Trichotillomania

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Does anyone on here feel a very powerful urge to pull out their hairs?

When I'm stressed, I tend to pull out my eyelashes.
Their roots hurt, and pulling out the painful lashes makes it stop hurting. I find the painful ones actually come out more easily than the other eyelashes.

But my lashes tend to hurt more when I'm stressed. Sometimes, I'll pull out bunches, leaving little bare spots. Pulling them out relieves some of my stress.
During good times, I don't feel the urge to pull at them at all.



Does anyone else have a similar problem?

Last edited by CleverKitten on 27 Nov 2008, 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I used to pull out my hair and eyelashes. I only pull out my eyelashes sometimes now.

just curious did you try something else to stop this urge?

Like what?

only in traffic... To be honest, at my age, I'm just trying to keep the stuff on my head...

I don't get the urge to pull my hair out, but I get the urge, quite often to just shave it all off and go bald, it's only the exposure that I'd feel that keeps me from doing it. (so unfair that a guy can get away with it, with no body blinking an eye, but a girl....)

Oh good grief, something else I didn't realise was an actual "thing", but is a part of me. I find pulling out hair very satisfying and can find it difficult to stop once I get started. It's another childhood behaviour in me that has been toned down; I used to think it was funny as a kid to pull out clumps of hair... and put them on other kids heads (wtf?!). I used to pull out my eyeslashes aswell but don't do that so much anymore (due to vanity). I don't yank them out but I do still pull at them and some come free.

No, but I once dated a girl who literally ripped the hair out of her head when I wore the wrong shirt (dark blue instead of white). That was the last time I ever asked her out.

I have always had the urge to pull stray hairs from my head. When my wife and I were dating that drove her nuts, because we'd be sitting down for dinner or driving in the car, and suddenly I'd go for her hair. Freaked her out every time. She never got used to it, but eventually I stopped. Now a few years later, the only hairs I pull out of my head are the grey ones which I have way too many of!

I have it for about 10 years now; started around 1998 (I'm 25). I used to do it a lot, I mean like I would sit there for about 10 minutes just tugging away at every hair that didn't feel right. Good hing my hair is thick so it doesn't show, but I could see areas where the hair is thinner because of it. I don't do it much anymore because my hair is thinning on it's own so I kind of scared myself out of doing it from a fear of going bald. The urge is still there and i do pull a hair once every while (about 3-5 hairs a week). It sucks to have trich because I know that the urge to pull will never really go a way and it's something I will always have to control mentally. Unfortunately, there really isn't anything out there that will effectively make you stop; the only thing you can do is to really try to control yourself. I don't know what addiction is like in terms of drugs/alcohol, but I assume the urge to pull is as close to it as I personally know - not easy. Try not to do it as much as possible.

My Asperger son 10 year old, tries to pull my hair and bite me on the arm when he gets manic, but he never really hurts me though, and he is tapering off a lot the last few months.