Anxiety is a key component in BFRBs and is sometimes difficult to manage. In a recent TrichStop webinar, Dr. Vladimir Miletic discussed anxiety its biological and psychological underpinnings, and its connection to hair pulling. He also shared a number of relaxation strategies and resources for dealing with anxiety.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often experience co-occurring mental health disorders, including trichotillomania (TTM). Diagnostically, both disorders share some similarities including early onset (in pediatric TTM) and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Both disorders can result in social distress and stigma for the child suggesting that early intervention can be helpful in reducing symptoms as well as the emotional distress that can result.

Parenting a child is hard on a good day. Having a child who deals with a challenging body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB), such as Trichotillomania, can leave even the most skilled parent struggling to know the best way to parent and support their child.

You want to support and guide your child. You want to protect them from anything that can hurt them. You also want to help them overcome their challenges. Research into child mental health tells us that parenting can play a key role in a child’s mental health and ability to cope in healthy ways. But, knowing just how to do that isn’t always clear and you may have more questions than answers. If you find yourself searching for answers, this article is for you.

Avoidance…it’s something we all do. It’s our go-to when we just don’t want to do something. But there’s avoidance of something just unpleasant and then there’s avoidance of emotions that can create distress. In this TrichStop.com webinar, Dr. Vladimir Miletic talks about emotional avoidance and how avoiding difficult emotions and memories may lead to hair pulling.

What Avoidance Is and Why We Do It

Emotional avoidance occurs when a person is unwilling to deal with certain private experiences such as body sensations, emotions, or thoughts and takes steps to alter the form or frequency of these events and the contexts in which they occur. Dr. Miletic frames this behavior as the things a person is willing to do to minimize or change their experience so they don’t have to deal with it.

We use avoidance behaviors all the time. Some are relatively benign. Others, like hair pulling, can have significant, often unintended, consequences. So, the question is, why do we avoid if we know that it causes problems?