Research on treatment of trichotillomania is limited. However, some treatment options have helped many people reduce their hair pulling or stop entirely. There are a lot of treatment options to deal with trichotillomania, some may not work for you as much as they work for others.
Here at trichstop.com we offer a therapist guided, online therapy program, based on CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). CBT has been consistently found to be the most effective form of therapy for the treatment of body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). It is the method of choice that is primarily used by expert therapists worldwide, who specialize in treating this disorder. There are many methods within this treatment framework that can be applied in isolation of each other or together as a holistic and comprehensive whole. Regardless of the primary method of CBT employed by your therapist, one fundamental principle of CBT is the developing of awareness by the patient of the behavior they are trying to change and the contexts in which they occur.
Though trichotillomania is a mental health disorder with physical ramifications, it can result in consequences that affect every aspect of your well-being. Hair pulling disorder can hurt a person emotionally, physically, and socially. In addition to feeling shame and embarrassment, people with hair pulling disorder can have other psychological problems like depression and anxiety. Trichotillomania can also interfere with social life, school, and/or work. Engaging in conversations about compulsive behavior with a child is not an easy task. As a parent you can feel helpless and feelings of guilt is common. Recognizing that it is neither yours or your child's fault and understanding trichotillomania and the painful challenges is the first step to tackle when you have a child that has the disorder.
Because of low self-esteem persons with trichotillomania may also experience the following social effects
Our scholarship programme is still going strong. We are pleased to publish the 3rd winning essay authored by Brittany Nicole Kogut, who will be awarded a scholarship to the value of $500 towards her studies. Applicants are required to submit a 400 word essay explaining the impact trichotillomania has their study efforts. Brittany has requested to be named as she would like to contribute to creating awareness. We salute your courage Britanny and thank you for your beautifully written essay.
BY BRITTANY NICOLE KOGUT:
Trichotillomania: what a loaded, unspoken, life-changing secret many of us share? Though trichotillomania is not a secret at all. People notice. People look twice at the spots on your head, the wigs, hairpieces, extensions, bandanas and hats. Why are they always wearing a hat? Why do you have spots on your head? Do you have cancer? Do you have alopecia? Oh, you pull it out yourself!
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is an mood disorder that causes emotional instability that brings extreme high and low moods and changes in sleep, vitality, thinking, and conduct. Individuals who have bipolar can have periods in which they feel excessively cheerful and stimulated and different times of feeling exceptionally sad, miserable, and languid. In the middle of those periods, they us usually feel normal. You can think about the highs and the lows as two "poles" of state of mind and mood which is the reason it's called "bipolar" disorder. "Manic" depicts the circumstances when somebody with bipolar disorder feels excessively energized and happy. These sentiments can likewise include crabbiness and hasty or careless decision making. About half the portion of individuals during mania can likewise have dreams (believing things that aren't true and that they can't be talked out of) or pipedreams (seeing or hearing things that aren't there).
We operate in a very medicalized model of health and wellness. This is partially the reason mental health has suffered such severe stigma for many, many years. We tend to discount the intangible, including the influence of the mind and our emotions on our well being. However for many people with compulsive hair pulling disorder, the onset and continued struggle with the disorder is linked to their emotional and psychological health. While there may be neurological or physiological explanations and descriptions available for how the brain or body functions during times when the urge to pull is high, it still does not answer the why. Dr Joy Saville, a doctor with the Tibb Ibn Sina Institute believes that we need to look at wellness holistically in order to combat ill health. Dr Saville is passionate about health and wellness, and is particularly interested in the marriage btween ancient and modern systems of medicines. She has shared her insights with us in this guest blog:
Nail biting, also known as onychophagy or onychophagia, is an oral compulsive habit. It is in some cases depicted as a parafunctional activity, the common use of the mouth for an action other than speaking, eating, or drinking. Nail biting is very common, particularly amongst children. Severe forms of nails biting are viewed as a body focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) in the DSM-IV-R and are ordered under obsessive-compulsive and related disorders in the DSM-5. The ICD-10 characterizes the practice as "other specified behavioural and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence. Other body-focused repetitive behaviors include excoriation disorder (skin picking), dermatophagia (skin biting), and trichotillomania (the urge to pull out hair), and all of them tend to coexist with nail biting. However, not all nail biting is pathological, and the difference between harmful obsession and normal behaviour is not generally clear
Hair extensions are instantly gratifying and can be an enormous morale booster – giving immediate body to fine hair, or enabling a change in style for a special event. For people with trichotillomania it can also mean the difference between going out or becoming socially isolated for shame of the condition of your hair due to constant hair pulling. However for some having them in can also be a trigger for hair pulling due to itchiness, dandruff and dry scalp. It is therefore important to take care of your scalp when trying out weaves or other hair extensions in order to avoid increased hair pulling episodes. Keeping hair extensions in for an extended period can cause a lot of damage, and can leave you with less hair than you started with. Old-fashioned hair extensions were put in by weaving threads with hair attached between your natural hair.
Use a Sunscreen for Your Hair
Trichotillomania, difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to live with. The disorder is characterised by the strong urges to pull out their own hair. It can affect people of any age. People with trichotillomania pull hair out at the root from places like the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, or pubic area.
It is said that everything we come across in life has a significient purpose and teaches us something important. Although trichotillomania is not something to wish on anybody, one blogger, Emilie Bélanger, who has lived with trichotillomania since she was 8 years old, says there are important lessons that she learnt from the hair pulling disorder and they are as follows:
Trichotillomania, also known as compulsive hair pulling disorder, has no known cause, but is linked to a variety of things. It is believed that some people with the disorder have a neurologically based predisposition to do it. It works as a self-soothing mechanism, helping to keep them calm when they feel stressed or anxious. While estimates differ, about 1 in 50 or 2% of the overall population has trichotillomania. This makes the disorder more common than Schizophrenia and Bipolar Depression. Unlike anxiety disorders (e.g. panic disorder, social anxiety, PTSD) where the fundamental symptoms are stress and fear, trichotillomania has a significantly more complex and heterogeneous set of symptoms.
Find Out The Severity of Your Hair Pulling With This Free Online Test
