Plucking Out Hair (Trichotillomania)
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Plucking Out Hair (Trichotillomania)
Oct 2004
Can anybody give me some advice on hair pulling, I have a 3
year old who's been pulling hair for the last year, and
it's getting real bad. I have started to hold his hands and
tell him no and to stop because it hurts. and i also have
swatted him on the side of his leg, but I think it hurts me
more than it does him. He attends pre school ans pulls hair
3 to 4 times a day everyday! help
A few months ago I read a column in the paper by a child
psychologist about hair pulling. I was impressed with his answer
to a family who's little girl was pulling her hair...He said
tell the child she may pull her hair, but she has to go into the
bathroom to do it. She can stay in there as long as she wants
and pull as much as she wants to, but she can only pull her hair
in the bathroom...that is her hair pulling place.Not a
punishment, just her place to pull her hair.
Apparently this worked well for this family. The girl stopped
pulling her hair within a week and her bald spots filled in with
new and healthy hair.
THe parents stopped pleading and giving any attention to the
hair pulling, except to remind the child to go into the bathroom.
The point being that the hair pulling was getting so much
attention for the child, that why should she stop pulling...even
negative attention is acceptable when you really want attention.
If you thnk this might help you, you'd have to ask the teachers
at your son's school to help you out on this...same thing, if he
wants to pull his hair at pre-school he has to go into the
bathroom, or into a particular corner or part of the room, alone
to do it.
Good luck.
anon
Hair pulling (trychitilomania--sp?) may have a neurophysical
component and/or be situationally induced by something in your
child's home and/or school life. At any rate, hair pulling is
considered a behavior of anxiety. I would urge you not to slap
your child's thigh or do anything punitive. It is frustrating as
hell (my daughter has a friend who does it--they are
adolescents--and my daughter used to be irritated by it (and want
to smack her friend's hand) until I had my daughter read about
the condition). The child, by the way, is being treated,
successfully, with cognitive behavior therapy.
I sympathize but urge you not to be punitive, mentally or
physically. Your kid can likely not help him/herself.
Meds and therapy seem to work around this one.
Good luck
Dec 2002
A 4year old girl in our family plucks her hair out and eats it.
She has never had a haircut but is completly bald. There is more
to her behavior than just pulling her hair out but I will not
get into it. It seems to me that this behavior needs some
attention. Does anyone have anything to say about it? Please
help.
worried relative
This condition is called Trichotilomania. You can surely find
information on the web. It is treatable.
Good luck
It's called trichotillomania and it's a treatable, obsessive-
compulsive type disorder. There's a place in the South Bay,
Santa Cruz maybe?, dedicated to helping people with it. Their
web address is http://www.trich.org.
Get her some help while she's
young; maybe it'll be easier to deal with.
anon
Her condition is called tricatellamania (sp?)...sorry, don't
know how to spell it. I have it too and never got treated for it
and wished that i did. I had it since I was 15 years old. I've
heard that it is more common in women than in men, and it
is usually associated with some kind of childhood traumatic
experience. I've had some bad experiences from my
childhood, but I never talked to a psychiatrist about it to
know wether or not it is related. Apparently there is a
specific medication that helps with it. One of the symptoms
in older children and adults is shame and embarrasment.
That is why i haven't seeked out help. I strongly encourage
you to speak up or seek help for this child. It could be a sign
that something very stressful or traumatic is going on for
her. It shouldn't be ignored. My condition was ignored when
I was young...a big mistake. I now have areas of my hair that
will never grow back.
Anon
Your child needs to see a pediatric psychologist. Another possibility
would be going to a Pediatric Dermatologists first. These kids
usually respond to medical therapy for a six month period of time. I
had one patient who stopped pulling out her own eyelashes and hair and
then even pulled out the hair and ate it of her Barbie. It is
correctable.
Don't Worry But get it Treated
I have a VERY similar sort of behavior. There is actually a name
for it, trichotillomania. You can find out more about it at
http://www.trich.org/
. It's basically a form of impulse
control/obsessive compulsive disorder. It can be associated
with other similar disorders/habits (for example, I also
compulsively doodle, destroy napkins and roll them into little
balls, chew pens, etc.) As with other disorders of the type the
typical treatments are cognitive behavior therapy and drugs. The
girl's parents would do well to take her to a psychiatrist with
experience in this type of disorder
anon
Hair pulling or plucking anywhere on the body is also called
Trichotillomania and is a subset of Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder (OCD), and has to do with altered brain chemistry and
possibly genetics. You can get a vast amount of information
about it by searching with that word at www.Google.com - for
example www.trich.org and others
Also there is a yahoo group for people with Trichotillomania
that you could join and ask questions. I found then just now for
you, again by using Google
groups.yahoo.com/group/Trichotillomania-friends/
''A community to support people with trichotillomania (compulsive
hair pulling). We aim to discuss, help and mutually support each
other in our efforts to understand and control this impulse
control disorder. We are a group of lay people who have lived
with this difficult condition for some time.
Anyone who has trich or has a relative or friend with trich is
welcome to join. We aim to include all opinions and age groups
and talk on issues mainly related to trich but also sharing some
of our other lives.''
Good luck!
Christine
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