Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling) Support Group
Impulsive control disorder is the inability to resist an urge, temptation, or impulse, even when it may cause negative effects to the self or to others. If you or a loved one suffers from impulsive contorl disorder, join the community to find support and share your challenges with others who know what you're going through.
New here, I've found it reassuring to know there are others out there that are struggling with the same disorder, just reading your stories every few days helps to keep it fresh in my mind that I want and need to stop pulling my hair.
I started pulling at 11 in small areas, and was able to stop for a year or more at a time, but the older I've gotten I'm finding it harder to stop and the pulling has gotten worse over time. At it's worst I would say almost half of the hair on my head was either gone or in various stages of growing back. I have frizzy curly hair so I've always been able to style my hair to hide the bald spots. I've oftentimes colored the bald or short spots with mascara to help conceal it.
About 3 years ago I tried a milk thistle supplement because I heard it could help people with obsessive compulsive disorder. I'm not sure if trich falls into that category but it did work! I went 15 months pull free until January 2020. I had a lot of stress in my personal life at the time and had stopped taking the milk thistle about 6 months prior. Then the pandemic hit and the mask mandate is what really did me in. Wearing a mask gave me such unbearable anxiety and stress levels were through the roof. I started spending an hour or more pulling hair on a regular basis.
Here I am a year and a half later and I'm back where I started 3 years ago, almost half of my hair gone. Anymore I don't try to make myself look better, it's easier to just tie my hair back and wear a ball cap.
I have tried GABA to help relieve stress and anxiety because those are my two main triggers of hair pulling. It may work for some people but it didn't help with the hair pulling, it did ease a little tension but it mostly just made me really tired.
I keep telling myself I NEED to stop! I've done it before so I know I can do it again, I think the first couple weeks is the hardest. If I could just make it through a month it gets easier after that.
2 days pull free! Feeling optimistic.
to just stop. I keep telling myself I can do this and I think about how awesome it will be to have a full head of hair. Dreaming about doing things that other people do without worry or embarrassment of having bald spots showing, like going swimming
or getting a haircut at a salon, and not worrying about the wind blowing my hair the wrong way. It's going to take a long time but I'm ready for the journey. Enough is enough, I'm done with trich.
I know this group isn't very active but hopefully this will help or inspire someone later on.