my hair is falling out.

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all of it. but not super-fast. enough that it is starting to become *slightly* noticeable after about 2 months of steady loss. i don't know how much hair i've lost from my head (not more than 25% i don't think), but about 25-50% of my leg hair is gone and about 25% from the rest of my body. even my eyebrows are getting sparse.

none of my friends or family have mentioned it, except when they've seen the hair that comes out when i brush it. the doctor could tell right away from across the exam room, though.

the doctor did blood tests and everything is physically fine - no thyroid problems or vitamin deficiencies or hormonal issues. so he is sending me to a dermatologist to look for potential treatments. the faster i can stop this, the less likely the hair loss will be permanent. this happened to me once before from a medicine i was taking (different variety of beta blockers), and it reversed within a few months.

so... what's causing it? the doctor thinks it is anxiety. i have a very stressful job in a call centre, where i have 5 seconds in between callers, many of whom are stressed out and anxious, or sometimes irate. i also had the stress of my mother's suicide in december, and some other more recent events (which i can't get into here) have caused a great deal of distress.

i am not sleeping properly. i can't force myself to sleep more than about 6.5 hours. i fall asleep fine, but i can't stay asleep. i thought it was enough sleep, but the doctor says no. the doctor wants me to take Ativan (Lorazepam) every night, but i do not want to start taking meds for this. i want to manage without drugs.

i have been trying to ease up on the stress at work by allowing myself to take 2 or 3 minutes in between calls instead of the 5 seconds, but eventually i will get into trouble for it. i have a psychologist (who recently did my aspie diagnosis) who thinks i should ask for a workplace accommodation in this area. i am working on diaphragmatic breathing and i've been using using calming techniques at work, but i am still a mess.

right now, i do feel like the stress is quite bad, but i have to hold it together somehow. i can't afford to lose my job, and i don't have the leisure to completely fall apart.

i guess i just needed to talk. thanks for listening.

Please obtain a second opinion! You regular physician might have missed something.

Please be well.

I've been steadily losing hair for the past two-three years now, and it's pissing me off. I have (had) a very nice scalp too, which makes it all the more frustrating. The only known 'cures' are some heavy meds called minoxidil and finasteride, which, beside having a whole slew of side effects, are also very expensive.

I'm not a vain person, but losing my hair really irks me.

I have gone through periods of great hair loss and went to the doctor but blood tests showed no thyroid problems. However I was trying to talk to him about Hashimoto's thyroiditis which is apparently not detected with the usual tests and he sort of dismissed that, which was frustrating.

Anyway: the hair did grow back. It's not as thick as it was when I was 18 and may never be again but it's still thick enough that people tell me its thick, whereas before it was so thin that a hairband that I usually struggled to fit around my ponytail twice fit easily around three times and snugly around four times. There were several such periods of hair loss. In fact I'm in one now. It correlates with anxiety. Maybe two big ones and two smaller ones (now) I've gone through. It does grow back. I think estrogen might have something to do with it? Low estrogen which correlates with fat loss and estrogen is stored in fat and anxiety correlates with fat loss? I have no fat on my hips where there usually is some and at present I'm waiting til tomorrow to find out if I have low estrogen, which I'm sure I do.

Anyway: I think it's anxiety-related and I think there's a good chance it will grow back for you. And in the very worst case, if it doesn't, you'll still be beautiful. I know that's not what you want to hear or even think about but that's what I can say truthfully. I hope it comes back though and bet it will.

Sorry for the long convoluted message.

Its great hun that your getting a dermatologist to look into that.
Stress and anxiety can course hair lost I know I lost a bit of my hair a few years back with too much stress.

A few weeks back, I got the feeling that been have trouble with your work/life balance. I agree with your psychologist suggestion about work. Plus to add workplace stress can create big problems for organisations as the when there workforce is under stress that it lower the quality of work produced. So to put its simply a calm and relaxed worker is good the organisation!

About your anxiety this holistic therapist << can talk about many options you have with you stress management if you wish to.

One last thing sweetheart, heres a little test for you
Spell the word stressted backwards, its another word can you tell me what word it now

Edit: I forgot this ((((hugs))))

I'm sorry to hear about your hair. I think that you should get a second opinion. I hope that it isn't Cancer. I want you to live for a long time. Sid hugs. :O)

Do you dye your hair?

I lost a lot of hair from stress during and after I went through some very bad times. Dealing with incomprehensible stuff like suicide can really effect you in weird ways. I found that Pregnancy Vitamins helped, they have a lot of extra folic acid and B vitamins which makes your hair and nails grow, gives you some extra energy and they won't hurt you. My ob/gyn used to give me them for stress.