My Story...

First off, just let me say that I am so happy to have found this forum. For awhile, I believed that my problem was unknown, and I felt like the only person until I did research.

I have always been a rather addictive person, but never really "depressed." It started out when my sister was doing my make-up with waterproof mascara. When I went to take it off, I forgot that it was waterproof, so I ended up pulling out a large number of my eyelashes. I really hated it, but I loved the feeling. So I kept pulling out my eyelashes. By summertime, I had to eyelashes on my upper lids. I became more observant with hair. I noticed I had some split ends, and I hate split ends. Instead of getting my hair cut, the only "logical" way I thought of to totally get rid of them was to just pull them out. They would just come back if I got my hair cut. Over the summer, my eyelashes grew back, but I had a small bald spot along my hairline. When school started in fall, and people questioned me about it, I just came up with the excuse, "my sister pulled it out." I couldn't think of anything else.

But I soon found out it was best to leave my hairline alone, so I moved on to the sides and back of my head. The hair on my hairline grew back out, and I had no more bald spots, but my hair was obviously thinning. Towards the end of the year, I liked pulling from the back of my head, so I got a very very small bald spot right behind my hairline, so when I walked, I kept my head down to hide it.

So now it's summertime again, and since the beginning, I've been pulling large amounts of hair out of the area right above my left ear. Once I noticed I had a bald spot, I moved to the area above my right ear. Now I have a bald spot there, too. My sister noticed the one on the left when she was doing my hair for family pictures, and I told her I've had this problem for about a year now. We talked to my mom about it, and she said she would schedule an appointment for me as soon as she could. Would OCD medicine really work?

Does hair-pulling run in the family? My aunt constantly pulls out hairs on her leg, she'll sit on her porch with tweezers and glasses and pull. Also with her eyebrows. My sister pulls out her eyebrows too, and it got to one point where she had almost no eyebrows that she would draw them on. But I obviously experienced the highest form of tichotillomania in my family.

Can anyone help? Is there something I can do? I really hate this. I want it to grow back. If anyone needs pictures, I'll be happy to post some...

I am 14 , by the way.

Hi,

It's strange that you mention 'OCD medicine', because I was just about to tell you how I believe Trich. and OCD are remarkably similar in how they manifest themselves. It seeems that Trich. is just one of many different types of OCD, with others being things such as arranging things neatly obsessively, washing hands obsessively, etc. There is no OCD-specific medicine though, but one that could be prescribed is an SSRI. This would certainly help you out, but they're not a magic type of pill... ...you'll have to be patient when taking them and try very hard to overcome the Trich. Were you offered medication?

Kevin

Not yet. My mom is planning on scheduling an appointment for me, and I think it's so easy to talk about this problem with her, since she has minor OCD. But she says that it medicine might not work.

My hair is thin to begin with. I thought that over the summer it would be easy for me to stop, and I could go back to school with a little more hair, but I'm going to be going back with less. I know people are going to talk about me, I hate that feeling. I've read people's stories about how they've pulled for over 5, or more years, and how it's almost impossible for them to stop. I want to stop before it becomes that hard.

Hi,

That doesn't mean to say that you'll be having this problem for that length of time, and you know this. Much of those people might not have received help for their problem, and may have gone through it all alone. You, however, have your mother and soon you will have a doctor to talk to about it. Through communication with these people, the strain that Trich. places on you should be reduced to a level that allows you to easily get on with other things in life. Just please try to be optimistic about it, if you can

Kevin