by Robin Jones
OMG! You're driving me crazy! I’m going to pull all of my hair out! Well im sure thats a phrase we've heard all too often. For people with trichotillomania it just being a phrase is sort of a far fetched wish. Trichotillomania ia a compulse disorder that causes people to pull their hair out constantly from anywhere on the body hair can be found. I know your thinking “ Who would really willingly pull their hair out? “ “ Doesn’t that hurt? “. Well I have been fighting against Trichotillomania for about 14 years now and I’m here to answer all of the lingering questions a lot of people have.
The majority of the time the individual pulling their hard doesn't know their actually doing it until someone or something brings it to their attention. As far as it being painful, I know it may seem that way but it’s actually very soothing to the individual pulling. I have been researching this disorder for years now and have actually visited a therapist in hopes to be cured of this “ weird thing” and they oddly have no real knowledge on this subject. That left me with the idea that I should inform everyone I come across about this disorder in hopes to meet someone with a similar story. The only thing about that is that most of us often feel embarrassed or ashamed of what we have done. Shortly after I began working here I had a conversation with one of my coworkers and she confided in me that she pulls her hair out and has done so for some years now, hearing her divulge this information sparked a fire inside me to begin to tell my story. I shared with her and decided we should work together to inform people of this not so rare disorder.
Trichotillomania affects people in many different ways, some people pull their eyelashes while others may pull their eyebrows or the hair from their scalp. Some people have worse cases than others, one person can pick their hair when their stressed and create thin spots where others can go on pulling benders and be left with no eyebrows or very minimal hair on their heads. This can become quite embarrassing as today's beauty standards are so outrageous. I hope that eventually more people and more Dr.’s are well informed of this disorder and soon we have more options for recovery. For now I don’t mind being the voice of the trichsters.