Repetitive behaviour - is what I'm doing bad?

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iCANTthinkOFaNAME
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15 Dec 2016, 8:09 am

Hi, I have a lot of repetitive behaviours but this one seems more severe than the rest (I'm being tested for Aspergers currently and want to see if some of my behaviours link)
Hair pulling.
I first started pulling my eyebrows and eyelashes to the pount there are gaps. I still do it, but now i use tweezers to pull other hair out... Below. And on my legs. It hurt at first but now its part of my daily ritual where i have an allocated slot to do it alone.
Is this self injurious behaviour? Is it bad that i do this?



somanyspoons
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15 Dec 2016, 8:50 am

I wouldn't say it's bad. It's often a sign of distress. Real self harm is, well, harmful. What you are doing is called trichotillomania. It is treated as a mental disorder, but that only applies if a person feels like it is getting in the way of them being happy.

If you are happy pulling your lower body hair out one by one instead of all together like we do when we get things waxed, I don't see what the problem is.

If you are pulling out hair on places where you want hair, or if you feel compulsed to pull when you don't want to pull, this is a problem and i would suggest seeking treatment with a shrink.

I did this for a while. I started pulling out my head hair. I was a teen ager and I was put on prozac. This is not a good drug for me. It increased my anxiety and started pulling my hair out. The grownups in my life didn't listen carefully, so instead of taking me off that nasty prozac they kept increasing the dose until I was really uncomfortable and simply refused to take it again. When I stopped the prozac, the Trichotillomania stopped too, although I still play with my hair a lot.



androbot01
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15 Dec 2016, 9:03 am

Trichotillomania (TTM)

I bit my nails and sucked my thumb. I still pick at my skin, but so far I've left my hair alone. Although I did shave all the hair off my head once.

It's a reaction to stress. It's bad in itself because you are self-harming and self-harm is an indicator of stress. It's the stress that should be dealt with, not the symptom (Trichotillomania,) in my opinion.



EzraS
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15 Dec 2016, 9:04 am

Seems along the lines of skin picking, but less injurious. I'd say self harm because I'm guessing you get satisfaction and a feeling of release from it. But not actually really harmful like cutting (former cutter here).



BeaArthur
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15 Dec 2016, 11:06 am

It's self-injurious in the sense that it will look weird to other people, whether they see you do it, or just see the gaps in your lashes and brows.

It's not bad. But it might not be the best idea.

I think it's basically a stim. Perhaps you can substitute a different stim. My daughter used to chew her fingernails compulsively. At some point in her 20s, she started manicuring her nails and applying nail polish. Now she won't chew her fingernails because that nail polish might be toxic if eaten. I'm not sure what stim she replaced it with, but I do think it's possible to select another stim.

I know an older lady who says she knits because if she doesn't knit, she picks at her cuticles until they bleed. I suspect this lady may have some autism traits (for other reasons, e.g. she also has misophonia). But anyway, this is another example of a stim replacement.


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iCANTthinkOFaNAME
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15 Dec 2016, 3:29 pm

Thanks guys.. BeaArthur, i agree with what you said about my other post about having two threads - sorry! Just stick to this one!
Yeah i mean i dig quite far to the point it bleeds sometimes. I have also chewed my fingernails (i mean they are disgustingly short, not just short) people often comment on it. I'm not sure what to replace this with, it's just a part of my day!



DancingCorpse
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18 Dec 2016, 12:32 am

I seem to pull my hair out from the sides of my face a lot if I'm nervous around other humans, I fiddle with my hands endlessly around others too even though I'm not wholly conscious of doing it. On my own I sway back and forth a lot for some kinda sensory impulse, I do that around others anyway and am always on my tiptoes bouncing around, but it would be mightily annoying to someone else if they kept seeing someone in subtle motion even whilst sitting on a bed without reason (and has been weird in the past to others lol). I can really scratch my scalp a lot too when I am frustrated and don't realize I'm frustrated about something, I'm better at noticing and stopping it cause it means I have to take more time to rinse my locks due to the assault!