Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling) Support Group
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Hi, I'm Gianna! I have anxiety and depression accompanied by obsessive compulsive tendencies, perfectionism, and of course trichotillomania. I found this website a while back actually, probably around March or April through a responder at the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Anyway, I've been pulling for 9 years, since I was 14 and I am 23 now. I pull the ends of my hair and pluck any "stray" hairs from my eyebrows at any given moment. I was able to let some hair grow back on my eyebrows but I've been pulling on my ends to make up for most of that. I don't actually split my split ends or pull them apart. I actually pull at them and sometimes just take random strands and just pull whether there's a split/dead end or not. I didn't come to terms with my trich until May/June.
I wanted to share something that I recently found on my Facebook. It was an ad on my news feed, most likely based on my searches of trich. It's a new smart bracelet called Keen by HabitAware. It senses your body focused repetetive behaviors (BFRB) like hair pulling, nail biting, skin picking, and thumb sucking. After receiving the bracelet, first you train the Keen through the app and allow it to recognize these behaviors and where they are on the body. After it '"trains" the bracelet, it will vibrate notifying you when you're doing the BFRB. When you are notified and move your hand away, you replace it with deep breathing. It is able to document this activity and then sync the data to keep track of your progress. It will also help with identifying your patterns and triggers. The bracelet allows up to 4 areas of the body to be detected so if you have more than one BFRB no worries. I ordered mine two nights ago for $149 and I am so excited to receive this! I'll check back in to let you know if it's worth the investment! In the mean time, check out the website!
The app goes by the name "Keen Smart Bracelet" and is only compatible with iOS 9.3 or later on an iPhone, iPad, or iPad touch
I hope this information helps! I am so happy to have found this and I hope you find it beneficial for you too!