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Trich & Parents
Hi, I'm 15 years old and I've been pulling my hair out since about 5th grade. It was much worse then, then started to improve a little through middleschool (but I've never stopped picking) and it's getting worse again. At first it was me pulling out the blonde hairs on my head (I've got thick hair that's mostly brown, but the top of my head has natural blonde that's thinning due to trichotillomania) and I had a bald spot the size of a nickel, and would flip over my hair to cover it. Then I kind of made a bit of a reversal, so now instead of ALWAYS straight up pulling out hairs, I usually go for split ends or coarse hairs/hairs that are out of place. This doesn't mean I don't pull out other hairs though, and recently I've been pulling at my eyelashes, eyebrows, and other various parts (but not on the scale that i pick my scalp/eyelashes). So far I've broadened the natural part in my hair so it's wider than my finger, and along with the slight anxiety comes more since my parents just think of it as a "bad habit". I've tried explaining it's not JUST triggered by anxiety or just any simple habit, but they don't usually listen. Does anyone know what I can do? (both as a "free" way to stop and to get my parents to understand) (Note: I do have a therapist I occasionally see, but even with her trying to talk to my parents it'll usually have little to no improvement on their viewpoint)
I don't think they could ever really understand unless they felt the same things themselves. However giving them information about it might help in some ways. I've had this for 15 years and I don't really know if my mom or dad would understand me to this day or if they would ever. The only thing that's left to do is beat this somehow and eventually, you can try to forget it like a bad memory. Unfortunately it may have some emotional scarring but hopefully, we will recover some day.