Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling) Support Group

i totally underdtand tonight i have been on the web looking for help and guess what i have, a pile of hair on the keyboard. now that is insanity!As far as the tweezers go i have plucked in places too shy to mention.what are we doing? I am an intelligent not crazy woman like i assume we all are ,makes no sense to me, how can i expect anyone else that is not a picker to understand

Tinyt, I'm so so sorry and I DO feel your pain. I'm a single mother and do spend A LOT of time alone when my son's not home. That usually triggers it. Or if I'm procrastinating to keep from doing something I need to do, but don't want to, I start pulling. I usually end up feeling ashamed and helpless after I do it and like nobody in the world would possibly understand. Luckily, I watched a story on 20/20 on Fri. and it opened my eyes to the fact that I'm not the only one on the planet who does this and I don't have to go through it totally alone. I'm learning that this is a very very personal affliction that needs a lot of work.

Hi All..I am new here too, I am 43 years of age, i have been pulling since i was 12..crazy, I wore a wig until I was 32..I finally broke down in my Dr Office and showed him my secret,(it took someone passionate and caring, he was!!! he put me on prozac and sent me to counsil...Counsil did not work!! But my first step was to tell someone that is closest to me..so I told my husband..we were married 5 years before I told him...that changed my life because I had his support..took about 1 year with meds and hard hard work and keeping my hands down..down..down..it was hard and still is but it has worked for me..yes I do have fall backs, I end up pulling behind my ears where no one can see..then I have dreams of having no hair again..I never want to go back to that and that keeps me on track...I CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT MEDS!!! I will be on them for the rest of my life if I want some kind of control over it.I hope this helps...I know what you are dealing with..I cry when hear of this because of the pain it has caused me in my life..High school......uggggggggg..misery for me...please let me know if I can help in any way...when i saw 20/20..I cried so hard because of the pain...P.s My parents still dont know what caused me to go bald..so i have not come completely clean because i am not completely healed..take care..Caryn

I can so relate to your experience JessyB. I just accidentally started combing out my pubic hairs and there was a tangle, then I would lie in bed at nite sifting thru the hairs to see if I could locate another tangle. Everytime I found one there was an accompanying sting and for some reason it was pleasant. Now why that is I will never know. It's something about the dullness of it. I was horrified when I realized that I no longer had pubic hairs and I was out of control with that behaviour. Every time I went to the GYN I would shave clean so no one would suspect. But I wonder what they thought. It was just never discussed.
I progressed from the pubic region to my eyebrows and later to my head.
With the support from the loving people on this site I have been able to make it 19 days pullfree tonight. And this after 30 yrs of insanity. I have been using the reward system and the down down down system. What a relief too. Keep coming back to the site everyday and work it. There is hope !

Welcome. You'll find support here. You said one thing I can say that I know leads to my pulling - "...feeling uncomfortable." Huge for me. But I'm working on changing that. Thanks for sharing your post. I didn't think pulling would last - when I first started - I hardly noticed I was doing it. Now, I notice

Thanks, you guys, for your posts. I'm just so happy to have found this site. I just feel like a "real person" now, if that makes sense. I'm really not the "weirdo" I thought I was. This affects many people and not just me.

Carynlee64, thanks so much for lending your support. I need it. I'm very inspired by your progress, and you have a great support system it seems. I wish you more strength. I balled too when I saw 20/20. I don't think I've ever been that affected by a news story on TV. Obviously it hit close to home. I can't stress enough how much I feel like a "real person" now. It's actually very relieving for me.

Shebepo, I'm with you. Why am I obsessed with pulling hair, especially pubic hair? I mean, I've really been thinking about it since last Fri. Maybe I'm in denial, but the thought comes to me that this is actually a natural thing that kind of stems from animals, evolution. Like, you know how you watch those animal shows and you see how they pick at each other for hours on end looking for bugs or whatever? Well, maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe I'm just crazier than I thought I was. lol

Come over to the Group for more Info. Go to the bar up above with the green links and its the last one.

Try reading the one titled TRICH FACTS first for a better understanding as to what scientist say about the disorder. Then just work your way up the list.

Hope we can help you and give you ideas on how to get this under control.

I so agree. I think it is hardwired into us to want to groom in some sense and the pulling is just somewhat misguided. I also think that we like interesting sensations as a background for emotions and as a way to stabilize those emotions. They are always shouting MAY DAY MAY DAY!
It's a stormy emotional life, that appears calm on the surface.