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Can Trich be caused by a major life upheaval ?
Hi,
This is my first time being brave enough to talk about this debilitating behaviour of mine. It has only just dawnec on me that this behaviour started at the same time some pretty significant life stress was going on. After asking my dr the length of time on anti depressents and more significantly , the month and year. I have now realised the two have started together. This was seven years ago, what started as pulling at my ends, ended up in myself peering into a magnifying mirror so I could cut off all the split ends, which of course there wasn't any. I eventually pulled and cut so much I was bald, I have lived in wigs ever since. I have tried numerous therapy where I have to write down and measure the amount of hair lost. I have trialled two types of medication which just made me ill. I feel if I had help working through what happened to me when I started to pull, I might be on the right track, what do you think ?
Hi. While there is no known definitive cause for trichotillomania, there are many known triggers. Negative emotions such as stress, anxiety and trauma are all known triggers for pulling. As major life events, good and bad, can cause overwhelming emotions, this in turn certainly can trigger the onset of pulling. Simply measuring the amount you pull is not enough, the purpose of pulling records are for you to develop awareness of the pattens of pulling and to identify triggering situations and emotions/thoughts. Trichstop has developed a free self monitoring app that assists with this. Perhaps it may help to download and use the app for a bit and see if you can pin point whether particular emotional states or though patterns tend to occure prior to the urge to pull. You can download it here: https://www.trichstop.com/app