Is trich a mental problem?
My personal opinion is no, no, no!! I feel quite serious about it. So much damage has been done through the years by so-called professionals who told me that it was because of stress. It put the ball in my court again, telling me indirectly that it is my fault and that I was a weak person for not being able to control this 'habit'. My belief is this:
Trich is a physical/chemical disorder firstly - it is caused by a hiccup in the brain/ chemical imbalance / neurological 'hiccup / a defective gene / a primitive grooming instinct or whatever you want to call it. I believe I was born with trich lying dormant in my body, and just waiting for the right day and the right trigger to start. I believe puberty / hormones plays an enormous role in the start date. Many emotional problems also occur during this time anyway. People differ, and different triggers were responsible for starting this. I don't believe for instance, that watching your mother pull, would have made you start. If you had trich lying dormant, yes. But if you didn't have trich, you may have watched her, tried it once and felt..... what's the fuss about.... and left it.
It has been proven over and over in my life. I can be extremely happy, and eat the wrong foods, then I will have an uncontrollable urge to pull my hair. Other times I have been under tremendous pressure and stress, but not having eaten wrong, I had no urges whatsoever. Every time this happened, it just served to strengthen my belief that Trich is a physical disorder, not an emotional one. Unfortunately trich doesn't have one clear-cut answer (yet). My triggers for pulling is eating 'bad' foods (a la JK diet), for others it seems to be potassium shortage, or an allergy to certain shampoo ingredients etc. Unfortunately we don't have all the answers yet.
Stress does cause one to want to pull more, but I believe that if you didn't have TTM, you wouldn't ever think of pulling your hair. Yes, it is emotional in the sense of the incredible damage that is caused to one's self esteem etc. But I don't believe that trich is caused by emotions/stress/depression. I believe stress/depression etc is the result of trich.
If more people will start believing this ,instead of what the so-called professionals say, less damage will be done and people will be able to take the terrible guilt feelings and put it where it belongs - at the feet of the trich monster, not at their own feet.
I hope you can make this your own - and really believe it. It is not your fault - it is trich's!
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Will my child inherit this from me?
My personal opinion is no. Since I've started talking to people about trich, I was amazed to find that at least 80% of people whom I told about my trich, know someone who does it as well! I believe that trich is a much,much more common affliction that has ever been reported. My personal opinion is that if your child does get trich, it is probably just because there is such a huge amount of people that has it. That is just my own opinion.
Here is a response or two from other trichsters
This has been asked by many people over the life of this board. Please know that there is no significant risk for children of pullers to be pullers. There are many many of us on the mailer and who have participated in the many studies and retreats who have children that have shown no inclination what so ever to pull. It worried all of us who were ever pregnant and who ever watched their babies grow, but please rest assured that it is very unlikely that your children will pull too.
I can relate very strongly to your fear of passing this on -- that's partly why I haven't had children yet. But when I posted something similar to this board many months ago, the overwhelming response that I got from moms was that the joy of having children far outweighs the TTM.
I know this issue was addressed by some of our experts at the Retreat and I seem to recall there is no real evidence to suggest trichotillomania is genetically passed on. I know a few adults with trichotillomania whose have had a child who began to pull. However, even in these instances, the rest of their children did not. The vast majority of pullers, I know, which is not a small number, had parents who did not pull and have children who do not pull. With certain rare exceptions, the genes you inherit from your mom and dad are the identical ones you pass on to your son and daughter. There is absolutely, positively, and uncategorically no evidence hairpulling damages genes, so Lizette, your pulling could not have any impact on your children through the genes you pass on. That's a certainty. The issue, which not infrequently arises among those with this disorder who are thinking about a family, comes down to more than whether or not an OCD or ttm gene exists. Neither my wife nor I were hairpullers. I am compulsive overeater, my daughter is not, but does have ttm even though she no longer pulls her hair. Is there a connection? I don't know. But what if there was? It comes down to whether or not the life we gave her has been rendered so valueless by her hairpulling that it would have been better had she never been born. I don't accept this proposition in the least and I pray *my daughter* never is given cause to either. If so, it is not Terri's genes that have failed her, but her father. It has long been know there is an inherited tendency for a woman to develop breast cancer. My mother-in-law had breast cancer before we were married as did my wife's maternal grandmother. So did her aunt on her mother's side. Was it responsible for these women to have children? Let me answer that question from the viewpoint of my wife who inherited that gene. Barbara loved the life she was given and never doubted the value she found in it was worth the risk her parents had passed on to her. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 25 and did not live to see her 28th. birthday. Knowing her life was limited only made her appreciate the life she had been given that much more and none of the surgeries, nor the chemotherapy and radiation protocols ever caused her to regret the life her mother had given her. All of our lives are at risk everyday. That's just life. The fact that our lives on this Earth are limited is what lends value to the time we have here and compels us to make to the best of it however long or short that may be. In the final weeks of her life, she used to console me with something that I will pass on to you, my friends. A person's life cannot be measured in years, but in the hearts in which the person is loved. By this measure, few, including myself, will ever outlive her. I know my daughter carries the gene her mother passed on to her. I have never for instant felt we made a mistake when she was conceived. My wife never did either. In fact, she felt the life she had given was worth her own which she knowingly sacrificed to carry our daughter to term in spite of the cancer that was sharing her body with our child. That is the ultimate testament of the value of the life she gave our daughter even knowing our daughter might face the same fate. Much as I would like to, I cannot change the hand my daughter has been genetically dealt. The only thing I can do as a parent is my best to see that she has the best life possible for her no matter what comes her way. For me, that is being a responsible parent. When I think of all the joy my wife and daughter brought to this world, t cannot imagine denying such lives before they began. To me, that is the true cost that would be too great to bear. I don't if this answers your question, but it was the answer I found in my own life. Take care and be well. Mike
I (Amanda) have to add that 2 people contacted me with information that does look like it may be hereditary. I don't know - not enough research has been done into it.
Jun 99 - I have to add now that I don't know the answer to this question anymore. I've had many people tell me now that their mother and grandmother and even child are pulling. There are a lot of trichsters whose stories does suggest that it can be hereditary. But there are just as many (actually much more) people who don't know know anybody else who had pulled. so my answer is: maybe....
Sorry!
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How does an ‘urge’ feel - or/ why don’t you just stop?
It is is like when a fly walks over your face - is is possible for you to leave it their and not wave it away? It takes the same amount of effort not to pull when everything in you urges you to do so.
Also, and explanation I once saw, on explaining the ‘chemical/physical’ part of trich. It’s like being quite normal otherwise, but then suddenly you get an irritation (like in hay fever), and the physical irritation causes you to sneeze. Can you ‘just stop’ yourself from not sneezing?
To me, and urge is a very physical thing. Without urges, I still have the need to pull out my hair. I will always have it, because I have TTM. But I can control it. It's like when you have a need to eat chocolates, sweets etc. I always want it. But you know I cannot eat it uncontrollably (you'll get extremely fat!), so you say no - even though you would still like to eat some more of it. BUT when I get an urge, NOTHING will keep me away from those sweets! When I get an urge, it is almost physically impossible not to pull. It really takes ALL my energy NOT to pull.
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How long before my hair grows back?
I can just speak for myself, but after 18 years of constant pulling, my hair grew back fully - full and very thick - as before. There is hope! Unfortunately, I really cannot remember how long it took. My hair (if I left it alone), always grew very fast. (Amanda)
Many people report that when they stop pulling, the hair come back grey, and where it used to be straight, it now is curly and coarse.
(Comments now by Mike Grant)
<< I recently shaved my head bald, probably a month and a half ago. The hair is coming in the same as when I have done it before, heavy in the same spots, thin as h-e-double toothpicks in the places where I pull the most. >>
I have been told this is quite normal. I used to think that the recovery time from a pull was just the amount of time it takes for the hair to reach the surface of the skin again, i.e., about a month. From my daughter's experience, who also shaved her head by the way, it takes months sometimes for the hair to start growing at all in some areas. Even then, the hair grows at a much slower rate than the rest of the hair. Terri's hair looks alright now, more than two years since she pulled on a regular basis and over a year since she has pulled *any*, yet even with this amount of time, her hair grows much slower in the more badly effected areas. Her hair will look full so long as all the hair is carefully cut to the same length. In just a week or two, the unaffected hair will grow out leaving enough of the effected hair behind that it starts to look thin and patchy again. She found it was best to gradually grow her hair out, keeping the normal hair trimmed back to the same length as the effected hair, gradually letting the overall length get longer at the rate the effected hair would grow. Paradoxically, her hair looks the thinnest when it isn't cut because of the unevenness.
Another response
You start out with a traumatized bald spot, which is smooth and shiny and hairless, the follicles are damaged and need to re heal themselves to grow back, this takes about 3 months, sometimes 6, but usually 3, then fine downy hair appears and grows, and then at 4 months you have half an inch of hair.. at five, an inch, at six, an inch and a half.. normal growing rate is usually resumed, though the ends of the hair are going to be baby fine and tapered off looking, and your hair may be wavy or kinky If this bothers you, trimming the ends of the hair, getting a spot perm to straighten kinky or unwelcomly wavy hair will correct your desire to want to pull it again.The reason pulled hair GROWS BACK KINKY OR CURLY is because the follicles have been damaged, the shape of the follicle has been changed.. straight hair grows from round follicles , wavy hair fromoval follicles, and curly hair from flat follicles.
I think all of your hair will eventually regrow fully. Everyone's hair regrows at a different rate. You say you have hair in places where you used to pull long ago, but not more recent sites, so that indicates your hair will return. While you had been an active puller those old sites probably also took a long time to grow in, but you probably never noticed that. I know I never knew how long it took my hair to regrow. Also, when I think of regrowth I think of babies: some are born with a full head of hair, some not. Some lose the hair within a few months of birth, others begin growing it only after a they are amonths old (oops, young :D), for others the texture changes, becomes thinner or thicker......But, whatever hair phases babies experience, they all face the same result before they can even walk: they do have a full head of hair. Maybe your hair is in one of those phases; maybe all recovering TTMers go through aphase that mirrors exactly their babyhood hair's phases. I know you'll get a full head of hair, someday.
Another theory why I think everyone's hair is capable of growing back: Hair loss (excluding the typed caused by TTM) is usually caused by more dramatic things: harsh chemicals, radiation (nuclear & chemo), medications, foods, genetics. In all, but one (genetics) of these cases, hair does regrow after these elements are taken away, maybe not right away, but it does happen. So your hair will regrow:-)
Take one day, one hour, one minute, one second (whatever it takes) at a time to enjoy the distance you've already gone and to keep you away from your hair, in case such a stressful moment should arise.
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Doesn't it hurt to pull your hair?
Most of us find that our heads itch, and we don't feel pain when pulling. Most people that I have told about my TTM, asked me: But doesn't it hurt? No, for me it doesn't. I feel it, but it doesn't hurt. The only place it hurts (on my head) is near my facial and neck area - so I never pulled there. I think they call it something like Friar Tuck syndrome or something - where the whole head area is basically bare, except for the thin layer around the head. Another place that hurts me, is my forearms. But I can't see myself pulling there either - no 'challenge' - the hair are fine and soft and light. I guess that is how non-trichsters feel - why on earth would I want to pull my hair? Like I say: Why on earth would I want to pull my arm hair? So the answer is no, it doesn't seem to hurt us like it would hurt non-trichsters.
Another opinion
What it means is this: pullers are perfectly normal when it comes to pain. Pullers detect pain at the usual level, and they find pain intolerable at the usual level. Or in other words, it is not the case that pullers ignore things that other people would find painful, and it is not the case that pullers tolerate things that other people would find unbearable. Pullers feel pain; pullers are not somehow strangely numb people. What the abstract then implies is that when pullers say that hair pulling does not hurt, they are being truthful, especially because they really do know what "hurt" means. What this further implies is that there is something else going on with the hair/root/skin that makes the pulling of certain hairs genuinely and objectively painless. (I have my own ideas about what that is, which I won't repeat here.) Yet another way to look at this is: if pullers were somehow specially numb people, they could be expected to do other things that would cause "ordinary" people pain--for example, chewing up their own tongues by mistake, or regularly puncturing their eardrums while Q-tipping their ears. But pullers don't do that; it's just about hairs, and only certain hairs at that. Lastly, Way2Thin suggests (misinterpreting the idea of a control group) that the study might mean that other people can pull their hair, not feel pain, but not get sucked into trich. This is not what the study says, however. It says that other people do hurt when they pull their hair (and, presumably, don't go on to have trich). The article didn't appear to explore the related fact that even pullers do hurt when they pull hairs away from their special places. In short, the study says: pullers and non-pullers are normal with respect to pain. What distinguishes them, however, is that for pullers, certain hairs don't cause pain when they are pulled. It's the hair, not the puller, that's different. John
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All you want to know about shaving
Someone asks about the risk of shaving your own head and observes that she has never had any problems using clippers. This was in response to my post concerning problems experienced by xxxxx which were very similar to what my daughter experience having once taken her leg razor to her head. Yes, indeed I was referring the use of a disposable or so-called safety razor. The confusion comes down to one of semantics. Clipping the hair, however short, with clippers should not present a problem. Shaving, as with a blade can depending on how it done and with what. However, even using a clipper, I have concerns based on the merit I find in John's yeast theory. Clipping doesn't present a problem, but the repeated use of the same clipper, which is almost a certainty, may. Clipper blades have numerous tiny nooks and crevices for skin grease, shed skin cells, cut hairs, and whatever to accumulate. That is my concern. Hardly anybody effectively cleans and sanitises their clippers at home, and by my observation, neither do many professionals despite the requirements of state laws. The Oster company manufactures two products, a clipper blade cleaner and a clipper blade disinfectant. As evidence skin grease accumulates on the blades, the purpose of the cleaner is, according to Oster, is to remove this grease which discomposes into acids that attack the fine steel cutting edges. This decomposition is likely to be the result of some kind of bacterial action since it occurs at room temperature, that is, the accumulated skin grease goes rancid over time. The disinfectant is effective on fungus, amount many other pathogens. As an experiment, I sent our friend Noelani, who uses clippers, the two Oster products. As I suspected, the blade wash brought out a considerable amount of accumulated "gunk" which was hidden. In fact, I am using the blade wash to collect this gunk for analysis, which is another topic. As for shaving the head with a disposable or other safety razor, it comes down to a matter of odds. The hair on the head is much thicker with deeper follicles than anywhere else on the body. The head is also a curved bony irregular surface. What happens when the head is shaved with a safety razor which is flat and rides a fixed distance over the surface of the skin, is it chops everything in its path including the mouths of the follicles along with the hair. Because is chops, like an axe, instead of slices like a knife, the hair gets pulled slightly out of the follicle before being cut. The clopped hair end is left jagged like a tree stump that has been cut with a axe. After the blade cuts through the hair, the hair snaps back into the follicle slightly below the surface of the skin. With it's jagged end beneath the skin and the mouth of the follicle constricted due to inflammation from being cut, there is a possibility the hair will get hung up before it re-immerges. Again, this is only a possibility, which becomes a matter of probability times the number of hairs that are cut in this manner. The greater the number of hairs that cut and the more often, the greater the chance some will ingrown. So does the natural shape of the follicle. If one has naturally curly hair, the follicle is curved to begin with, which increases the likelihood a problem may occur. As an example, the problems black men have with shaving with a blade have long been known and documented in the medical literature. The concern with trichotillomania is that over time, ordinary follicles become distortedand there is a similar higher risk the hair may grow in. As I said, it is a matter of odds. Some may get away shaving their head once in this manner without a problem, especially if the hair has been thinned by pulling and only shave once or infrequently. Since the skin is left with literally thousands of tiny cuts which are portals for infection, the chances of infection are raised particularly if a new sterilised blade isn't used. For this reason, shaving which was once a mainstay of established surgical practice, has fallen into considerable disfavour for quite a number of years. Studies done by the Centre for Disease Control led to the AORN guidelines concerning hair removal for surgical procedures which greatly disfavours shaving with a blade. Contrary to established medical wisdom for decades, the CDC study showed clearly that instead of reducing the likelihood of infection as had been thought, shaving actually *increased* the risk by about 10 fold over not shaving at all. This was known when my wife was in nursing school, yet shaving remained the established practice up until the last several years, which says something about medical orthodoxy. When it is necessary to shave the head for medical reasons, a safety razor is not recommended, something that is borne out in neurosurgical texts on the subject. If shaving is done at all, except with a close cutting clipper, it is done with a straight razor by skilled personnel. A straight razor slices the hair off at a bias rather than chopping it straight on. This leaves the hair with more of a smooth tapered end and avoids pulling the hair so it does not get cut below the surface of the skin. The control this type of razor affords allows it to follow the curved surface of the head and scalp without nicking or injuring the mouths of the follicles. Prior to using the razor, care is used to soften the hair with warm water and a soap high in pH which increases the porosity of the hair causing it to soften as it absorbs the water. The soften hair is more easily sliced off and left with a clean smooth tapered end. This greatly reduces the chance for the head to ingrow . As I said, this is more than most ever wanted to know about shaving the head. Because we were spending a lot of money at the barber, I was highly motivated to find out if it was justified and did considerable research. From what I found out, it was. Just thought I would my finding for those who might be interested.Contrary to some misconceptions, shaving does not alter hair growth. It's like an ordinary haircut only very short. So if your hair was growing at the average rate of a half inch a month, you will have 1/60 of an inch of hair the next day, one 1/30 the day after, about 1/8 inch in a well, an so on. If your hair normally grows at an inch a month like my daughter's and not mine, you can double these numbers. The advantage to shaving when it comes to trich is it protects the hair and gives individual hairs that have been pulled a chance to start growing again. It can take at three months or longer for a hair to start growing again after it has been pulled. If that hair that has just recovered is pulled again, then it will be dormant even longer. Even then, a pulled hair grows considered slower even after it starts growing for a year or longer. So to illustrate the point, one person shaves instead of pulling while another pulls. The immediate result is the same, that is no hair, but the difference becomes apparent in a short period of time. If both people had a growth rate of an inch a month, the person who shaves has a fully head of hair three inches long in three months growing at an inch a month while the other still may have no or very patchy hair that is barely growing. When Terri knew she couldn't hold off pulling or just wanted a "time out" from the struggle, she would want her head shaved rather pulling. By observation, I believe the advantage Terri found in shaving was it allowed her a chance to pick her battles when she was felt she was ready. For Terri, her urge to pull is not omnipresent but rather transitory. The problem for her was worried anticipation of the urge and guilt afterwards would deplete her emotionally. It seem the guilt of a pull would run into dreadful anticipation of the next so that she would be drained to resist the urge when it did come. Shaving broke this vicious cycle and gave her a sense of security. Without hair, there was no need to worry about a pull happening nor a pull to feel guilty about. Terri felt good knowing her hair was safe. When she felt ready, the hair was there for her whenever she shopped shaving. The other thing it did for Terri is give her the sense of control she so badly wanted. Shaving was *her* decision, something she chose to do and not something she couldn't help, like the pulling. It made her feel empowered and in control of herself which is very important to her. The other stress it took off her was the need to hide. We called it "keeping up the shields". When she was pulling, she gave swimming which she loved because she was afraid her cap would come off or the other kids would see in the dressing room. After she shaved, she stopped feeling the need to hide. Shaving was a certain means that no one would find out she pulled. Patches required explanations, whereas shaving needed no explanation she chose to do it which earned her a ot of respect from her peers. Noelani mentioned to me at the retreat that shaving her head made her feel "cocky" which was the word I was looking for to best describe the change in Terri's attitude. My daughter calls shaving her "time-out from trich". Admittedly when she was shaving her head, she seemed to have trouble and it was as if she never was a puller. She just didn't have any hair. Terri equates shaving to what she calls denying an undefendable asset to the enemy. Terri feels trich is an enemy to conquered and she's not taking prisoners. I don't know that her scorched earth method is right for everyone, however, I would have to say it appeared right for her. That doesn't mean I didn't cry. Sometimes I wish my daughter didn't have to be so brave and courageous. Like so many other things with this disorder, I believe there are answers. However I believe the answers are unique to the individual.
As a "recovering" head shearer (see my pix at
http://www.math.okstate.edu/~stephan/trichster.html ),
I think it is great that the shaving worked even for awhile and I don't
want you to give up on it quite yet.
Yes, keep trying those new things. Also, consider shearing your head
again ... and maybe again. And then maybe not after that. Keep your
options open!
Here's my experience. I never actually shaved my head. I merely
sheared it to very short lengths (1/8 to 1/4 inch if the urges were very
strong).
When I kept it at less that 1/2 inch I didn't pull it (as long as I had
no tweezers in the house). When I let it grow past 1/2 inch I pulled it
more, so I sheared it again.
People got used to the look and frankly it was a sharper style than my
longer hair had ever been. I'm going to miss that trich buzz (and esp.
the bleaching I did when I let it go too long before shearing and got
thin spots).
In the spring I felt strong enough to let it grow. I did and I pulled
it a little. I decided to push really hard to attain a pull-free status
so I wouldn't have to shave it again. After about two weeks I finally
got there. Then since I knew that I would have the summer to myself,
when my semester started to get a bit stressful I went ahead and sheared
my hair again. Since that last buzzing I haven't cut it again and I
haven't pulled it again (though my brows are still presenting me with a
challenge ... so I am clipping them to very short lengths in hopes of
attaining a similar success).
So the "moral" of my story is that
(a) wasn't it great to feel free from the urges when your hair was very
short? wouldn't it be a great vacation from the pressure to feel that
for a while longer?
(b) when the hair gets back to lengths where you can really feel the
separate hairs again, the urges to pull do come back (as you noticed)
but I think it is probably easier to practice the behavior mod
techniques on short hair. (And behavior mod _does_ work for many of us,
including many of us who have found our urges reduced but not eliminated
through medical or nutritional intervention.) Then if you feel ready to
push on for the whole shebang, go for it. Or if you don't feel ready,
go back down to a shorter length. You'll know you still have trich but
others won't. They'll just think you have an interesting fashion sense
... and if you're like me, you'll get a lot of positive feedback on the
style even from people who were shocked at first.
So, that's my input. Take it for what it's worth. My most important
message is to keep your options open and really believe that stopping
pulling will eventually be possible.
Steph
(who went from being a daily puller to only about 30 days total last
year where I pulled at all, and I've not pulled more than a dozen hairs
in the last two months)
As a parent of a "head shearer", I would like to amplify on what Steph has so
capably pointed out about those who chose to shave or clip their hair to
control their pulling.
1. The motivation to take this route must come from within and the decision
must be solely that of the individual. This is why I never advocate this
approach to other parents, even though I consider it to have been a
significant part of my own daughter's recovery. Despite the medical
indications and other circumstances, my daughter did not want her hair cut.
Christina advised me to let it be my daughter's decision and she herself would
ask to have her cut when she knew within herself the time was right. I was
skeptical, but Christina, true to form, turn out to be right on target. I
believe that because it was my daughter's decision and no one else's was as
much a part of my daughter's recovery as cutting her hair, if not more so. So
unless a parent mentions to me their child has asked to have their hair cut, I
don't advocate haircutting and consel against such an approach even if the
child would exceed to their parents wishes. As Christina told me a number of
years ago, a trichster's head has to be in right place to shave it. She was
right and that is something only the puller knows.
2. Shaving or cutting the hair is not a cure, although at first it may seem
that way. For my daughter, the urge almost completely went away. Adult
trichsters have had similar experiences. The degree varies with the
individual. Cutting the hair may remove the key behavioral cues that leads to
a pull. How significant these factors are may provide insight into how
effective cutting the hair may be in reducing the urge.
3. Shaving or cutting the hair provides a respite, or as my daughter calls
it, a time out from trich. Because the potential for pulling is temporarily
eliminated, cutting the hair weakens any habitual response which cannot
reinforce itself. This may be important for those whose pulling in habit-like
in nature. It can also allow the individual time to emotionally recover and
gather strength for the future struggle. My daughter had gotten into a
viscous cycle of dreaded anticipation of a pull even before an urge came,
pulling, and then beating herself up inside over having pulled. This would
lead into the worried anticipation of the next pull. The result of this cycle
was my daughter would be so emotionally depleated by the time the urge came,
she did not have the necessary strength left to resist it. Cutting her hair
gave her the control she wanted over her pulling and a sense of security. She
didn't have to worry about pulling because she knew it couldn't happen and
there was no pull to feel remorse about. This control and security essential
allowed her to deal with her pulling on her terms which I believe was the
cornerstone to her recovery. She could, as she likes to put, pick her battles
knowing she had the ability to "nuke" her pulling before it got started again.
My daughter had to shave her head again after several attempts to regrow her
hair. The last time, which was almost two and half years ago, happened to
have been the last. The security of having the option which she knows will
control the pulling has given her the strength to dedicate her emotional
resources to controlling her pulling by other means. To date, that has proven
very successful.
4. The respite provided by shaving or cutting the hair affords an opportunity
not only to emotionally recover, but to gain new skills to apply when the hair
regrows. When the hair starts to regrow after a period of being closely
cropped, the habituation is at its weakest point allowing an opportunity to
practice the new skills when they will be most effective. Again, the
trichster can chose his or her own battles. If the first regrowth attempt
doesn't succeed, another haircut prevents the pulling from re-establishing
itself and the time to gather more resources and skills for the next attempt.
5. Shaving or cutting the hair when it cannot be otherwise spared from
pulling has two distinct advantages. Behaviorally, it keeps the pulling from
re-enforcing itself. Practically, it allows the hair to keep growing rather
than traumatizing it into a resting period that could last many months before
the hair starts growing again and even longer before it completely recovers to
grow at a normal rate.
6. There is absolutely nothing wrong with shaving or cutting one's hair
short, not even for a women, particularly nowadays. It may be one of the most
thoughtful things a puller can do for themselves. It's change for most, women
especially, but not necessarily a bad one. Although some of us thrive on
change, many don't. Just last week, a woman I worked with mentioned wanting
to go blonde and I felt my resistance to change not even considering what she
might look like as a blonde. My wife bleached her hair once and I hated it
simply because it was different. I cried when my daughter had her head
shaved, even though I thought she was very pretty without hair. I got used to
it and came to like her avante garde hairstyle. As far as female
attractiveness, I can only point out women such as Demi Moore, Sigourney
Weaver, Sinead O'Conner, and number of other women few would find
unattractive. Closer to home, I thought my daughter was beautiful without
hair, and to those of you who cry bias, our own Noelani is another stunning
example who doesn't happen to be my one and only.
I am not suggesting every trichster shave their head. I am simply advocating
everyone who pulls should do what they know to be right for themselves. I am
also not discounting the courage or commitment shaving one's head requires.
Indeed, it saddens me to hear of someone who has made that decision having
gone through it alone or without support. Acts of courage and commitment need
acknowledge and support from us all.
Just my thoughts.
Mike
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Cognitive Behaviour Modification
Cognitive therapy usually involves identifying the thoughts you have that make pulling more likely, and working on replacing those thoughts with new thought patterns. For example, one type of thought pattern that often leads to pulling is anxiety-producing thoughts, such as "I'll never figure this out," "I'm going to fail this test," "I'm going to get a bad performance review" and so on. The kind of thoughts that combat this could be, "This may take a while, but I will figure it out" and so on. Another group of thoughts are those that give permission to pull, such as "Just one", "I'll feel better after I pull", "I already pulled today." "That white/kinky/stubby/etc. hair has got to go" These can be combatted with (for example) "It's NEVER 'just one'. I need to keep from pulling even one." "I WON'T feel better after I pull, I'll be upset at the damage I've caused""Even if I've already pulled today, that doesn't make it OK to pull any more. I can always start the day over." "It's better to have a white/kinky/stubby hair there, than to have abald spot." OR "Every hair has a right to be in my head." OR "Every hair is SUPPOSED to be in my head." I have found those last two to be VERY effective. I have actually stopped pulls at the last minute, meaning the hair was in my hand and I was about to yank, by reminding myself that the hair is supposed to be there and has a right to be there. Not all the time, but the batting average is improving! Your mileage may vary; you need to find the ones you can relate to. It also can take some time, because you are more used to the old ways of thinking and find them more "persuasive" than the new ways of thinking. Think of it as trying to convince a friend of something. The first time you give your argument, they may not be persuaded, but over a period of time after they hear it many times, they will start to see the validity of your argument. In this case, the friend is yourself! A few years ago, I kept myself from pulling while completing something under deadline, for the first time EVER, by identifying my anxiety- producing thoughts and combatting them. I walked on air that entire weekend. It was the first time I KNEW, really knew, this thing could be controlled and I could do it. Another term that is used is "cognitive behavior therapy." I believe this is a combination of aspects of cognitive therapy like I've described, and behavior therapy such as habit reversal. Good luck! Sue
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Basically anywhere where there is hair. But
here is a list...
Crown or top of head
Sides of head
Back of Head
Eyebrows
Eyelashes
Nasal hairs
Chin, neck, or beard
Arms or hands
Armpits
Chest, breasts, or nipples
Pubic areas
Anal areas
Legs or feet
Other areas of your body (fingers, wrists etc)
Areas of another person's body
Areas of a pet's body
Wigs
Soft toys
Nipples
From birthmarks
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It seems like trich doens't care ...........
Trich doens't care about age, gender, race, religion etc. It is thought that trich affects the same amount of males than females. The only difference is that men can 'get away with it' more easier than woman. Men's hairloss can be ascribed to normal male baldness, and if males pull their beard hair, nobody really knows, because they can shave it anyway. It is also thought that the difference in reported cases with men come from the fact that men are even more reluctant than woman to disclose this disorder and to see help. Also, woman would generally reach out more and probably talks about it easier (which is relative), than men. Woman are more inclined to talk about their problems, therefor probably the success of places like the Fairlight BB. Men don't normally open up as easily. But that doesn't mean that trich doens't affect men just as badly as woman.
As far as race is concerned, from informal surveys done on the TTM mailer, it seems like their is no difference whether you are white, black, Japanese, Australian, or whatever. Trich is no respecter of race.
As far as age goes, trich mostly starts between 8 and 13 (puberty/). Reports of trich in babies as young as 18 months has been reported, as well al people whose trich only started at 50+. Many trichsters also start only after 20. Again, no rules!
It doesn't look so far as if colour of hair, eyes, skin etc. plays a role either.
Hope this helps.
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Any body hair may be targeted and most patients pull from multiple sites. A study of pullers showed the frequency of the various sites: scalp 75%, eyelashes 53%, eyebrows 42%, pubic area 17%, arm 10%, beard/face 10%, moustache 7%, leg 7%, chest 3%, and abdomen 2%. Pulling can develop at any age, though typical onset is childhood or adolescence. Mean age of onset is 13. Oral manipulation of pulled hair is reported in 48% of pullers. This may involved rubbing hair along the mouth, chewing the end of the hair, and complete ingestion of the hair. Eating the hair, reported in some degree by 10% of pullers, can on rare occasions lead to the formation of a hair mass in the stomach (trichobezoars). The mortality rate for untreated trichobezoars is approximately 70% (DeBakey and Ochsner, 1938); 22% of patients with trichobezoars are asymptomatic (Bhatia et. al., 1991). Large clinical studies indicate that pullers are 70-90% female. But a recent survey of college freshmen suggests the lifetime prevalence of TTM as defined in DSM-III may be equal for both sexes. [Note from Sue: the version of the DSM referenced from from Amanda's site and other links is the more recent version, DSM-IV. This article was written back in the DSM-III days. The article states that revisions being considered for DSM-IV would not substantially alter the criteria.] On that subject, the article has a point that recently came up on this board: "Under the current schema TTM should not be diagnosed if hair pulling is due to an inflammatory skin condition, although we are not in complete agreement with this distinction; the first few individuals with TM described by the French dermatologist Hallopeau (who named the disorder) pulled hair in response to an intense itch; presumably the same reason someone with an inflammatory skin condition would pull out hair (Hallopeau, 1894.) As Hallopeau pointed out, responding to pruritus by pulling out hair should be considered addtional pathology." There's more but those are the main stats. Hope y'all found this interesting. Sue