When it comes to Trichotillomania (TTM), not all hairpulling is the same. While hair pulling is the dominant feature of TTM, new research published in The Journal of Psychiatric Research suggests that there’s much more to the clinical picture. These results have significant implications for diagnosing, categorizing, and treating TTM.

The Need for Better Data

A relatively common disorder, TTM affects about 3% of the population. Despite its prevalence, TTM remains under-represented in the research literature and often goes untreated.

Trichotillomania, also known as hair-pulling (HPD), is a condition that involves pulling at, “messing with,” yanking out, and/or over-plucking (i.e. eyebrows, genital hair, and hair on your arms and legs, and under your armpits) your hair. This behavior not only affects your appearance, but also your self-esteem, sense of self, mood, and quality of life.

In this month’s TrichStop.com webinar with Dr. Vladimir Miletic, he talks about meaning and how meaning applies to therapy for compulsive hair pulling from the perspectives of George Kelly and Paul Watzlawick. In addition to talking about meaning, he describes the therapeutic process by describing his work with a TrichStop.com client. The full webinar is available on YouTube.

Every Person is a Scientist

Dr. Miletic’s discussion on meaning highlighted the work of George Kelly. For those unfamiliar with Kelly, he expanded on Freud’s approach to mental health by changing the premise. Freud’s psychoanalytic approach included a therapist interpreting what was going on with a client in an authoritative manner. However, how would a therapist know what a client experiences? There are myriad influences on a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and there is no way for a therapist to know enough about this to be an accurate interpreter.