped. I think i just tried to do it less and less gradually. I got pissed off any time people nagged me for it. I think the getting bald patches made me try and cut it down as i wanted them to grow back. I used to try sitting on my hands because otherwise i would be pulling at my hair without realising i was doing it. As I said, I still do it now when im stressed, except i notice im doing it now and i rarely pull the hair out like i used to. I just kind of feel each strand . Its more than just hair fiddling because I am that close to pulling it. Its weird really. Ive only ever known one other person who does it/used to do it. I also used to pick my skin compulsively. Used to pick spots that werent even there. Anything that didnt look/feel perfect (same with my hair - id only pull ones that didnt feel perfectly smooth, trouble was,that was quite a lot of them)
Its definitely a form of OCD. A lot of it calmed down when i stopped doing speed, but I think ive always had a tendency towards some obsessive compulsive behaviours. I also used to have pica, where i would eat things like sponges and paper. That wasnt anything to do with the drugs. That was just another one of my various eating disorders.
Do I sound like a nutcase yet?
seen as i cant stop it myself, i do it when i dont realise, i thought i may need help from someone else...
no, i don't think so either.
i compulsively pick at my skin. mainly my lips, but any part of my face is fair game if i get bad enough. it's mostly anxiety related (i also have a slight tendency to compulsive behaviours but it's all related to anxiety and my phobias) - i can take a fair chunk of my skin right off, barely realising, if i am in enough of a state.
i get nagged ALL the time. the phrase i head most in my life is 'STOP PICKING'. and i don't find it helps at all. in fact, every time i hear it, i get that little bit more frustrated with myself, and as soon as the person who's said it turns their back, my hands are right back at my face.
because it's not a deliberate action a lot of the time, things that can help are sitting on your hands, like SCC said, or always trying to have things in your hands. i find stuff like knitting or crochet really useful, because it keeps both hands busy. i've also heard of people carrying worry beads, so they can fiddle with them instead. and i found if i wore a couple of rings, i could get into the habit of fiddling with them instead of picking.
if you mean picking until there is no skin on the inside of your nose, then yes. otherwise, i don't see how it's the same?
Do you have to be so fucking glib, the OP came on here asking for advice and since I'm not inclined to believe you have a wealth of experience (medically or personally) of trichotillomania and you're obviously not going to offer any advice -- I'm not sure why you feel the need to play devil's advocate in a health thread.
SCC, reading your last post was like seeing something I'd have written myself. It was my first year of Uni where I got really bad in terms of hair pulling, and yeah again it was always the hairs that weren't smooth that I'd target. However it started when I was a lot younger, but then it was my eyelashes strangely enough. I seem to remember actually stopping that simply because someone noticed me doing it and told me they wouldn't grow back -- or at least not well. I also used to do most of the other things you mentioned, which to be honest just "came back to me" since I've never really met anyone who did those things too... or at least did them and was open about it. I definitely think it's stress-related, at least it always was for me, and almost something I'd do absent-mindedly while my brain was ticking over on different things. I did start to think maybe it was a more extreme manifestation of the hair-twirling I would do when I was younger again.
In terms of advice, I'm not really sure how you could stop. Occupying your hands makes sense, though how effective it'd be would vary from person to person and with different activities - it's worth giving a go. As SCC said, it's something I also stopped doing gradually, and it's extremely, extremely rare that I'd do it now. That's not to say it's a "phase", but maybe it satisfies some kind of anxiety-relieving need during certain stages in life. I did always find it helped a little to tie my hair back very securely... not just in a ponytail but in a bun with five million hairgrips so I couldn't physically get to the hairs without a great deal of effort. That especially helps if it's something you do absent-mindedly while you're working/studying/watching TV -- as the reason I would do it so often was because my hair was just hanging there. If that makes sense. Of course, since it's your eyebrow hair I guess that really doesn't help, and is more just general advice. I'm not too sure how you could stop yourself fiddling with your eyebrows.
To agree again with someone, like kaffrin said it's rarely merely to do with pulling hair out. It does make me wonder if it's anything to do with the saying about "pulling your hair out" at times of stress, it'd certainly make sense
Good luck with this [and your exams!], I hope some of this has helped.
I'm not saying its the complete solution, but its not like being told to stop it is going to make you do it more.
That's exactly the same as me except I do it to my fingers
That wasn't the way it came across to me.
You'll note I didn't suggest popping pills or seeking therapy; I agree that neither of those are particularly viable solutions in this case. But your suggestion that it's a bad "habit" on par with nose picking is inaccurate and far from helpful in my opinion and I would stand by my interpretation.
But nevermind.
here here
Here's a link for anyone who'd like to know/read more about this condition
http://www.ocduk.org/3/trich.htm
Speaking as someone who suffers from severe OCD and some of its associated spectrum disorders too - nagging only serves to make this kind of problem worse.
You can't really lump nose picking in the same bracket as Trich. Trich - along with OCD, CSP and BDD are recognised neurological conditions - sufferers who have undergone brain scans show that the caudate nucleus in the brain misfires and functions differently to most 'normal' people.
Hair pulling is/can be very distressing for the sufferer. Before a sufferer pulls their hair their stress levels are likely to be very high, afterwards there is an immediate relief but stress soons rockets again, forcing the sufferer into the routine of pulling. Some sufferers are so distressed by it they actually go as far as to shave their heads to try and alleviate the distress. Trich can also spill over into pulling at hair on the body too.
I agree with you in that with conscious effort/distraction techniques and trying to retrain the brain through use of CBT or other methods - plus use of medication Trich can be to an extent overcome - it's down to the individual will/strength of the sufferer, ultimately.
But please - don't compare it to nose picking, to denegrate such a conditition as Trich could be perceived as very upsetting to sufferers...
regards,
Cavey
x
thanks again
I didn't mean to belittle the condition, so sorry if I gave that impression. Sometimes the use of labels for these things isn't helpful that's all.
its ok, i dont like it much either. i just want to stop it and get on with my life, i dont really think a medical professionals help is needed.
I agree that nose picking is a habit; I don't think that trich is so simply defined and categorised... and as I'm sure you noticed I take issue with them being likened as such.
Sometimes the use of labels is not helpful, you're right. But sometimes labelling a problem or likening it with an existing condition helps people to begin to deal with and conquer their issues.
:eek: My girlfriend does that to me! Any spot, skin flake, anywhere, she'll have it between her fingernails in a flash no matter what we're doing. At least now I can label her. Or something. Sigh.
Sorry to hijack the thread, but will constant skin picking cause scars?
yes unfortunetly