Page 1 of 1 [ 15 posts ] 

rugulach
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 14 Jun 2014
Age: 2005
Gender: Male
Posts: 282

03 Aug 2014, 2:16 am

It is an obsessive and uncontrollable urge to pluck hairs on head and body.

Anybody else here have this condition?

Although my hair loss is not severe and I mainly pluck hairs on my head, it is something I've had since around puberty.

I pluck hairs when I am reading, thinking, trying to sleep -- pretty much anytime really, both actively and passively. So it serves a huge source of distraction and hindrance for me in accomplishing any task.

I have so far been unable to track down the source of this condition. Is it caused by my ASD or is it a comorbid condition or is it a disorder unrelated to ASD?

Anyone have any insight on this?



Last edited by rugulach on 03 Aug 2014, 2:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

Kiprobalhato
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Mar 2014
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Posts: 29,119
Location: מתחת לעננים

03 Aug 2014, 2:19 am

back when my hair was a bit longer i would pull it out all the time, to the point that i gave myself a noticeably bald spot. and my hair was thick. i pulled a huge clump out in math class once 2 1/2 years ago and i got sent to the office.


_________________
הייתי צוללת עכשיו למים
הכי, הכי עמוקים
לא לשמוע כלום
לא לדעת כלום
וזה הכל אהובי, זה הכל.


bguimaraes
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 131
Location: Mars

03 Aug 2014, 3:39 am

I have it since kid but was mostly my hair that time, in 2013 I was without eyelashes, was so ugly, worse than this, I'M SERIOUS: Image
Now everything is ok, my eyelashes are back in, sometimes I forget and pull some 1 or 2 eyelashes but I remember how ugly it was so I stop (maybe the meds helps a little too haha, Zoloft, it's for OCD and depression)
Anyway, if you want to talk with me about this, I'm here. I hope you can resist to trichotillomania the same way I'm doing for almost one year.



blue_bean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 10,617
Location: Behind the wheel

03 Aug 2014, 5:01 am

I've had it since 12 years old. It comes and goes in bouts for me. I pulled so bad a few months ago at my hairline that it looked liked the side of my hairline was receding. Other common spots include my part on the top of my head. I usually make a small bald spot there which then prompts me use a side part to cover it up.
The regrowth is the worst because it makes my hair look so messy, and then I feel the urge to pull the new short hairs out in order to neaten things up.

The only solution I've found is to have my hair short. It's not short at the moment though.



Jensen
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Age: 71
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,022
Location: Denmark

03 Aug 2014, 6:01 am

I had it from my late teens til mid 40´s., so I always had to cover up some naked spots. My hairdresser told me to "grow up" :D
Now I only pluck hairs a little bit in stressfull periods.


_________________
Femaline
Special Interest: Beethoven


Dillogic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Nov 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,339

03 Aug 2014, 6:12 am

Nah, though something similar, the derma-whatever one.

I have the skin picking one though (hell, you can see it mildly in my avatar; the red area between my eyes).

It was pretty bad in the past. I recall the photo they took of me at the mental hostel had my head covered in sores.

An anxiety thingy both are IIRC.



rugulach
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 14 Jun 2014
Age: 2005
Gender: Male
Posts: 282

03 Aug 2014, 11:30 am

Yup, stress and anxiety cause an uptick in my pulling but I do it during other times too even when I'm relaxed, so doesn't seem like a pure anxiety thing in my case.



rugulach
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 14 Jun 2014
Age: 2005
Gender: Male
Posts: 282

03 Aug 2014, 11:32 am

bguimaraes wrote:
Now everything is ok, my eyelashes are back in, sometimes I forget and pull some 1 or 2 eyelashes but I remember how ugly it was so I stop (maybe the meds helps a little too haha, Zoloft, it's for OCD and depression)
Anyway, if you want to talk with me about this, I'm here. I hope you can resist to trichotillomania the same way I'm doing for almost one year.


Thanks...I'm not taking any anti-depressants currently but have taken them in the past.



olympiadis
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Jun 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,849
Location: Fairview Heights Illinois

03 Aug 2014, 12:27 pm

I have some and it does seem anxiety related.
There's something about the focus and the pain that seems a bit calming, like it maybe attenuates other pain.
A TENS unit works in this manner by over-stimulating some nerves with electricity to reduce overall pain.


_________________
Anachronism: an object misplaced in time.
"It's true we are immune, when fact is fiction and TV reality"
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards"


franknfurter
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2013
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 738

03 Aug 2014, 3:34 pm

yeah I can get into a bad habit of doing that, I once pulled out all my eyebrows, very embarrassing

Usually I do it when I am concentrating, bored or just relaxing, I don't notice I am doing it sometimes, I don't do it so it becomes a problem anymore, apart from that one time.



ReticentJaeger
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 22 Feb 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,127

03 Aug 2014, 4:48 pm

I have dermatillomania. My lips are raw and bloody.



wavecannon
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 8 Aug 2013
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 210
Location: Yorkshire

03 Aug 2014, 5:22 pm

My greatest shame.

Brother briefly did it with his eyelashes in school.



Deb1970
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Feb 2013
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 512
Location: Iowa

04 Aug 2014, 10:03 pm

I pick my scalp, rub my head , plus rock myself in the evenings. Sometimes for several hours. I think it is part of my stimming.


_________________
"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."

- Edgar Allan Poe -


Kiprobalhato
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Mar 2014
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Posts: 29,119
Location: מתחת לעננים

05 Aug 2014, 1:15 am

i tend to pick my skin a lot too. on my arms i have wounds that appeared starting about 5 months ago and now have formed scars.
i have some on my ankles and eyebrows, when i formed razor burn shaving and when i botched an eyebrow plucking, respectively.
both i pick and peel to the point of bleeding and i won't know what to do with the blood. maybe if i someday save enough i'll use it to make a little painting. :?


_________________
הייתי צוללת עכשיו למים
הכי, הכי עמוקים
לא לשמוע כלום
לא לדעת כלום
וזה הכל אהובי, זה הכל.


AmethystRose
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 27 Jul 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 309

05 Aug 2014, 4:12 pm

For years, starting around the time I started school in the second grade, I had no eye lashes at all. As soon as they were long enough to pluck with my fingers, I plucked them.

It felt both good and bad; it hurt, but it was satisfying. Once I learned that this was strange and made me look weird, I was (eventually) able to (mostly) stop doing it most of the time.

But pretty soon after that I started in on my eyebrows. I tried to only pull them from the areas where people pluck them for looks, and if anyone commented that I had over plucked them, I'd just say they were naturally like that.

I went through a period at the end of college and for probably a year after where I basically had no eyebrows at all. The teenage daughter of my mom's boyfriend asked me if they had been burned off somehow. :|