trichotillomania - anyone else?

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I pick the hangnails/cuticles on my fingers, mostly my thumbs. Once in a great while I will pick my feet, but that is rare.

It is a stress-relief -- and an unconscious habit. In my head, I want to make the skin smooth by picking off the "rough" patches, but logically I know that picking off the rough patches will only make them even more rough in the future. The sad part is that when I do manage to quit for a few weeks, my skin looks great but it still feels rough, so the temptation is always there.

It is embarrassing, but very, very tough to quit. Painting my nails helps. I can manage perhaps for a few days or even a few weeks, but then always comes back if I am really stressed out, and it only takes a few minutes of unconscious picking. It is easier to avoid it if I am not eating gluten & dairy (both lab-tested intolerances). I do it the most at work, so typically they look the best on Mondays and the worst on Fridays.

My Dad, who is classic AS but not diagnosed, picks his scabs. For this reason, I believe this is probably some type of genetic compulsion. It is weird if we are sitting next to each other and doing it. But we've never discussed that we do this.

Does anyone have any statistics for how common this type of hair-pulling, skin-picking behavior is in AS? I *have* to think they are related.

Heck, I've been plucking my pubic hair for YEARS! I've been doing it so long, I no longer feel any pain. Lots safer than shaving--and no razor bumps, either. Just an occasional ingrown hair when it grows back. Started in my teens on a hot summer day (clipped most of it short, in the beginning). Much, much cooler! Drives a lot of guys wild! (FWIW: a Friend-with-Privileges used an electric shaver to shave ALL his pubes; made giving head quite enjoyable; no more stray hairs getting stuck between my teeth! )

Why not go for arm hair instead? A little less obvious. When someone asks, just tell 'em the truth--nervous habit. (Or try for "small pesky splinter you can feel, but can't seem to get out". That's worked for me for years.)

Missing eyebrows/eyelashes can be passed off as a type of alopecia areata. BTW: Eyebrows are there for a reason--they're supposed to divert sweat from our eyes. Eyelashes are there to help keep stuff out of our eyes, too--like stray hair.

I have some long hairs on my upper legs I deliberately leave there to be removed as needed in summer.

Sores, at least in summer, can be passed off as something like a mosquito bite that's gotten infected & you find annoying...or you had a run-in with a thorn-bush (rose, raspberry, blackberry, honey locust, cactus, etc.) & it's itching horribly while healing. Both excuses have worked very well for me for many years.

Hope this helps....

I've had trich since I was 9. Started with by pulling out all my eyelashes (they grew back) and now I mainly pull from my fringe. Which is why it usually looks s**t I hate my hair.

i think bald chicks are hot

I've pulled eyebrows and lashes since I was about twelve, but I've been doing Acceptance Commitment Therapy aimed at trichotillomania for a few months now, and it's all grown back (yey!) One less thing to be anxious about when people stare me in the face.

My skin-picking seems to be getting worse though, I guess I'm compensating.

I do, but not to the point of obvious bald spots.

I constantly rub my eyebrows and play with my hair. I annoy myself doing it so probably it is annoying to others. I go through phases of pubic hair plucking. It doesn't hurt- I am fascinated by it. Sometimes I will spend up to an hour just sitting on the toilet plucking. I really get obsessed with it.

i've never thought about it as an obsession or compulsion.
but i do pull out eyelashes and eyebrow hair. i think of it more like a thinning process. not sure if this counts.

I started pulling out hair from my scalp and public hair when I was in junior high. I don't have bald spots-- but the re-growth always looks silly cuz it sticks up I am also one of those people who eats the hair. I know I need to stop before I get digestive problems going on...but its a long time habit. I definitely do it more when I am stressed or intensely thinking.

I ripped out my hair as a result of extreme stress and depression. My parents are the cause of it but they refuse to acknoledge it. If they would just listen to me and support me once and a while and shut up about "Plan B" and encourage my "Plan A". Ripping out my hair is so soothing. I know it shouldn't be.

I pulled my hair out all the time as a kid and had a bad bout of depression recently and pulled my hair because it was the only way to get relief.

I suddently begin to pull my hair two weeks ago, and it increased until a paroxysm three days ago... when I noticed I had a bald spot on the top of my skull. So I forced me to stop.

Trich has been a real b***h lately. My hair is getting so thin now, it makes me cry sometimes. Terrified of being bald.

i suppose this might qualify to be on the far ragged edge of trich- whenever i see an ingrown hair underneath a bump of skin, i have to stop what i am doing and extricate it, free it from its fleshy prison, as it were.

I remember doing it for as long as I can remember. It started to get worse around age 10. Now it is common to find me twisting my hair around my left hand fingers, to the point it gets "dreaded" and knotted up. I do it while going on the computer, watching TV, reading, working, riding the subway, I even do it in my sleep! I don't have any bald spots, but my hair is quite broken with a lot of split ends.