Hi,

welcome to the group :)

i am really sorry you are struggling,and are feeling so isolated and have so much stress right now....both these things definitely can make trich worse...

i am 13 days pull free,and trying to find confidence in myself about this...

you are so right,any extra support we can find is so helpful,so i am glad you joined the group and i hope you will reach out whenever you need to....

Hi!

Congrats on being 13 days pull free! That's so great! I suppose it depends on where you pull, but I've noticed that even if I can make it 2 days without pulling everything starts growing again. Actually, its after those first fews days that is the toughest because nothing seems to have changed. It's like not pulling doesn't make any difference. But it does and you should be proud! Keep it up!

I'm glad to be a part of the group and I'll see you around the site :)

thank you :)

up to 16 days now,hoping i can pass my record of 60 days...

hope you are doing well!

Hi, I'm a bit like you in that my trich has gotten a lot worse. I'm at 17 years hair pulling, 23 years with OCD-type related problems. Mum died in May and Grandma is dying and I am trying to do a degree and it is like my hands have a mind of their own. It virtually went away on high dose quetiapine but I was a vegetable, so now starting clomipramine instead. May I ask if you have any medication/tips that you find work? Hoping to share ideas with you. I have a tangle junior. Have you tried fidget toys like this? I sometimes wear gloves around the house. Have you tried this?

Welcome to our group. You will find support and understanding here. Add some people on here as friends, and then you can share private messages with them, or send or receive a "hug" or words of encouragement. I suggest starting a journal here where you can write about your struggle with trich. Good to get your thoughts out.

Hello again, I wanted so share some ideas of things I have found offer partial relief, and I hope anyone might contribute their ideas too:
Tangle Junior fidget toy
Other fidget toys
Wear gloves around the house
Avoid mirrors at all costs (it invites me to start analysing the damage and in some cases sets of the urge to 'make it symmetrical [pull more] to try to make it less obvious)
Superdrug own brand 'trichology' shampoo and conditioner set (currently reduced) which reduces itching and scalp sensations and dandruff but it more gentle than drying 'anti dandruff' shampoos (also Superdrug stuff is affordable and not tested on animals yay).
Some find having really long nails helps (stops the sensitive parts of your finger tips making contact with scalp/hair/skin) others find cutting nails off completely helps (stops you using the like tweezers/digging them in). I've found long nails make me pick skin less but pull eyelashes and brows more, and with them short it is the opposite.
As I said above, quetiapine worked for me, and I think clomipramine is starting to help a bit too.
Caffeine (even in tea) and sugary food for me are a SURE way to set of trich and picking, so I avoid them a lot. So can a lot of white carbs and wheat so I have swapped to brown rice, potatoes etc.
Stress is a big issue and so it using a computer (right hand on mouse, left hand wanders about and picks) but I am stuck with that being 2/3 through a degree hence wearing gloves sometimes (though I do find I have taken them off without realizing; really is like hands have a mind of their own).
Anyone else have ideas?

Also I've read that trich often stems from childhood trauma. That certainly fits with me (multiple traumas... a horrible childhood). Has anyone else recognised this in themselves?

Hi Anya,
It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry to hear about the hard times you are going through right now. I know how it feels. My grandma just passed away a month ago. In regards to your questions, No I have never been on any kind of medication. I have never actually gone to a doctor about my pulling. I'm always so embarrassed and don't have a whole lot of faith that they can do anything that would help me. Plus I have always harbored this idea that somehow I will find a way to stop my pulling and it will be all in the past, just painful memories. Wishful thinking I know, but I can't help feel that way. I did try NAC (N-acetyl cistine) for a little bit, but I didn't notice any changes so I stopped taking it. I have definitely tried things like fidgit toys. I have a tangle myself :) I have tried gloves in the past (although it has been a while so maybe I'll give them another try). And I do avoid mirrors as much as possible. Sometimes I find myself just getting up from what I am doing to stand in front of the mirror (and I do exactly what you do! analyze, touch and pull to be symmetrical). Even though I know I will pull somehow I can't stay away. I've been working on doing stress-reduction things, but they don't seem to help my trich at all, although they are working wonders with my anxiety problems. I want to try to stay away from sugar and caffiene, but I have lots of sugar and starch in my diet that I don't know if I can ever wean myself away. Any tips for eating? I don't think I've had childhood trauma. Nothing major happened in my childhood other than growing up with three brothers haha. But who knows, maybe there is some sort of trauma hidden in me.

Thanks for all the good suggestions. It's got me thinking about retrying some ways to keep from pulling. With me, I find that I need lots of motivation. So thanks for that! Hopefully we can keep in touch about what we are trying and how things are working out.

Trickster,
Nice to meet you. Thanks for welcome and suggestions about how best to use the site. It is so nice to feel like a part of a bigger community, especially one as supportive as this one .

Hello again! Yes I know exactly what you mean about not intending to find yourself in front of a mirror (or taking gloves off, or putting down fidget toy...) but finding yourself doing these things anyway. Like a total loss of control which is very distressing. I think many medical professionals don't understand that part. They think people WANT to pull because it SOOTHES something... Not me. I feel terrible doing it and have been bullied for it. But it is like a tiny piece of your mind has a short circuit and does its own thing... do you find this? I guess maybe that is why antipsychotics sometimes work for some people?? Whereas some people have a broken part of their mind that makes up voices that tell them to do things, others have a broken part of their mind that skips the voices entirely and just makes you do things maybe?

So far on clomipramine tricyclic antidepressant (about 3 weeks) I have had pulling/picking sessions but I think they MIGHT be ever so slightly less and only on 30 mg so far (OCDs-types are supposed to have 150 mg apparently). So we will see if it starts to work properly at a higher dose... Or maybe augment it with quetiapine. Now if you ever do get so desperate as to need medication, I understand that clomipramine and quetiapine (according to the various charities and also an article I read by an expert) are the most recommended THOUGH A LOT OF GPs DON'T KNOW THIS AND PRESCRIBE SSRIs WHICH FOR MOST PEOPLE DON'T HELP/MAKE OCD WORSE (be warned)! I found quetiapine worked very well but it makes you soooooooooooo drowsy and stupid which is a shame. Which leads me on to another question. May be a little personal but I am interested. I have studied some psychology as part of my degree and there is a recognized correlation between increasing intelligence and increasing mental health problems (as a general rule - obviously there are numerous exceptions). However, when quetiapine made me 'dumbed down' (slowed my brain down a LOT) the urges to pull/pick, anxiety and depression were ALL way better. My IQ is 138 which is quite high. And I would bank on a lot of other trich/pick sufferers having high IQ too...??? P.s. I only stopped quetiapine because a) I was so gullible on it and b) I am trying to do a self-taught OU science degree and its 'dumbing down' effect really is counter productive for that. But when I graduate I will quite possible go back on it as it was helpful in many ways (if clomipramine doesn't work out).

Anyway, that's a lot of waffling. It is so good to talk to other people who understand trich!

P.s. I really REALLY find caffeine and sugar DIRECTLY CAUSE pulling sessions for me... literally for several hours after having either/both, I am TERRIBLE. My boyfriend has observed this too.

If I was you I would run an experiment to start with. I would go 2 weeks (at least) without caffeine & sugars (just get decaff tea & coffee and sweetener powder or something, and maybe swap white bread/pasta/rice for brown, then you shouldn't have to change your actual diet/cooking habits i.e. you can eat the same foods just with a couple different ingredients). Then reintroduce caffeine and sugar/white carbs and see how you are. For me it became really obvious that they are trouble makers. And once you have experienced the difference first hand (if you also experience this) it is a pretty good motivator to cut them out 99%. x