Beating Trich Community Group
You mean that there is a name for IT? Im not weird? Trichotillomania, that big, long word that is the bane of our world. With knowledge and support of others we CAN break free and live without this disorder interfering with our lives. Lets keep this uplifting and supportive and give each other the encouragement the other needs to make it to that next day.
I need to stop and celebrate. It may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but one day is huge to me. I have not gone one day without pulling in over a year. I can’t even remember when it’s been so long. Now I’m not going to get my hopes up and say this is it I will never pull again. That would be great and it is my goal, but if I slip up I will plug on. Nothing is going to keep me down this time. I can beat this, I am sick of feeling defeated by my own two hands. I am so thankful for this one day and it has made today that much easier. I have a reason not to pull, because it would ruin all my efforts yesterday. I can actually see little eyelashes and eyebrows (not that I looked in the mirror for long, as that is highly dangerous). Normally, they are picked completely clean, I can pull even the shortest hair that has just emerged. I have been taking biotin for several months and I think that has helped them to grow in quickly. I really think the iJK diet, nositol, NAC, and SAMe are finally starting to help. My urge is lower than it has been in forever. I have a one week goal right now. August 22 here I come!
Welcome to the group!
So here's my update. It has been two days with no pulling and I am halfway through my third day. My urge to pull has drastically decreased. I am more aware and catch myself when my hand wanders up to my eyes or my head. I am wearing bandaides on my thumbs to give myself a barrier. It is a great reminder. In the past these did not help as much because I would either figure out how to pull with them, take them off when the urge got to much, or impulsively grab my tweezers when I looked in the mirror. I have asked my husband to hide my tweezers as they are my worst enemy. I am using the advice Claudia offers in her post A Foolproof Plan For Recovery from Trich and Skin Picking. I am using a 0-10 scale and am consider any day 0-3 a good day. I will mark all good day on my calender with an X. I started keeping track 3 days ago and so far I have 3 good days(almost 4)! This systems works way better than focusing on being completely pull free. If I have a bad day, I just keep at it. All is not ruined by pulling a few hairs or even a ton of hairs. My goal for this month is to have more good day than bad days. Yes, being pull free would be best, but ultimately I just want to get better no matter how long the journey. I'm in it until the end.
Woo 3 days! How awesome :)
Unfortunately the urge to pull from my lashes and brows is not going away. It did for a few days, but then it continued to build the longer I went without pulling. This is usually what happens. Its like a volcano building pressure until it bursts. It usually starts with one involuntary pull that sets off the explosion. All the pent up energy and suppressed urges just comes flying out at once and it is 100x as hard as normal to resist (when it is hard to resist normally).
Well this is what happened this morning. I was involved a very stressful application process on the computer and although I was wearing band-aids, I pulled an eyebrow. After this I lost control for a few minutes and pulled out a significant amount of my new growth. I stopped myself before ruining all my progress or moving to my head. I am very disappointed, but I will just keep plugging on.
My goal is to finish the day off without pulling anymore. I know this is going to be a long process. As long as the number of good days I have each month keeps increasing, than I am on my way to recovery. Although I am tempted to wallow, I will not fall into the pit. I will follow Dory’s advice and just keep swimming.