Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling) Support Group

Drop down to the discussion area, we have a whole post on Stop pulling tips.

You both can read it together and she can choose which ones she thinks she would like to try. I think if she has a say in it that it would work better.

Do not give her a hard time about her pulling, stress will only cause her to pull more. If you can get her to talk to you about what she is feeling when she gets the urge to pull would be helpful.

The bored pulling is the hardest to stop as it's a comfort thing. She prob doesn't even realize she's doing it at this time. We call this "zoning". I'd say the night time is when she's laying there and is thinking about things that are bothering her. Just my opinion.

Thank you, crzychick for your advice. I am just beside myself emotionally about this. I am new to this condition and this site. I will check out the pulling tips. I was hoping that since I discovered this so recently that it would be easier to break the habit. Do you pull yourself? I checked your profile and you are just my age! Any other suggestions or support would be appreciated. I think being on this site will be helpful, but it is also very sad for me to see adults struggling with this their whole lives. I don't want that for my daughter!:( I am hoping and praying it will pass and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen!

I have silly putty that I give my daughter to play with when I notice her pulling. It is helping to keep her hands busy instead of pulling. It's working so far. I was also thinking about getting one of those squish balls that have all the strings or hairs so she can pull those instead of her own hair, but I'm not sure if that would be reinforcing her "habit". I have also hidden all the tweezers, nail clippers, and anything else I have seen her using to help her pull. I also removed all the mirrors from her room and the living room so she can't be off by herself staring in the mirror looking for the "perfect hair". She is also taking Prozac for anxiety disorder and OCD. We recently upped her dosage and that seems to be calming things down too.

I started a parent's group
http://dailystrength.org/groups/pa...
so we can support each other in ways to help our kids that pull or pick

I'm not a parent and I don't know what advise to give maybe just to talk to her in a way that she won't get embarrased and lower her self esteem- so she knows she has all the support and not to be afraid to talk to you about it.i wish u lots of luck and bigs hugs to you and your wee girl xx

I'm glad you found us and that you are so involved in helping her. You need to calm yourself first, she will feel your tension.

Again don't give her a hard time about it. That is the worse thing to do. Believe me if she could stop she would. It's hell to not be able to control your own hands. Don't condone it either no free rein. Work together to find the best hand busy trick that she likes to try.

But the most important thing is that when she does reach up to pull whether she does pull or resists. Instead of just yanking the hand down and going on with whatever she is doing she needs to take a min. or two and think out what it was that bothered her so much that made her feel the need to pull. It might help for her to write it down in a private journal. Have her keep something in the hand she doesn't write with so she doesn't pull while writing down these thoughts without realizing it.

When she can start to figure out what her "triggers" are then she can learn to look out for them and either learn to avoid them or with help learn a new way to deal with them without pulling. When she can do this the urges will get less.

The combo of figuring out the trigger (stress/anxiety) usually and using the hand busy tricks for the bored, "zoning" times is what worked for me.

Find my post in the Discussion area, it might have rolled to page 2 by now. It's called "MY Idea of Trich" It's how I feel about it and maybe it will help a bit.

As for us adults that have had this for so long the reason being is that Trich is not talked about, so many of us, myself included didn't know what it was we had. I only figured it out this past Dec, 07.

Since then I have researched like crazy and used many tips and tricks and I'm glad to say I now have full upper and lower lashes and my brows are filling in daily. So you can get control of this. It's not curable only maintained. So even if she manages to stop pulling now and stays that way for years there could be a time in the future that it could come back. But hopefully what she learns now she can use then to get it under control again .

Hi CElizabeth. I'm right there with you. My 7 year old daughter has been pulling since August. She goes through good times and bad times and it's hard to pinpoint what sets her off. She went through therapy which helped because it got the subject out in the open. She didn't feel like she is the only one who does this. The doctor also gave her distraction techniques. We quit the doctor after about 6 months because she didn't know what else to do.
Hang in there. The support on this site will help you alot.

Once again I am so glad to see concerned parents on here. My mother has had to deal with three kids with trich (myself included) and I don't know half of what she has gone through. All of these stop pulling tips are good, but I think you may want to consider therapy as well. My sister went as a child and I went this past year. It helps to identify triggers and supports and things like that. However, therapy does NOT mean you have to go on meds. You can if you want, but as in my sister's case, my mother decided she was too young to be taking substances they didn't know enough about at the time. It's ultimately your choice but it's just another thing to consider.

It's hard to watch a child go through this. I have the kind of Trich as well where I pull most when I am not paying attention. Putting bandaids on my index fingers when I watch tv at night (or little sleeves you can get for counting money if you want to reuse them). I think your daughter is at the age where she knows she wants to stop, so maybe by reminder her that she is doing it will help her. It definatly helps me.