Trichotillomania Awareness; Road to a better Mental Health & less picking

Good morning!

Today I wanna talk about some Trichotillomania awareness, which ofcourse is something I now realize that I had been living with all my life.. however things has moved to the worst for the past, idk- 2yrs ? I have both Trichotillmania & dermatillomania, which i’ll explain to you in a second; but for decades it had been mild enough where I would only pick at my eyebrows a few time, or on my dog’s fur (*IMP without hurting them), or do things like chew on the side of my mouth etc.

Related; Do you need to fidget while reading, my fight with trichotillomania

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I’m new, what is Trichotillomania? 

It’s one of what we call BFRB (Body-focused repetitive behavior), which is a mental health condition that your body use as a coping mechanism to soothe itself. It might be conscious, or subconscious; for me it happens when i’m trying to fall asleep or when i’m concentrating on reading my book.

Trichotillomania is the word for people that pick/pull on their hair, while dermatillomania is the word for skin picking & scratching.

 

Of course, people have different triggers – it can relate from anxiety, ADHD, or even autism. The best way to learn to cope with it is mainly to un-learn the BFRB and rewrite your brain to have a healthier fidgetting option instead .. which will obviously need some time & effort to fix, but not impossible.

This screenshot of one of my instagram’s post in May ’23, when it started to become more evident. You can see both my left eyebrow being over-plucked aswell as the scabby bald spot on the side of my head. It slowly went upward onto the crown of the back of my head- this side currently growing except for a small spot.

Eventually, as I was spraying a load of Pure Silver Spray to soothe my angry scalp, I started to lay down on the plucking and it wa also growing and looking less big in shape. However, as my mother broke her kneecap, I received more stress as I had to keep working per usual along with taking care of my mother, doing housework, and receiving her angry about being forced home … so I started plucking again.

 

Here’s a picture of how it looks like now.. which is quite a bigger area than it was, despite the move, which is quite easy to cover between my hair; easier than the side of my head had been.

 

 

With that stressful event gone, now’s time to try to learn how to manage it properly. I’ll be talking to my Dr later this week as I needed prescription renewed & a routine blood test, so i’ll ask if he could prescribe me some relaxant that I could take at night time to help ease my insomnia. That can help for that trigger of fidgeting with my bald spot in my “trying but can’t sleep” trigger.

As for the next one, I find that the animal shaped stress ball that I got at the dollar store is quite too big for my need, so i’m gonna try other fidget toys that I can use while reading. Something rather small that can fit in one hand- as I usually hold my book by one hand, and use the other to pick at my scalp .. Now the big problem is that I don’t really wanna reach for it, as it sure is easier when the fidget in question is attach to yourself 😆

 

Wish me luck! xx

 

have you heard of those conditions before?