My life with thrich

Hey I just came online to read about this enormous burden on my life known as trichotillomania that I have and read your post.

I am 26 years old and have a pretty similar situation to yours in some ways.

I am so angry at myself for letting it get this bad. I am more angry that I can't just stopppp!

I remember starting to pull my hair out around 9 or 10 years old. My mom went away to rehab and I went to my aunt and uncles to live for a few months. I didn't want to ever go back home. But that was when I first remember doing It. I didn't know why. It just kind of happened.

Fast forward and this now rules my life. I have gone through periods of pulling and stopping at various degrees over and over.

The amount of hair loss that I have now is the worst I have ever had. It is nearing impossible to be able to hide this for much longer.

It is ruining my life.

Hi all, I am new to this site and happened upon your posts. I am sorry you have been having to deal with Trich. I am writing because my daughter now 7yrs old has pulled all her eyelashes out repeatedly because they were in her eye's and bugging her which started at 6yrs old. Now she is 7 and moved onto her eyebrows which are gone now as well and I am hoping she doesn't move onto her hair... She seems to do it when she is watching tv, stressed or angry and has asked me for help... I researched it and found Trich and her doctor confirmed today that it is Trich. I am trying to find as much out about it that I can to understand it and work with her on it in a positive way. I had bought her some stress balls to keep her hands busy in hopes it might sway her hands from her face/head.

I guess I'd like to know since you both started at young ages as well if there was anything your family could have done to help support you, or aid you in stopping when you were younger? We are not making a big deal of it it with her so that she doesn't feel ashamed, and we bought eyebrow makeup since she is self conscious about going out in public or seeing family with no eyebrows. I can see this becoming a HUGE issue in her teen years, affecting her life and worry and want to help her anyway I can, especially since she has asked me to help her. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and hugs to you all suffering with this disorder!

Hello, my parents weren't as supportive of my disorder when I was younger. The fact that you are willing to help makes a huge difference. There are therapist that you can take her to, to help her understand what's going on. I completely understand your fear of it causing problems in her teen years, as it did for me. Just keep your faith. It's a hard disorder to cope with, and support from family is very important.

Hello All, I have just joined this site, I am so very sorry to see that there are so very many people suffering from this disorder as I have all of my life, for as long as I can remember, but at the same time, it is encouraging to maybe meet new friends who can lend support, who know where I am 'coming from' and who hopefully I can help somehow too and be a listening ear, or encouraging word. However, tonight at this stage in my life, I am sorry to say that I am probably not very encouraging. I hope with time I can be better so that I can be, and help someone else down the road. I am 52 years old, have been married to the same wonderful man for 33 years. We have 2 awesome adult children who attend college on and off, work, and help their now permanently disabled mother. My first memory of pulling out my hair was in the fourth grade. I remember just sitting there and yanking my hair out like some kind of idiot, and throwing all of that hair on to the floor. I was so embarrassed and couldn't wait to get out of that classroom when the bell rang after that class ended, especially when i could look behind and see that stupid pile of hair beside my desk! I recall coming home and my mother seeing this big bald patch in the center of my head, bigger than a quarter. She took me to our regular pediatrician who prescribed some kind of cream. We had to pull my hair up and over in that top notch for a year. Yeah, that was about the end of my treatment for that. As we all know nowadays, if our children or grandchildren did that now, we would definitely be consulting with some kind of mental health professional! I am sure this was just due to my parents denial. I recall sometime not to far off from this event, sitting at the table 'pouting' (and that was definitely forbidden at my home, because again that meant the parents werent doing some thing correct I guess and they couldnt deal with that guilt.....more denial) and my then alcoholic, later pain pill addict, father (God Rests His Soul now he has passed on, and we did do alot of mending of our relationship prior to his death, thank goodness), stated "What in the H--- does an 8 yr old have to be depressed about? So I suppose this is where some of this trich behavior originated. I used to chew on the inside of my cheek, that just stopped for some reason one day. Now I have witnessed my niece and my daughter do the same. Our son has a tic disorder, so I wouldn't be surprised if these things are most likely run in families and inherited or learned behavior?? Anyway, sorry to run on so, my concern now, is how could I do this so many years ago, and now just all of a sudden since maybe 2009, after a fairly blessed life of being able to follow my military husband around this wonderful world of ours, meeting so many beautiful people, living in so many wonderful places, Texas, California, Germany, Hawaii, why do I just all of a sudden start doing this extremely annoying behavior again!!!! My family is WONDERFUL, and try to be supportive. But they do sometimes slap my hand away when they catch me subconsciously pulling my hair out, that only makes me angry, anybody else experience that!? I used to hide in our bathroom and pull out all the gray hairs or 'wrong' hairs that I didn't like or feel were out of place or whatever. I have become more aware of that, and have fought that urge vehemently and refuse to even pick up that pair of tweezers anymore, I have done very well on that aspect, and regularly keep up with coloring my hair and keeping the gray at bay, per se.. : ) My biggest challenge now, is I just catch myself watching tv or reading etc, and it seems like I just go into this "zone" , Im not even aware I am doing it some times. I am so ready to have a nice, beautiful thick head of hair again! All my life I have had waist length, very thick blessed to have pretty brunette hair, now I still have the length but on the right side I am dealing with this nasty bald patch. I am tired of wearing hats, bought a wig but only as motivation, I do NOT want to come to that level, if I can help it. I so want to visit my elderly, widowed sweet mother again without hiding my hair under hats, scarves and such, I have been so embarrassed to share with her and my sister, that I still struggle with this! Bless their heart, they bought me this really nice set of hair products, Tresemme stuff I believe, 3 Christmases ago. they said, 'because we want you to stop pulling your pretty hair out honey'. I haven't had the heart to tell them,, yep, unfortunately, I do still do this!! I have been through a lot of stressors in my life more physical and emotional pain than most folks could bear I think. I have had life threatening illnesses, 6 major surgeries, 17 hospitalizations, anxiety, ptsd and bipolar disorder, as well as the oldest child, the hero, the clown and the fixer, when I was growing up. I watched multiple family members pass away or suffer with various addictions in their lives. Loss my father in 2013 and both of my husband's parents back in 2004 and 2007. I am sure these issues helped trigger the Trich and brought it up out of hibernation. But why it has become so very prevalent in my life now, and especially since 2009, I am not sure. I do know that this was the same year, I had to retire and go out on permanent legal disability, leaving a career of 30 years in the medical field serving in an Admin Support Roles. I am striving sooooo very hard now to have at least no scalp showing in time for summer. I am so tired of looking like a Freak (no offense to the Freaky people out there in general, or any of my new friends here who may feel they look a tad freaky at times too, to each their own, haha!) , but I really need something new to try!! Forgive me for this novel, forgive me if I am not posting properly, I am new to this, most of all forgive me for running on so, I just tried to sum up the past 52 yrs as best as I can, trust me there was so much much more, but I know no one wants to be burdened with all of that! I am a very spiritual person, used to be a Church Soloist, in Duets and Ensembles, in the Choir, etc, but too ashamed to attend Church now, looking the way I do. I pray for God to deliver me, to deliver all of us sufferers from this affliction. Has anyone had any success with Hypnotherapy? Thank you so much for your interest and time. May God Bless You and I hope I havent shied off anybody who might have interest in sharing with me, successes, set backs, friendship and support. Thank you.

I am worried the same will happen with me I am currently pregnant with my unborn son and getting pretty close to my due date. I am worried for him and how my problems will affect him in any kind of way. I scared if i dont stop one day soon he will see me pulling or see that all my beauty is fake. I want to be good enough for him but how can I be good enough for him when I can't even be good enough for myself. I'm afraid my problem will affect the becoming of our family, I can't go anywhere without getting ready and taking awhile at that. What am I supposed to do in the face of an emergency and I'm not ready for it? I'm never going to get to be spontaneous with our family because I'll have to worry about my bald spots getting in the way of the fun. Everything will always have to be planned I can't just say let's go do this or that because I have a very precise way of getting ready so my bald spots dont show. With me being pregnant and having these worries its only caused me to pull the most I have in awhile or maybe even the most I have period. I'm scared that my pulling will get in the way of me raising my son. Or even worse my son will have some kind of disorder like this. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. My boyfriend has bipolar disorder and I fear he will get stuck with something along the lines. Please pray for us.