Sunday, October 29, 2006

Trichotillomania

When I was younger, I used to play with my eyelashes. My mom kept telling me to stop, so I finally did. My hand just moved from my eyelashes to my hair though. I started to play with my hair, cutting it from its split ends, or sometimes from the roots. I never really understood why I did it. Didn't even notice that I was. Somehow, my hand just found its way and started on its own.

It's digusting. It's a nasty habit. But it's just that, a habit! Something that happens automatically, without me even realizing that I was doing it. It took me years to try to get past it. Al7mdl'Allah, since I put on the 7ejab, it's a lot easier now. I don't have access to my hair most of the day. That managed to curb the temptation.

I just discovered today that it's an actual 'disorder'! It's called Trichotillomania. Here's the definition according to Wikipedia:

Trichotillomania (TTM) or "trich" is an impulse control disorder characterized by the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair, eyelashes, beard hair, nose hair, pubic hair, eyebrows or other body hair. It may be distantly related to obsessive-compulsive disorder, with which it shares some similarities.

80% of those afflicted are female.

9 comments:

Yazeed said...

looooooool
pubic hair!
who pulls that :P

i'm glad u got over it before, erm, it was too late :P

MSB said...

yazeed: i figured someone was gonna point that out! little did i know it was gonna be the kid w/the cutest smile :P

Seroo said...

AH! that's me!

All my friends tell me off for pulling my hair out... it's a habit I can't control - especially when i'm supposed to be concentrating at work... ESPECIALLY when my Boss is staring at me as I feel individual hairs on my head and *pluck* one comes out!

horrible, horrible habit... i should revert to biting my nails...!

Yazeed said...

amasheeha lich this time
bas 3ashan ur comment about my baby pic :P

just dont over use it :)

MSB said...

seroo: try to get out of the habit as soon as possible. the longer it takes, the more difficult it gets. good luck!

yazeed: hehe mashkoor... inshAllah!

June said...

I read about this somewhere! They call them "trich-sters". Apparently a lot of actresses do this and sometimes it gets to a point where it's so bad, there are patches. Al7amdellah you were able to stop. Sounds painful.

MSB said...

june: yeah i saw it on tv.. some people end up with bald patches!! scary really..

Dakhtour said...

It's better than playing with ur nose :P
Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Anonymous said...

All of you commenting are horribly uninformed. It's not a habit, it's not something 'actresses' do, and it's not something you can just STOP. You're as ignorant as the next person. Try researching it a bit more at www.trich.org before you offend even more people like myself who have had this for their entire life.

And to the original poster who has this - please seek help; and know there are many people out there who struggle with this like you do.