10 Realities of Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania or obsessive hair pulling, is a disorder that affects many people all over the world. This serious mental disease can start in children as young as 12 months old! Let’s look at some startling realities of the condition, and what these compulsive hair pullers have to go through on a daily basis. Keep an eye out – if someone you know if suffering from Trichotillomania, this list will help you to understand exactly how extreme the condition can be.
1) A Few Here, and a Few More Over…Here
Did you know that excessive plucking of your eyebrows is a form of Trichotillomania? Many people who suffer from this condition state that their condition began with a few simple eyebrow hairs. This spiraled out of control, and soon it led to eyelashes being pulled, head hair removal and pubic hair pulling.
Because tweezing and general hair upkeep is such an ingrained part of our daily lives, many people who experience the warning signs of this condition, don’t realize it until they are hooked. Once the habit forms, it is extremely difficult to break. That’s why it’s so important to stop before it becomes a huge part of your life.
2) Not Just a Phase
Because Trichotillomania tends to start in most people when they are in their adolescence, the symptoms and clear warning signs are often overlooked by the people around them. Children are prone to all sorts of behaviors as they grow up, but that doesn’t mean this condition should be treated as a nail biting phase that will go away.
Like most forms of mental disorder, Trichotillomania gets worse over time, resulting in a prematurely bald child with severe emotional problems. These problems stem from the humiliation of hair loss so young.
3) Controlling Your Impulses
Make no mistake Trichotillomania is an extreme compulsion disorder, peppered with a form of masochism that manifests from the person’s own unnatural behavior. Though people are aware that they have this mental disorder they can’t stop, and it becomes as damaging and dangerous as cutting.
There is little help for these people, as the condition is so rare that it hasn’t been studied as much as other mental disorders. With only 200 000 people in the US affected, they often suffer in silence, or spend years in isolation ashamed of their condition.
4) Escalating Into Trichotillophagia
While Trichotillomania is obsessive hair pulling, Trichotillophagia is obsessive hair eating, which develops from the original condition. A person suffering from this condition may start out with both pulling and eating, though usually the pulling escalates into eating over time.
When people eat their hair compulsively it can cause massive health problems. The most extreme is when a large mass of hair forms in the stomach that clumps and forces weight loss, abdominal pain and eventually – emergency room admission. The clump is known as a trichobezoar and it needs to be removed immediately in open surgery or the patient will eventually die.
5) A Female Problem?
In a recent case study, an overwhelming proportion of Trichotillomania sufferers were found to be female. No one really knows why, but the logical reason would be that girls tend to internalize their feelings more than boys, and are therefore more prone to seeking emotional comfort – no matter how damaging it may be.
6) The Secret Gene
As science advances and more people come forward with this disorder, naturally progress with happen. Recently scientists have discovered a gene that is said to be responsible for Trichotillomania. Like the ‘addiction gene’ this specific mutation can be manipulated – though we are years away from that kind of cure. In the meantime, these scientists are studying people who are affected by the disorder, studying their genes and coming up with biological solutions to the problem.
7) OCD or Not OCD?
There has been much debate over Trichotillomania, and the world wants to know whether it’s a form of OCD or not. Seeing as this is a ‘realities’ article here is the truth about the situation. Trichotillomania is an impulsive disorder. OCD is obsessive compulsive disorder.
What’s the difference? Not much. The two could even be said to be interchangeable. The same supportive treatment applies, as does the general diagnoses. If you’re a hair puller, you have a form of OCD – it’s not OCD, but its close enough.
8) A Cure For Pullers?
Trichotillomania is pretty rare, but because of the severe effects on the people who do suffer from the condition – there are treatments that you could try. Cognitive behavioral therapy is an option, as it hypnosis and certain types of medication. These medications work best to calm the patient and suppress irrational urges to pull their own hair out. The most successful treatment for this condition is still constant therapy combined with long term medication. Like most mental disorders it will be a long road to recovery.
9) Damaging Effects
Hair pulling and eating will result in noticeable bald spots, receding hairlines and skin problems, if the disorder is acute. This in turn leads to social exclusion – as the person affected becomes more and more ashamed of what they look like. Wigs help, but they don’t disguise the fact that their eyebrows and other body hair is damaged or gone. This extreme isolation, guilt and shame sometimes end in tragedy and suicide.
10) A Life Long Struggle
The harshest reality of all is that people with Trichotillomania rarely recover. Instead they choose to live with the disorder, doing their best to look normal to the outside world when they go out. Until there is a definitive cure, hair pullers will always struggle to stop this damaging habit. All they can do is work towards it, go to therapy and take calming medication for as long as possible.
About Dana Bashor
On her free time Dana Bashor loves to freelance on different topics and provide consumer alerts for sites like planet antares scam alerts. Catch up with Dana on her blog Dana Bashor blog where you will find whats going on in her life.
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I do alot of online reading and this article is the first ever to prompt me to respond. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that this article was full of generalizations that were vague at best, dangerously incorrect at worst.
From comparing cognitive behavioral therapy, which has an 80+ percent success rate in treating those with Trich to hypnosis, which has only anectodal support from a few to grossly understating that there are only 200,000 in the U.S. affected (that’s the approximate number affected in Indiana ALONE, try 7-12 million in the U.S., according to the latest research), this article is so full of error and insult to those with Trich that the best I can do for future readers (and the author, if she’ so inclined) is to refer them to a REPUTABLE resource for info…AND help with Trich. Trichotillomania Learning Center is the national organization that specializes in this disorder…they are connected to the doctors and researchers KNOW the latest about Trich because they are the ones involved in the research and treatment of those millions with it. Their website is http://www.trich.org.
No offense, Dana and nothing personal but I would worry about putting out such erroneous information about a medical condition. It could create legal liability for you.
Finally, who SAYS that all those of us with Trich are able to do is to do our “best to look normal to the outside world when we go out”??? Wow, this is a diagnosis of hopelessness if I ever heard one and the worst of your misinformed article. Many, MANY of us have full, healthy lives with Trich, some of us have been pull-free for YEARS with much hard work and support, and SOME of us have even realized that our beauty is more than our hair.
Tina,
Thank you for your response, i have this disorder and was appalled when I read it.
Just wanted to say that your article is not very well researched. 2-4% of the population has Trichotillomania.
Yea this article is bullshit. I don’t live in isolation. I have tons of friends. I’ve lived with trich almost my entire life but the older I get the more people accept and love me for it. They understand it doesn’t define me. This should be removed from the site.
It was dreary yes but in sOme cases true ( only for some people-not as a whole) Thankyou for your response as it offers hope to people like me…that aare very isolated :’(
Okay…I have read random articles on Trich for many years, as I have been searching for answers. I am in my mid 40′s and I’ve had a problem w/ pulling my eyelashes since I was a teen! And yes…my eyebrows, too. But not to the extent of my lashes. It is driving me nuts! I do not believe it is compulsive problem, nor do I believe it is a psychological problem, at least with me. When I feel the need to pull..whether it be my lashes or brows.. it is due to a feeling I get. This feeling can happen at any given time…the feeling is an itching and/or an actual feeling of my eyelash root aching and/or pressure. I cannot describe it any other way. I grab the lash(es) that I feel is causing the itchiness or ache/pressure and pull it out…until that feeling is no longer the problem. Sometimes it can be 2 lashes, and unfortunately, it can be 10 lashes leaving a huge gap. OMG!! Having gone through this for years and reading articles, I do not believe I have Trich or the quintessential symptoms. I am beyond baffled. Is it probable, that my problem is caused by makeup that isn’t removed nightly? By virtue of the makeup not being removed nightly and having the makeup sit on areas where I have pulled my lashes…it gets into the follicle and causes bacteria to build, becoming a vicious circle, because it is now a habit that I have formed? Ughh!! I just want my lashes to grow back. My eyebrows have been a bit easier to stop. Why??
P.S. I don’t live in isolation either. I hide it as best I can with eyeliner and eyebrow pencil. I have NEVER told anyone…..as I am very embarrassed. However, I am certain people (even family and friends) notice but are embarrassed to ask.
This was just ridiculous. I’m disgusted that it was one of the first options that came up upon a google search. Good news for the author, bad news for anyone that wants actual information. It is as though the author found *one* person and asked them personal questions. These broad generalizations (as others have pointed out) are dangerous and should be removed. I am angered by the lack of journalistic integrity in “researching” this issue.
I have TTM. I wasn’t offended at all by this. I think people are just overreacting. Yes, I know i have TTM. Yes I am aware I have a compulsive disorder. It happens. I am not in denial about that. I know that I got it after an event my junior year in high school, putting me in incredible amounts of stress.
Yes I was extremely embarrassed and ashamed. I know what I felt. I know I am still loved, but I was always ashamed.
Naturally, I am not a social person. Not because of TTM though. Im just not a ‘people person’. Though with TTM I was too embarrassed to see anyone unless I wore a hat. If I didnt have my hats, I WOULD be isolated! Simple as that!
I dont care how much you are accepted among your family and friends, you cant just act like everything is totally fine and you are perfectly happy living with TTM! My friends and family love me but I KNOW I would like myself more if I didnt pull out my hair! I seriously doubt someone really HONESTLY feels that they are just perfect, even though they pulled half of their hair out. Its embarrassing. Hair is an identity. And in this culture, appearance is everything. Im not going to say im offended because ‘i really am happy and bald and have friends’… Im not going to deny a compulsive disorder. I wont deny anything. I have TTM, Im ashamed, and I would be happier if it were gone. That easy. Dont take this article down just because people are butt hurt over it. Its the Internet. They should know better.
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