What helps you not pull?

I have to admit that trichotillomania and associated symptoms are hard hard hard to give up. Unlike all other symptoms of OCD, this one feels really good.

Here's my list of guilty pleasures:
1) hair tweezing on face and body
2) eyebrow pulling with fingers
3) zit squeezing on face and body
4) Skin peeling (this is especially satisfying after a good suntan)
5) Scab picking
6) cuticle pulling with a tweezer
7) Playing with my top lip

And here's my advice. No one is perfect, and you wouldn't imagine what might go on behind some people's closed doors. So don't feel guilty about it. Enjoy it, because it truly is the only part of our disease that brings us any pleasure.

Ok. Wanna know MY secret?
GOD.
"I can do all things through Christ who strenthens me." ~Philippians 4:13 .
I LIVE by that verse.
Yes, I AM a regular 14 year old teenager. I DO have struggles. I just have God by my side and He takes the load off of me.
I was a puller for 4 years. I am now 64 days sane and counting. The day I stopped was the day that my mom caught me for the 5th time, threatening to cancel my 15s and send me to a psycologist if i didnt stop. That night, I surrendered completely to God and left it in His Hands. Every since that day, I have not pulled a single strand of hair from my head and my hair is growing back gradually.
Trust me, I KNOW what it is like to go through this. Lying to my friends and family about why I'm missing chunks of hair, saying you stopped when you really haven't. I KNOW.

God knows. And He loves you. And He wants nothing less but the best for you and beyond.
Leave it in His Hands. If God is with you, then who can be against you?
God bless you all ♥

Hi, I'm new here - came here after searching through a number of forums for trichotillomania issues. I've had trich for over 15 years. It started out when I was doing my finals in uni, though I did not know what it was till a couple of years ago. It's focused mostly on my scalp, and usually when I'm stressed and worried. Now, I'm studying for exams in my postgraduate course, and realized I had to do something about it when I realized after one hour that I had ended up with a lot of hair all over myself and no studying done.

What has worked for me now, is tying a bandana around my head. What has psyched me about this method is that I thought what it would do was only physically stop my fingers from reaching my hair and discourage pulling, but now I have found that it's actually stopping the urge of sending my hands to my hair at all. I can't fathom the link, but it has worked. I have to stress that I really have very strong urges, have had them for a long time to the point where I would spend hours in a trance like state pulling hair sometimes, even when I'm not stressed - other suggestions like keeping my hands occupied, rubber bands, etc just never worked.

I have tried it for a week, and strangely, the desire to pull seems to have faded even when I take it off. I am definitely thinking of continuing after exams. While there are limited situations in which I can actually wear it, I'm hoping that continued use will cause the urges to fade.

MaxineRyder wrote:I have to admit that trichotillomania and associated symptoms are hard hard hard to give up. Unlike all other symptoms of OCD, this one feels really good.

Here's my list of guilty pleasures:
1) hair tweezing on face and body
2) eyebrow pulling with fingers
3) zit squeezing on face and body
4) Skin peeling (this is especially satisfying after a good suntan)
5) Scab picking
6) cuticle pulling with a tweezer
7) Playing with my top lip

And here's my advice. No one is perfect, and you wouldn't imagine what might go on behind some people's closed doors. So don't feel guilty about it. Enjoy it, because it truly is the only part of our disease that brings us any pleasure.

o_0

Dammit! You are absolutely right to call these guilty pleasures. I have most of the same habits and they do feel really good. It can be therapeutic when I'm stressed out or miserable. There is just something so satisfying about plucking a short, stubborn eyebrow hair, popping a big fat zit, ripping open a scab, or yanking out that stupid eye lash that's lighter than all the rest. It drives me nuts and then finally feels like some sort of victory.

I've been battling with pulling since I was 8 or 9. Only when i got to the age of 13, when I started having to do my own hair in the morning, and my mum couldn't help me hide it anymore did it bother me.
I tried elastic bands, stress toys, and all of the most obvious things to try, but the frustration of nothing working caused me to cut. Everytime I noticed myself pulling I'd cut. But then I realized that not only did I have to hide bald patches, but I had to hide cuts as well. So i battled the cutting and have cut down on it a lot now. But I still had the problem of the hair pulling.
I could hide my eyelashes easily with very thick eyeliner, but not my head, so I started pulling out pubic hairs, but that still didn't help, because when I was out and about in school I'd STILL find my hand on my head.
Next I got suggested fake nails. These did work! But I couldnt do anything with them on. I just can't stand having long nails.
I've now got no ideas left, but maybe some of these ideas could help you lot (: At the moment I'm just pulling as evenly as I can throught my head, so my hair is extremly thin, but has few bald patches and I'm waiting for my dermmatch to come in the post ^.^

pony tails and buns help. I love my hair nice and long but my hands find it and pull. A hair do with a lot of hair spray helps too. plus anything that takes both my hands to do. Crotchet etc. Can't pull and do chores.

carpe_diem189 wrote:
I tried physical distractions like chewing gum or putting socks on my hands at night, but I personally think trich is a mental deal...Does your hand literally force itself to pull?

Mind over matter sounds like a good trick. I don't have trichto myself, but it seems this sort of impulse-control would carry over well to other mental illnesses or compulsive behaviors, as well.

this simple method http://www.uke.de/kliniken/psychiatrie/ ... 9_2_10.pdf

I use this method for 3 months and really helps,and I am pull-free!

here is a picture of my eyelashes, they all grown back!
http://www.forum.hr/image.php?u=121447& ... type=thumb

I don't know if anyone else is the same but I tie knots in my hair and then pull it out and I find that if I'm just sitting at home then just having some string to tie knots in helps. I doesn't quite feel the same but it keeps my hands away from my hair.

Ok, this is only the second day I have been able to get away with this but it has worked for the last 48 hrs. I pull my eyebrows. Got them tattoed which was a great decision. But after that instead of having holes in my eyebrows I pulled them all out, because I could. They stay there. Anyway I started using tweezers because they were too short to get with my fingers. Until yesterday I had absolutely no hair in my eyebrow tats. SO I am now trying to 'color OUTSIDE' of the lines. I was hungover yesterday and didn't even take my tweezers out of my purse. Today I have only plucked what is outside of the tat. I was getting bad and digging til I bled to get one stupid hair. I paid a lot of money for these permanent eyebrows and I am ruining them.
I'm still rubbing them but they're still too short to get w my fingers. I have about 5 real hairs in each eyebrow. Not fantastic but I'm trying to control myself as much as I can.
I'll let you guys know if I can keep it up. I know I'm still pulling, but I will be proud of myself if I can quit tearing up my tats n even more happy of I can have hair where my eyebrows should be.
Don't know if this helps but can't hurt!