Trichotillomania Blog

Avoidance Behaviors in Hair-Pulling Disorder

What would you do to prevent people from staring at you because of a disability or disfigurement? Would you put yourself in situations where people could ask you why you are the way you are? How comfortable would you feel being put on the spot?

Dealing with questions about skin picking!

People with trichotillomania deal with these questions all the time. Will people stare? Will they ask questions? What will I say if they do? Trichotillomania is a mental health disorder where people compulsively pull out their hair. The most frequent locations are the scalp, eyebrows, and eyelashes, so someone may not have any eyelashes or eyebrows. They may have strange bald spots on the scalp, areas where hair won’t grow anymore, or areas where hair grows back, and it looks different from the rest.

Mar 01, 2018 By Read more...

Mindful Running for People with Compulsive Hair Pulling Disorder

Mindful running serves multiple purposes for people with compulsive hair pulling disorder. First, as an aerobic physical exercise, running keeps stress low and anxiety at bay. Second, running is a full-body activity. And third, it helps develop mindfulness skills for use at other times.

Reduce Triggers 

Exercise benefits everyone. Research shows it positively impacts stress, anxiety, memory, sleep, mood, and self-esteem. For people with compulsive hair pulling, anxiety and stress can act as triggers for pulling behaviors which instigates the cycle of shame and embarrassment as a result of pulling. A lot of time goes into pulling with a lot more going into taking care of oneself afterward. Consider exercise as a way to reduce stress and feel better.

Jan 30, 2018 By Read more...

Habitaware Keen Review

This is the second post in our series of reviews of BFRB tracking & monitoring devices (you can read the perevious post here)

Some background about the company

We’ve been following HabitAware since its inception in early 2016. This company was founded by Aneela (herself affected by trichotillomania) and her husband. In an attempt to help Aneela’s personal case they came up with an idea for a device that will track the hand’s movement and will alert the user with a light vibration once a problematic movement is identified. And so the idea for Keen was born.

We’ve been eager to test it ever since they started shipping early this year, and finally we got our hands on a Keen device. We put it to everyday use, and here are our impressions.

CLICK TO VISIT HABITAWARE KEEN's WEBSITE >>

Dec 13, 2017 By Read more...

Trichotillomania: Will internet-based treatment help if you’ve been in therapy before?

The short answer is yes. For a variety of reasons, many people with trichotillomania do not get treatment. Those who do sometimes have negative experiences which causes them to stop treatment. Internet-based therapy and support is a promising way to reach those people with trichotillomania who do not have access to face to face therapy or who do not feel comfortable sharing their experiences face to face. A recent study showed that no matter the symptom severity or treatment history internet-based treatment is still effective.

Oct 23, 2017 By Read more...

Research: Genetic Predisposition for Trichotillomania

The Institute for Genomic Health (IGH) at SUNY Downstate Medical Center is conducting research on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and other related disorders (Hoarding Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Hair Pulling disorder/Trichotillomania and Skin Picking Disorder/Excoriation Disorder. We've been asked to publish the following info about this reseach to help recruit participants for the study. Here're the details:

Current research has indicated that some people are more likely to develop this disorder than others. We at Downstate, along with other collaborating research sites are working towards identifying the genes associated with this disorder in the hopes of contributing to the development of better, more effective treatments.

Our study is NIMH-funded and approved by Downstate Medical Center, study ID # 759153.

Participation for patients is one-time only. It includes:

Sep 25, 2017 By Read more...

Trichotillomania: the impact of treatment history on the outcome of an Internet-based intervention

Seeking treatment for Trichotillomania

The decision to get treatment for trichotillomania is a difficult one. One of the biggest barriers is embarrassment and shame followed closely by not recognizing that symptoms are treatable and not knowing where to go for treatment. Therefore, less than 50% of those with a hair pulling disorder get treatment and sometimes it takes up to 9 years after hair pulling starts to get treatment. Rates of co-occurring depression tend to increase as treatment is delayed (2).

Sep 25, 2017 By Read more...

Emotional Freedom Technique

The mind and the body are connected and therapeutic modalities such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or “body tapping” address the cognitive and the biological. The methods of action remain unknown, but published research shows it can be effective for mental health issues.

What is EFT?

EFT combines psychotherapeutic methods of cognitive therapy and exposure therapy with the biological method of acupressure. Cognitive therapy focuses on how we see the world, our thoughts about the world, and how those thoughts influence emotions and behaviors. It is one of the most-used methods of therapy for many disorders. Exposure therapy is based on the idea that small, incremental exposures to traumatic thoughts, feelings, or events, combined with relaxation, can help desensitize someone to the effects of traumatic thoughts, feelings, or events. Exposure therapy is most often used with people who have phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Aug 25, 2017 By Read more...

The guilt and shame of hair pulling

Not many people have tolerance for anything outside of their “normal.” Most of the world lives within strict confines of a defined “normal.” Anything outside of that version of “normal” is considered “weird,” “strange,” “gross,” or “out there.” In the case of creativity, those who fit into the “out there” category are perceived as innovative, but when it comes to mental illness, most people do not have a sympathetic, empathetic, or compassionate response to things that are “weird,” “strange,” “gross,” or “out there.”

Jul 26, 2017 By Read more...

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