On a lighter note

Although people with trich go through hell because of it, it doesn't mean that our lives are permanently dark and unhappy.   We are quite normal people and when you read the BB or TTM mailer, you will find a huge amount of humour in there as well. Yes, we can actually laugh at ourselves too!   Here is a few things to proof it!

When I had my babies I wore a Bandana on my head. Pain was the only thing on my mind. The nurse with my second asked me if I shaved my head "like that" on purpose, I said no I pulled it out "like that" on Purpose. My husband and I just laughed and she left.( that comment may have been drug induced!)

My fear is going in for a ruptured appendix and the doctor telling me, "By the way dear, did you know you have a giant hairball in your stomach?" And then having to confess I was a cat in another life!

I tried pulling hair from my dog.  He bit me!  Now if I can only teach him to bite me when I pull MY hair!

When a teacher asked me what happened to my hair, in desperation I told her that my brother and I had a fight and he pulled out my hair.   My brother was then called to see the school psychologist!  That night he really beat me up because of that!

Here are some tips for preventing trich that I have figured from some discussions that have been taking place here:  (on the BB)

1. Don't get the chicken pox.

2. Don't be born under a water sign

3. Don't ever look in a mirror.

4. Ignore people who pluck their eyebrows

5. And don't ever look too closely at your own.

6. Don't watch people play with their hair.

7. Live a stress free life.

8. And, finally, under no circumstances, are you to ever touch your hair!!!

In my last post I referred to "public hair." I think you all know what I meant, and it's NOT public at all! :-)

We have to laugh at ourselves, don’t we?

My husband loves it too when I have done a thorough job "down there."  I'm trying to stop but maybe I'll do it again for his next birthday.

it was xxx who said EVERY HAIR ON MY HEAD DESERVES TO BE THERE... Cause it is so true. Why does the hair have to be pulled in the first place? Cause I feel compulsively that it should go? That is not fair to that one little hair minding its own business trying so hard to grow...

Since returning to the board last Friday, I can report I have only pulled one hair (late at night...who said the monsters are *under* the bed).

I'll try not to be in a better mood when I talk to you guys next.

whoops! that last post from me should have said "I'll try to be in a better mood next time I talk to you guys."

My biggest fear has always been that I would be in an accident and they would take my "do" down in the ER and discover my big old bald spot!! Forget the clean underwear in an accident cliche-I was worried about my hair!!

I'll hold your tweezers if you slap my hands when I pull ok? *grin*

My psychiatrist has had me on Prozac, Paxil, Anafranil, Lorazepam - even Lithium! (He thought that because I am generally a happy person with a wild sense of humor, that I might be manic- depressive. Has anyone else be diagnosed as manic-depressive?? He even cut down my Prozac to one per day because I'm "too happy". (I didn't know such a thing was possible!!) I have my next appointment with him in a few weeks. I'm thinking of standing on his desk and demanding my second Prozac be restored! "Thanks, Doc, I'm nice and depressed now."

Bury me in my headband please, cover all my huge spots, make sure the lights don't shine through to my shimmering scalp, draw on my brows (use Revlon Colorstay Eyebrow Color in Brunette please). I can't believe I'm laughing about this stuff.....

I'm 47445 seconds pull-free

By the way, when I bought the NX3 at the salon, the clerk said is this for your hubby? And I said, yup!

zoloft is a lovely drug, but made me so happy that i didn't care if i was bald!

Has anyone ever wished it were the other way around? That the urge to pull was normal, and that everyone else had the problem? I giggle sometimes thinking about a world mostly full of people with bald patches on their scalps (proud of them, too - people would envy the person with the biggest bald spot - people who were totally bald would be models and movie stars). There would be a community of people who came together, told their stories, and supported one another because they had absolutely no urge to pull. They would try to force themselves to pull, but it would be so hard for them. They would go to counselors, psychiatrists, take vitamins, medications...do everything they possibly could to TRY to pull. They would count the number of days they could force themselves to pull, and be proud to report "I pulled 10 hairs today!!"

Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, What did I do?????? I read your congrats list 3 times, (crying now), didn't see one Congrats Kath! Nada one. I had one hair fall out of my head accidently and you have dropped me from your list. (sobbing now). I told you I live for a mere mention on your list. Yea, yea, I saw the mention of my date on your next post. But it's not the same girlfriend. I need to see my success in the BIG LIGHTS. Yes that's right. I need you Amanda. Ok, enough of that ...... I say, always leave them laughing. But next time Chickie, I will be checking, lol.

I did get a compliment today from someone who commented on how long and thick my hair is getting. *hehe* (Talk about bizarre compliments ... someone with an inch of hair getting praise for having long hair!  What a topsy-turvy world I live in! :-)

I now wake up in the morning and count my blessings, not the hair on the floor!!

To my dear strong connection, Marge (who wrote me a pesky email telling me not to pull, grrrr): Oh, alright, fine, I won't pull. Anything to keep the peace. I hate pushy women. But you gotta say one thing for them. They get things done just because most people won't stand up to them. Well, I know when I'm licked. Fine!  (*mewahhh* (that's me blowing you a kiss ;-) ;-)

you had me rolling on the floor (which is embarassing at work).

I once had a very flirty coworker play with my hair, saying, "Hmmmm... you will break many men's hearts one day with this hair..." I thought, SURE, by giving them a coronary with my mutilated scalp!

People have tried to pull my headband off -- little did they know the sucker is sprayed in but good, they'd take half my hair with the headband

Told myself "NO!!"...I said "Shut up."

Ok...had a bit of a spree...but it's all good...:O) The way I look at it is I am giving myself more surface area to tan while I am in Florida for Spring Break!! :O) OK, maybe that is pushing it a lot, but just trying to be optimistic

We are studying sexually transmitted diseases in my Health and Wellness course and today we had a guest speaker come in and tell us all about them. I was yawning and doodling on my notebook until I heard her say "Trich is another sexually transmitted disease associated with risky behaviour." First my jaw dropped open and then I started laughing and couldn't stop. People started turning around in their chairs to see what the hell was so funny but I couldn't even talk. The guest speaker was glaring at me. I made her spell it out and yep, it was t-r-i-c-h but then she added some other letters like o-m-o-n-a or something. False alarm. :)

Well, I'm not editing this. I'm going to post it now and not reread it and not check to see how many people have posted during the time I wrote it. (They're awfully strict at internet addiction camp, though I suppose I shouldn't badmouth them, since I do get to post once a day. Actually Marge had to get special permission to be allowed to post during her first two weeks here. Usually you have to quit cold turkey, but the folks here know how much Marge is needed, so they bent the rules, but if she starts abusing her privileges, they'll clamp down on her, so everyone encourage her, 'kay. ;-)

let's ask our panel of eyelash judges for their verdict on xxx's accidental pull this morning:

judge number one: the lash that came out when heather took off her make-up does not count as an official pull. even if she had to tug it a bit to get the gunk off she were not using hr hands for the purposes of satisfying a trich urge, thus, it was not what i call an "illegal" pull.

judge number two: i concur with judge number one. based on all the evidence, including testimony submitted by mark which proved that even nontrichsters lose a few lashes from innocent rubbing, allergies, etc., heather's lost lash did not constitute a trich pull.

judge number three: that's absolutely right. heather had no affirmative "intent to pull" the lash in question, therefore, i'd rule it natural hair loss and not at all trich related.  

(what a relief! even with trich there is justice in the world. . .)

SO, anyone looking to be pull free for a bit, go get a real bad sun burn on your head.:O)

I've been thinking of all the places I've been that I've left hair behind. When I was 16 (July, 1969), I spent

2 weeks at a summer science school at the Florida Institute of Technology. The highlight of the trip was a behind-the-scenes tour of Cape Kennedy just 2 weeks before Apollo 11 was launched for the first moon landing. Guess what I did on the tour? Suppose any of that hair made it to the moon? Maybe it will launch a new discipline--astrotrichotillomania, the study of pulled hair left on extraterrestrial bodies.

When I was 18, I spent a month in Egypt. Guess what I did in Tut's Tomb? Suppose a researcher will discover the remnants of that hair 2,000 years hence and create the discipline trichoarchaeology--the study of ancient pulled hair? I visited the Dinosaur National Monument when I drove east. Guess what I did there? Perhaps a paleontologist will conclude from this that ancient reptiles did indeed have hair, but they pulled it all out. That would be trichopaleontology.

Oh, my. I envision a detective finding me out some day by the trail of hair I leave behind.

"Thats it! Our brains are so big even the roots of various head hairs takes up potential brain space and so we must make room!!!"

Oh my G.., I just realized that I'm a bulimic, codependent, manic-depressive, masochistic, obsessive compulsive, trichster!! Yes, I know, I even have to alphabetize my disorders.

Ah, Trich, so enigmatic and ever various. The pointy-headed men who write the DSM would be agog with wonder! 312.39:   Trichotillomania, 312.40: In-grown Hair Type, 312.41: Scab-picking Variant, 312.42: Zitotillomania, 312.44: Root Fascination Disorder, 312.45: Root-dystonic Syndrome, 312.46: Crinkly Hair Aversion Syndrome

In 1500 B.C. in Egypt a shaved head was considered the ultimate in feminine beauty. Egyptian women removed every hair from their heads with special gold tweezers and polished their scalps to a high sheen
with buffing cloths.
_______
So that's it. We're all Egytian women stuck in the 90's *hehe* Who
knows...maybe we're royalty..

For the last year I had an integration piece, and I was forever being told that I had the most gorgeous hair in the world and people would gasp when I asked if they were refering to the 50% that was mine, or the 50% that was formerly someone elses

My studly husband left for a few minutes with some friends and told me to be ready to go to dinner when he came back, so I walked into my closet and said "Hmmmm, which hat tonight?" It's much easier than having hair!

Wanted to tell you guys a funny, true story about how Trich SAVED MY LIFE a few years back. Well, maybe that's overstating it a bit, but indirectly anyway, Trich prevented a lot of pain. Here's what happened: I was at my son's baseball game, sitting on the top bleacher, with my usual tight, little bun on the back of my head (I stopped wearing my hair that way, however, when my friends all started to call me "Lilith"-- now I cover up the bald spot with a regular old ponytail [very chic--NOT...]). Anyway, all of a sudden a baseball came soaring through the air from a game at the adjacent field, and smacked me right on the back of the head--but it actually hit my bun and bounced off! It hurt like hell, but when I think about how badly it would have hurt without my cushiony little bun... well, my family thought it was hilarious, as did everyone sitting around us. Glad I could provide them with a good laugh. :)

Without fairly regular application of K, the nerves recover and come irritatingly back with their
constant reminders that there's a hair in that there follicle, yep, there's a hair there, hey, this hair--do something about it, ok, I said listen up already, there's a hair, you know you really must be
deaf, I said there's a hair there. . . . (On other hand, with dietary control <insert advertisement here>).
(written by John Kender)

Just a frivolous bit of nothing, but who else can I share it with? I about fell out of my chair laughing, John, when you said that Christina had heard of someone being "cured" after being struck by lightning, but that she didn't recommend it. However, after hitting the floor, what kept me there with my mouth wide open was the fact that I have always, always, in some little inner room in my head felt that if only I could get struck by lightning, or perhaps undergo electroshock therapy, it would "cure" the hairpulling. WEIRD! Or,
maybe I need shock therapy for other ills I haven't identified yet!  But come to think of it--I wonder if there have been any trichsters who have undergone shock therapy for other problems and ended up ttm-free. I'll volunteer as a guinea pig for that one John!

This is dedicated to all you wig-wearers out there:
One day, just before Christmas in 1996, I was on my way to Eckerd's to  buy a cheap artificial tree for my apartment. I looked down at the sale flyer on the seat next to me to double check the price (*please don't try this at home:)..) and when I looked up, the darndest thing happened...someone had planted a telephone pole in front of my car, and CRUNCH! I was of course dazed, but thankfully mostly unhurt. I sat there for a minute, and a guy raced up to my window. He told me he was an off-duty EMT and was I ok? I then proceeded to get out of my car to show the nice man I was ok. He obviously didn't believe me, because he kept looking at me with the queerest expression, and repeatedly asking me if I was sure
I was ok. Anyway, I got out of my car (to set the scene, I live in a small town....it was rush hour....I was on a 2 lane road, blocking traffic, so all traffic had to pass within inches of me). Ok, so after about 5 min.
of talking to the EMT about how I wrecked, I was ok, etc., I just happened to reach up and put my hand on my head. Omigod! No hair! I wish I had a video camera, because I automatically took a nosedive back into my car to search for my wandering hair! I must've scared the pants off the EMT, just disappearing (somewhat frantically) headfirst into my car! Erstwhile, I found my wig in the BACK seat and hastened to put it back on (crooked, as I found out later). At least I knew why he kept looking at me so strangely!:)
I still laugh about that one (I'll bet he does, too, along with all those people who passed by me as I stood talking, wigless, on that rush hour pre-Christmas day).
As a side note, I had a wreck back in March (don't ever ride with me...:)...) where I rear-ended someone......as soon as I gathered my wits, I automatically searched for my wig...it was in the floorboard this time! :)