Trichotillomania

Post Reply New Topic

My daughter, age 7 has started compulsively pulling her eyelashes and now handfulls of her hair. She was doing the eyelash pulling while stressed, now the hair pulling seems to be daily and when she's tired or anxious. I have tried everything to get her to stop. It started while she was on Zoloft about six months ago and I thought it was a side effect. We have since weaned off all meds and she has been med-free for about 3 months.

Anyone have any experience with this? I did a search but nothing came up in the parents forum. I know this is probably a coping mechanism but I really need to redirect or she'll be obviously missing patches of hair soon. When I ask her to stop she will go and hide and do it. It doesn't seem to hurt her to pull the large patches of hair and she likes to do it.

Thanks.

Hi there.

I'm not a parent, but I have done the hair-pulling thing myself, especially the eyebrows. It does get worse when I'm stressed out, along with related stuff like lip-chewing.

Bring this up to her pediatrician--maybe he/she can give you a referral to a therapist who specializes in these kinds of conditions (classified in the DSM as "Impulse-Control Disorders Not Otherwise Classified").

Why was she on the Zoloft? Trichotillomania often co-occurs with anxiety and/or depression.

Hope this helps, good luck.

I developed it after a very bad bout of depression from no one listning to me and my dad making rude remarks about my every move. When my parents said things to me about pulling out my hair it only made me do it more. My mom threatned to get rid of my lizard which is my only safe "person" but if she did for real I think it would make me have a nervous break down so bad I would be catotonic. The best thing she did was to ignore me pulling out my hair and listen to me about my problems and let me see a therapist. The best thing really was to ignore it. Don't make any comments about it, don't say how bad she will look, don't threaten to do away with pets or "lovies". Just ignore it.

I realize this thread is geared towards parents, but I am looking to get this behavior stopped in myself, and any advice that anyone has had success with in the long term would be very helpful indeed.

My daughter was on Zoloft for anxiety. She was experiencing quite a bit while in school however is doing much better now that school is out. However, the hair pulling is still occurring and even more often.

I don't know if ignoring it is possible. I find huge wads of hair that she has pulled. I don't understand why it doesn't hurt? I don't criticize her for it but I explain that hair pulling is not the answer: that we can find other ways to show we are upset (like using words).

I am very supportive of her and do not make rude remarks. On the contrary I try to ease her anxiety every way that I know. She is frightened at night and has trouble falling asleep and that seems to be when the behavior is the worst. If I ask her to take a bath and she doesn't want to she'll start pulling the eyelashes and zoning out. At night when I try to get her to go to sleep she pulls the hair from her head.

I don't know how to explain this, but sometimes pain can register in a different way when it's self-inflicted. There is also the possibility of endorphins coming from it (not unlike a runner's high, but not as strong). So, it may be that it feels different..."pain" but without distress.

This is at least my experience, and one of the things I'm finding makes it harder to stop. The punishment comes from looking in the mirror, not so much from the act itself.

Now, it may be different from person to person, but that's my own experience. And I would VERY much like to stop.

Maybe pulling her hair releases a chemical that relaxes her and helps her sleep. Sometimes when I am so frustrated or anxious, I cannot fall alseep until I purposely cut myself or pull out a massive wad of hair. It hurts and feels good at the same time. There is actual scienfific evidence that purposely hurting oneself releases pleasure chemicals. That's why some people with severe depression or who are in severe pain do it. I also do it out of frustration and boredom which is why parrots rip out their own feathers if neglected. My parents nagged me about stopping it as if I really could but then they nagged about my stims and tics and that ALWAYS made them worse. Perhaps hair pulling is a stim. I've heard about horses who like to bite their chests and get addicted to the endorphin rush have to be put on a drug to block the flow of those endorphins until they no longer get their fix and learn not to hurt themselves. It's tricker with parrots. They need to be in a stimulating enviroment for months before they stop ripping out their feathers. I often hear that bedtime is a boring time for kids with AS and perhaps she is bored.

As someone who pulled out all of their eyelashes at that age, and eyebrows, I have to wonder, if she is so insistent on doing it that she hides to do it, what's the problem just letting her do it?

The medications have the potential to make her far more miserable and difficult to handle then just leaving her alone. Eyelashes grow back. I suppose the worst that could happen is she'll get an ingrown hair (though I never have) or she'll eventually decide she doesn't like the way having bald spots and no eyelashes looks, and decided to try to make an effort to stop doing it.

This could be a precursor to OCD, btw.

If you are really so intent to get her to stop before she actually wants to though, Prozac might give you the best results.

Chronos--I mean nothing personal, but over many years, though, damage can happen.

This is why I now want so badly to stop--I think I am on the edge of damage that would really mess me up if I let it go much further.

I can also tell you that other children AND teachers can be MERCILESS, not just to kids but to parents. I only found out what my mom went through at the hands of the school administrators years later. Granted, this was over 10 years ago, but still.

I doubt it's "stimming" as I understand the definition (probably a more general "fidget," plus the "pleasurable" aspect of the endorphins). But dang, stopping is HARD, and I want to very much. Has anyone done anything that worked?

My daughter (18 years old) picks at her skin which is kind of the same thing. When she was younger it was really bad, she has scars on her arms, hands and legs. Our doctor put her on celexa when she was 14 and it helped but she still does it a bit. She has a very severe anxiety disorder like I do so its partially that and she says she does it when she is bored.....it is stimming but it is also self mutilation and some of them were deep enough for infections. She did have a few MRSA infections but now she is more careful to keep it clean and puts bandaids on the ones that bleed.
I also have given her play doh and other types of clay and putty because it gives her kind of the same sensation and picking at her skin. You might try giving her a doll or stuffed animal and tell her to pull the hair out. It might now work and it may not fix the problem but it may cut down a bit until she reaches and age where it bothers her, like with my daughter.

There is likely a "it looks out of place" component to it as well for her.

The only idea I can come up with to help the OP and the member experiencing the issue herself is to re-direct. You need a habit that will give the same level of satisfaction, whatever that is, without the same consequences. It's what we do when our kids chew shirts or anything else destructive; we see if we can get them to redirect. It doesn't always work, but it should be tried.

Would not be surprising. If something is "not right" (whatever that happens to be at the moment...the standard shifts sometimes), it's a more likely target.

Thanks for all the replies. I do think it's something I should try to redirect away from now if possible. I worry that this behavior can lead to self mutilation of a more severe degree. Best to try to address this now while she is young if at all possible.

I am going to try some positive rewards for not doing it, coupled with redirection to a "pleasant" experience when I see her doing it. I hope that's not positive reinforcement?

She also picks at her skin but not too severely. She has eczema and will scratch til it bleeds and then picks the scabs. I guess I've seen that as more "understandable" because it itches whereas the pulling of the hair is so strange to me.

Curious, I also had eczema around that age. I have an autoimmune disorder.

Anyway I don't mean to discourage you or scare you, do try what the other posters suggested as you have nothing to lose, but things like trichotillamania generally cannot be "nipped in the bud" because it isn't actually a behavioral issue. It's more akin to actual OCD and Tourrettes which are neurological disorders. I would not be one bit surprised if she developed full fledged OCD, and I'm willing to bet the neurological wiring is already there for it and the circuits are just starting to switch on.

Watch her closely for more signs of OCD but don't say anything to introduce thoughts or ideas into her head. Watch her for subtle signs of ritualization when she washes her hands. Watch for signs that she is counting to herself or trying to "even" something out. Read up on OCD. The signs and symptoms are not the overt perfectionism and germ phobia that people tend to think of.

Try to minimize stress in her life.

She already does sing when she washes her hands. Someone told her to sing happy birthday to get her hands clean and now she ritualistically does it every time. She sings Happy birthday to rinse, then sings it again while sudsing, then again while rinsing.

I know that this probably is OCD related. I don't know how to get through to her that it will be ok if she doesn't do it.

I know a little about this as I have some OCD tendencies myself. I keep them in check for the sake of making things normal for her but I know she does have the genetics for these things to become worse. I also know the OCD could be part of her inability to sleep at night, I have had chronic insomnia my whole life and cannot seem to shut my brain off at night.

We do what we can and take one day at a time....