Do you pull out your hair?

POSTED BY: mspennylane

Do you pull your hair from any part of your body? Do you find it hard to stop? Is it even pleasurable for you to do so?

I do, and it is pleasurable and reassuring. Such actions can be highly embarrassing, but are all associated with a condition known as trichotillomania and you are not alone.

What is Trichotillomania

You may never have heard of this word or of this condition, and to be honest it is a pretty scary word. But it doesn’t need to be. A good start is knowing how to pronounce it. Basically the trich part is pronounced ‘trick’ and the rest is as you would expect (or [trik-uh-til-uh-mey-nee-uh] as the dictionary puts it).

Trichotillomania is often shorted to ‘trich‘, and those suffering with the condition are often referred to as ‘trichsters‘. This is a friendly way of putting it, showing that the condition isn’t as scary as it seemed as first, and there are many, many trichsters out there.

Definition

The dictionary above described trichotillomania as ‘a compulsion to pull out one’s hair’. This doesn’t convey the half of it. Some people would describe trich as ‘hell’ as ‘crazy’ as ‘stupid’ or ‘ugly’. It can be so hard to understand why it happens, which is why it is easy to get lost thinking in these ways.

But just because trich can be stupid, or trich can be ugly, doesn’t mean that you are. Often people won’t even notice that you have it, or if they do they won’t care. Trichotillomania is a condition, one that hundreds, thousands, millions of people share with you.

This is only a starting point for information about trich. There will be more information to follow, and a good place to go are also forums. See the links section. This blog is here to help, and to raise awareness. It is also here to help me, by learning about my own trich. If you have trich or know about trich, please get in touch!