Trichotillomania Support Online

Excuses allow us to stay stuck

Familiar statements like "Every time I stop eyelash pulling I just end up relapsing and pulling more out" give you permission to carry on pulling. It is fine to make excuses for what happened in the past, but if you make excuses for what happens NEXT, you're giving up. A person with Trichotillomania is never going to overcome it, if they ever give up. One goal accomplished, another goal set makes for positive behavioral control.

Surfing for Leisure could make Worktime more Productive

New University of Melbourne research led by Dr Brent Coker, reveals that social surfing while at work can make you more productive. Workers who actively surf by "Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing" are 9% more productive than those who don't.

XaimzX sticks her neck out to get help for others

Our very own Amy has spoken out about her disorder in the press, despite her own distress, to help others receive help.

get rinsing

I have recently got my mullet-come-what-a-mess, hair cut and I have found that by using leave in conditioner I haven't been pulling with it. I don't like to touch my hair when it's wet and can't feel the coarse hairs because it's wet so it's having the desired affect! I haven't pulled in 5 days, not a world record but for me it's working. Whatever stops me from ruining my locks and looks is all good to me! Hope it will help someone else.

Confrontation = Meltdown

I understand what the person has said. Its been an afliction on me for the past 29 years and I am now 38. All through my life whether be a child student or now a professional. I could have had a real busy day or week but for some reason no matter what have always analysed how I performed. Then if I felt really stretched mentally and just about managed to cope with the problem at hand and know there is more to come, then privately would go into a meltdown situation and naturally the hairpulling would start. Your head feels over heated and you think you are going mental your head is about to expolode. At times cooling your head under a cold shower only works for a short period - short sharp shock treatment I guess. After a while you may find the pulling rate has dropped for a while. In the end this affliction would be automatic response, your left or right hand going for your hair. The pulling at first (when young) would cause you pain and you have to tug hard and you would feel it. Strangely it would offer some mental relief or calm (wierd this talking) but it did never the less. Then you realised what you had done. Looking at the hair with the white folicle for a time then putting it in your mouth on your toungue to feel it, either stripping it with your teeth, then hide the evidence by either dropping it on the floor or consuming it when someone approached. The worst part is over time a bald patch emmerges and you know that you have done this to yourself and you cannot hide it. This lovely phrase - a vicious cirlcle forms. From an early age you try and wear a baseball cap to conceal things but in the end just gave up with the idea and just live with it. Up to a certain point I have come to know and accept this is apart of me and one day will overcome this again. I have had two times full head of hair, but since the last major meltdown 8 years ago I fear that irrepairuable damage has been done and is not growing back as hoped (after all I am older). Oh well such is life. This is my first time here on this website. The only thing I'd like to say is you are not on your own, look at me and my sad story. I wish for you to be able to get the strength, stubborness or logic to be at peace with yourself to slow down and stop hairpulling. Life is runnnig fast, demands are placed on us and everything now is oh so important, but is it ? If you don't slow down once in a while you may just miss out on something rather good. I say this to you with this in mind. If I can help just one person with this little essay then it has not been a waste of my lifetime. As I fear when I have children they may ask "Why Daddy do you have no hair?" At this moment I don't know what to say normally it would be the truth but will probably tell a white lie and say "Just getting old", as I don't want them to know what I've gone through and may have profound influence on them. All the very best to you. J

Memory and Trichotillomania

Some people with Trichotillomania have very specific memory challenges. The area of the brain that is affected by Trichotillomania is quite close to the center for memory, and we have good evidence that stress hampers certain types of memory.

Lack of Treatment for US Patients with Disorders like Trichotillomania

New research from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, USA shows that only half of US primary care patients with an anxiety disorder receive any treatment for it. I would suggest the figures were much lower.

The Outcome of Treatments Available

I wanted to highlight a recent government report which supports the value of psychological therapy, while alerting us to the deeply depressing news on its availability.

Anxiety, depression, and other such disorders are now the greatest social problem in the UK, affecting unemployment considerably.

Lord Layard advised the government on financial issues as Professor Economic Performance of the London School of Economics, stating that anxiety and related disorders affects around 15%, of the population and if you have one of these often crippling conditions you are unlikely to get any specialist help at all. You can see your GP, but are only likely to be prescribed medication, which is unlikely to work.

Medication for disorders, depression or anxiety is more likely to prevent you from working than the anxiety or disorder itself, while internet intervention is more likely to help.

Gene Variation Could Explain Trichotillomania in Some Families

After researching 44 families in which one or more family members are trichsters, Duke University Hospital Scientists in Durham, North Carolina have discovered two mutations in a gene called SLITKR1.

My Secret, My Disorder

written by: Linda A. Miller copyright May,09,2006

*a short summary of my life long battle,pain and suffering,recovery and survival*