How to Stop Pulling Your Hair: Dealing With Trichotillomania

Do you get frustrated when your hair starts to fall for no reason? Or do you find it pleasurable? While most people will be annoyed, few pull their hair as it may feel good. These people suffer from an impulse control disorder called Trichotillomania or TTM. It is a disorder where the patient has an irresistible urge to pull out hair from their scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, pubic hair, etc.

This can help them deal with stress and make them feel calm and relieved. If you or someone you know suffers from this condition, keep reading to find out how to deal with it.

What are the Symptoms?

Trichotillomania patients pull off their hair obsessively, generally one strand at a time. Many people might pull them from the same place, creating bald spots. The symptoms usually occur between the ages of 10 and 13 years old.

A person with this disorder might show the following signs:

• Tension before or while resisting the impulse to pull hair
• Feeling relieved, contented, or delighted after acting on a hair-tugging impulse
• Distress or difficulty at work or in their social life as a result of this mania
• Bald spots from where they have plucked it out
• Inspecting the root, twirling, dragging the hair between the teeth, chewing or eating hair 
• A liking for particular hair types or textures
• Pulling fibers from blankets or wigs from doll 
• Covering their head with scarves or hats to hide bald spots. They may also use fake eyelashes
• Playing with pulled-out hair or rubbing it across your lips or face
• Social anxiety because of the development of bald spots
• Skin irritation, thinning hair, itching at the site
• Many patients also pick at their skin, gnaw their nails, or chew their lips

Children with this condition frequently pull their hair. However, it is often a self-soothing activity. This behavior is commonly outgrown by children and may have no long-term consequences. Adolescents and adults with this illness typically have far more serious issues.

Most persons with TTM pull their hair in solitude and strive to hide the disorder from others.

Common Causes

The cause of TTM is unclear. Genetics and environmental factors can play a role here. Certain factors can increase the risk of development of this condition:

• Family History: This illness can be inherited, and individuals with a close family member with this disorder are more likely to develop it.
• Changes in brain structure and chemistry: TTM patients frequently exhibit modifications in areas of their brains or abnormalities in their brain chemistry.
• Stress: For many patients, this mania is a way of coping with stress, anxiety, boredom, loneliness, frustration, etc.
• Age: The symptoms start to appear during puberty between the ages of 10-13. In children, everyone may be affected equally. However, in adults, the disease is predominant in females.
• Menstrual cycle: The hormonal changes at the beginning of a menstrual cycle may have an impact on the symptoms.
• Satisfaction: Pulling out hair can feel good and relieve stress and anxiety for people with this ailment. As a result, individuals continue to pull them to keep these happy feelings going.
• Other conditions: A person with this condition is more likely to have other mental health disorders. These can occur as independent conditions or as a result of TTM (especially anxiety and depression). Some examples include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, depression, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Not everyone who experiences these conditions will experience trichotillomania.

Ways You Can Treat This Behavior

Trichotillomania usually begins during puberty and can last throughout your lifetime. As of now, no cure can completely get rid of this illness. Because stress and anxiety are major drivers, learning to manage our emotions can help you live a nearly normal life. Here are some proven techniques that can aid you in managing this disorder:

Understand Your Triggers

This condition is likely initiated or driven by certain triggers. A trigger is an internal or external stimulus that can compel you to indulge in the condition. Internal cues include thoughts, sensations, and your emotional state. External cues can be people, places, or situations. By identifying these triggers, you can learn better, healthier ways to cope with them, such as habit reversal training and decoupling. A kind of behavioral therapy, habit reversal conditioning, might help you recognize situations you are likely to pull your hair in, and how to substitute it with other things. To illustrate, you can clench your fist instead of tugging your eyebrows.

Use a Fidget Toy or Stress Ball

Using fidget toys or a stress ball can help you deal with distress without creating bald spots. While using a stress ball does not directly reduce the amount of stress, it does reduce the physical experience of intense emotions.

When stress is building inside us, it needs to be released. Some people scream, exercise, and dance to release this build-up. Squeezing a stress ball mimics the same effect. They can give a point of release for stress and help calm and strengthen the nervous system.

Hold the stress ball in your hand and squeeze for up to 5 seconds before releasing. Repeat multiple times until you feel a release of tension.

Another advantage of stress balls is that they are both inconspicuous and socially acceptable. People can use them in public without feeling self-conscious.

Lean on Friends and Family

Suffering from this impulsive disorder can be difficult and overwhelming. Sharing your feelings with your close friends and family can help alleviate your emotional burden. You may avoid socialization because you do not want others to see your bald spots, or you may pull out your hair, but this may lead to isolation and depression. Talk and meet with your loved ones once in a while.

Furthermore, some patients might not be able to figure out their triggers (which is crucial to managing this condition). Sometimes it can be easier for a person on the outside looking in to observe behavioral patterns.

If you live alone or do not have anyone to talk to, consider joining online or in-person support groups. There, you can learn from others, be encouraged by others, and gain confidence by assisting others.

Keep a Journal

Practicing mindfulness is crucial in effective treatment for an impulsivity disorder. Being mindful is a mental state of focused awareness of the present and acknowledgment of thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment. The result is improved self-awareness and reduced self-recrimination.

By practicing mindfulness and becoming more aware of the present, you can identify your pulling behaviors and see if there is a pattern (or triggers). One way to do this is to keep a journal that records the following for each episode:

• Time and location where pulling episodes occurs.
• How long does it last?
• How do you feel when you start? Do you feel tense or bored or any different emotions?
• What causes you to stop?
• How do you feel when you’re done?

Consult with a Trusted Therapist on Docvita Today!

This condition affects many people, but the symptoms can be managed. If you suffer from this condition and have been feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or want to treat this condition, one of the most effective treatment options is therapy. With therapy, you can learn techniques to control your urge. It can also help with your other mental health conditions.

Our kind and compassionate therapists can help you find expert mental health resources to recover.