trichotillomania - anyone else?

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I've been pulling my hair out since I was 11 or so. Mostly happens when either my hair is long or I'm stressed out / anxious. Was doing better until my job moved me to another building where people can walk in on my workspace. Old workspace was all way on the other side of the campus underground where people didn't bother me. Felt much safer -- here I feel too exposed. And people can walk over to my desk and start picking up my tools / messing around with my stuff. I hate that.

Me! Since i was 10...started at the end of grade 4. Generally when I'm stressed, anxious, confused, often the foregoing are regarding decision making, even if it's something like how to format my work. I pull from my head and there are patches. Went to TONS of therapy for trich, and no one went further. Most recent therapist thinks it's a coping mechanism for feeling different.

It gets better when I'm around people all the time (e.g. group vacation/tour) or when there is the right amount of stress in my life.

Zarshmagarsh: I'm the opposite about workspaces! I have my own secluded office, and I pull because I'm not around people. If I had a cubicle where people were always coming in I would pull less out of fear that people could see.

I have it and it ranges from hair on your head to your eyelashes to even other hairy areas.
Some guys even make themselves go bald from it.

I have this problem, my eyebrows suffer the most, they often have slight bald patches...

Any advice on stopping this? It's not too bad, it's not really noticable but a few year ago I picked an eyebrow off...

i do. everyday since i was 15.

i did research a couple years ago and it was suggested that eliminating caffeine had the biggest impact on reducing hair pulling. i haven't tried that method yet...

i doesn't bother me so much, but it annoys people that are around me. they can't understand why i don't just stop. it doesn't bother me that they are bothered so i haven't put too much effort into trying to control it.

apparently it is just another way to stim.

I used to pull out my eyelashes when I was a kid, now I just 'twirl' my hair when I'm concentrating on something else, like watching TV- wrap it around my fingers as tight as it'll go, then move onto another piece...The Darth Maul look, lol. I had my hair cut a few years ago and I hated not being able to twirl it, so I grew it again to a twirlable length.

I have a thing about loose hair - anyone else have this? I can't stand loose hairs on people's clothes, if I'm sitting behind someone on a bus with them on their shoulders I have to stop myself picking them off.

Yes.
I started pulling hair from my scalp when I was 13, after bullying in the previous year at school. I ended up making a bald patch about the size of an Aust 50c piece which made me wear my hair with a side part for numerous years thereafter until the hair grew back again. I made more bald patches on my scalp a few years later on the top of my head around my middle part (I still pull it from there every so often....those annoying short strands). These days, it's mostly my lashes and the occasional bout on my scalp. It's hard for me to grow nice long neat hair because of it. I end up with short flyaway strands everywhere .

Yes, I've done it since I can remember, pulling hair from my head, and pick at scabs. I manage to control it if I'm around people, but I guess this is just one of the many things that makes being around people more stressful - not being able to stim.

Being a hairy female I use tweezers and a mirror to pluck eyebrows and eyelashes. If I don't do it regularly, my eyelashes poke me in the eye and my eyebrows would just look bad. I don't get any stimming satisfaction out of it unfortunately, it's just a grooming necessity like shaving and showering.

I have terrible dermotillimania and have done since I was a child. Didn't know what it was until my friend with trich saw it referref to on one of her forums and mentioned it to me. It very definately flares up when I am stressed.

I have very mild trich but not enough that it's a problem.

the CURE is just dunk your head in EXtremly cold water, repeatedly, this is how i cured myself.
and i'm not kidding.

Yep. Done this since I was 11.
I managed to stop a few times, but now I have lacked both eyebrows and eyelashes for years.
I try cutting my nails down to the quicks but even then I still seem to manage to pull, when I am bored, stressed, tired or unhappy.
I really wish there was a way to stop it as it doesnt help your self esteem to look like a freaky alien.

repeatedly as in every day? or as in several times within a few minutes?

...I may have some -tillomania issues myself. I pull chin hairs and scratch my chin a lot too.

Have you tried Nair? That works for me

No but I tried to cut my own hair once or twice when I was a child. This largely consisted of taking a pair of scissors and randomly hacking away at my hair but still...

I developed it after a bad bout of depression and my parents just make it worse. They don't understand how constantly reminding me how bad I look makes me want to do it more.