trichotillomania

[epona]

does anyone else do this?
for anyone who doesnt know, trichotillomania is the urge to pull out eyelashes, hair, eyebrows...its usually associated with OCD
i didnt even know what it was until id done it for a while and googled it. i havent done it in a while now...but for a while i had to pencil in my eyebrows since id completely pulled them out, and my eyelashes are still in the process of growing back...thankfully im good with makeup, and im fair-haired and pale so its hardly noticeable. i got a wakeup call when i found myself wanting to pull hair from my head...i stopped before it went that far
still, its frustrating. id never even heard of anyone else doing it before..anyone else on here struggle with this?

[guesswho]

well i dont, but my sister has ocd and pulls out all her hair
not like clumps, but one strand at a time
its all over the house- its so gross!
shes on ocd meds and still does it :(

[silver_elf]

I don't pull at my eyebrows/eyelashes or hair but I do pluck my arms, legs, armpits etc (instead of waxing which would obviously be a lot easier) especially when I am stressed out. I don't think it's quite the same thing though. but it's def related to SI.

[epona]

it might be a form of the same thing..i pluck at my arms too. i only ever do it when im reallyyyy stressed out..but yeah its definitely a form of SI

[Jacklinger]

I pluck my eye lashes because they're so damn long and numerous they often fall out and land in my eye and I hate that. So I try to pull them out before then. If I leave them alone they get so long and thick it makes my eyes look almost girlish and that's a bit emberrasing.

I don't really pluck my eyebrows but I do clean them sometimes outside of regular showering, to get all the ones that have fallen out but are still stuck in there. Sometimes they fall into my eyes too.

I never considered I might have an OCD.

I also like to pop my neck when I'm sitting too long. It feels good and loosens up my neck alot but I look silly doing it.

[Boy_cano]

there is a name for this?!

i used to pull out my eyelashes and some other stuff.

thanks for posting this :)

[epona]

@jacklinger - i think its more a sign of OCD when you dont have a reason for doing it, so you might be okay. i only started during an extremely stressful period a few months ago and its been hell stopping - i really dont want to do it (my eyelashes were the only thing i liked about myself) but i couldnt stop..i felt like i had to do it or i wouldnt relax. of course id then proceed to be upset over my bald eyes lol...not really productive. and i clean up my brows with tweezers, but this i would just do with my fingers til they were completely gone :/ thank god for makeup lol
@boy_cano - glad to help, i had no idea either and a google search wasnt very helpful, so its good to get feedback from you guys :)

[InMotion]

Hey, I used to have issues with this, which were pretty serious. For a few years I used to pull out my hair (on my head only), mostly because I liked the sound, then just couldn't stop doing it. In my second year of secondary school (UK schooling for high school), one of my friends laughed and said that I had a bald patch. That was what woke me up to what I was doing, and that pretty much stopped me doing it. :) I still do on occassion, but I only found out recently that it was called trichotillomania myself. Unfortunately, I now have dermotillomania, which is picking at your skin. =/
Can't escape really, can you? XP
OCD ForTheLose.

[els103]

Thank you so much for posting this... it shows that there are others in the same situation as you.
I started as a sort of habit like biting nails or something when i was about 9, and it hasn't stopped to be honest. I hate having to make excuses to friends, such as that i burnt my hair or caught it in my hairbrush, but its impossible to stop. I mean its not huge clumps of hair for me, its single strands. I've never pulled eyelashes or eyebrows.. i'm so happy that you managed to stop, and i know the frustration at suddenly finding your doing it without even realising.
Do you have any solutions as to how you stopped? or sidetracked yourself or anything? Thanks so much for posting this again, its good to see your not alone.

[Wannabe Beauty]

Me and my younger brother suffer with this, along with other forms of SH.
I managed to stop doing it, almost. I mainly do it with eyelashes (I got to the point where I had very little and currently my brother has none) and my eyebrows (I don't think he does this though). I do it without even realising most of the time.
I tried to become more aware of what I was doing, it was so embarrassing when people noticed. I hated it so much.
I got to the point where eyelashes, eyebrows and hair on my hair just fell out, and the roots were bruised.
When I realised if I kept doing it that it wouldn't grow back, I did something about it.
I wore gloves in bed, since I do it most often when I'm trying to get to sleep.
And I really think if I need to do it, and I put cold water on my skin to ease irritation.
I'm most commonly triggered by something getting in my eye. I pull out a lot of eyelashes.
I make sure I go to the bathroom, if it turns out I get it out then I'm much less likely to do it.

Also, I got a lot of sh*t for it. Everyone laughed and no one understood.
I was lucky enough to have a very considerate friend, who basically beat anyone up who mentioned it. :P
I found out by watching Teenage Embarrassing Bodies and then I searched it on Wikipedia.

If anyone is having any trouble feel free to drop me a message, I know how much of a pain this can be.
And it can be overcome! I rarely do it any more, and the hair has grown back. :D

Stay strong~ x

[silver_elf]

Yeah I have really bad dermotillomania
I can't not pick at my skin. It's awful.

[leivina]

I don't suffer from any serious compulsions to do it now, but I think it's because when I was in elementary school I pulled out enough to form a noticeable bald spot on the top of my head. The hair towards the back of my part feels coarser than the strands in the front, and I have always found it deeply satisfying to pull out course, thick, or kinky hairs. Seeing the little bulby part at the base of a hair always makes me feel like I've pulled something gross and impure out of my body. Anyway, I was sitting at my desk bored after a standardized test, and I just kept pulling out strand after strand. After awhile I noticed that quite a lot of hair had piled up on my desk, so I stopped. I have no idea why the teacher didn't notice or say anything to me. I'm short, so I know that all of my classmates must have seen it but been too polite to say anything. I was mortified and very self conscious about it. Once my mom noticed she started helping me put may hair in a tight ponytail so that the spot would be covered, and I would only wear my hair in a ponytail for years afterward.

Like I said, it's not causing me any trouble now, but I do still find pulling out hairs very satisfying. Now I just put all that energy towards grooming certain areas. ;)