Trichotillomania (trich) is a mental health disorder where a person repeatedly and recurrently pulls out their hair which causes hair loss and significant physical and psychological impairment. The disorder’s symptoms usually show up between 9 and 13 years of age, coinciding with the onset of puberty. Not much is known about the cause of the disorder, but research using brain imaging has provided evidence that trichotillomania results from impairment in response inhibition. Primarily, a person experiences an urge to pull their hair, but they cannot resist the urge or stop the behavior even when the response is inappropriate. Some research shows that the part of the brain that tells the body to stop a movement is impaired in people with trich.

Many people with mental illness find comfort when they find out their condition related to structural or chemical issues in the brain. Providing an explanation based on something physical can reduce the self-stigma associated with mental illness. Self-stigma is like perceived stigma, where someone expects poor treatment because they have a mental illness. A physical explanation for a disorder can also improve self-esteem because perspective can change from “I don’t know what is wrong with me, I must be bad,” to “My brain works or is structured differently.” Not everyone feels this way though.

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.