I have Trichotillomania AMA

It's Mental Health Awareness Week and the focus this year is on stress, so here are two conditions that can be caused by stress - both of which i (unfortunately) have to varying degrees

So i have a disorder called Trichotillomania and it basically "involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows, or other areas of your body, despite trying to stop."

Dermatillomania is similar - it's a skin picking disorder, and i'm happy to answer questions about that too

These can be caused by stress, anxiety and are sometimes seen as a form of OCD.

So ask away!

Are you currently on medications? And when were you diagnosed?

Admire your honesty and courageousness in starting this thread

If it's not too intrusive to ask, was there something that happened to cause you to start pulling your hair/picking your skin, or was it a gradual habit that built up over time?

I'm also interested to hear in what you think are the biggest misconceptions about these conditions and what you would most like people to know about them

thanks
i honestly don't know
nothing big was happening my life around year 6, (and i doubt it was caused by the stress of SATs ) so i think it must of just been a habit which grew, and grew, and grew...
Picking my skin was probably a side effect of pulling my hair - because i pulled head hairs at the back of my head, that area was exposed and i had little tufts starting to grow, which then was itchy, so i'd pull those out and scratch the area, resulting now in lots of scabs which i just seem to re-pick almost everyday


After a while it manifested itself partially into a self confidence thing - so i'd see a hair that wasn't in the right place -> i'd pull it out without a second thought

Biggest misconceptions - people not knowing what it was i guess
I mean i didn't know it was an actual condition (and that's why i didn't all anyone about it) until my friend said that she has it (and that's why she has no eyelashes) about a year ago.

I would most like people to know that it is a proper condition and that it's important that people recognise some of the signs before it goes into a full blown disorder (like my trich)
also that if they do start pulling skin/hair out excessively, then to work back in time to find out what the cause was (e.g. stress/toxic relationships (thus causing anxiety/stress)/anxiety)

did this answer the question?

I just had a quick google and I’m 95% sure I’ve got dermatillomania. The sides of my fingers are literally just crusty bits of skin now I hadn’t realised it was a thing so thank you sooo much for posting this
How are you feeling today?

It did answer my questions, yes - thanks for taking the time to write such an eloquent reply! Really admire you

You've inspired me to do another AMA thread myself! Just waiting for it to be approved by mods

Admire your honesty and courageousness in starting this thread

How open are you about this with people in real life?

no worries glad i could help
do you know what's causing it?
also i find things like drawing/using a stress ball (or something like that) is helpful for when i get the urge to pull hairs out - i find it sometimes works for skin picking too?

Probably stress?! I think it started in year seven when I started at a new school probably because I was absolutely terrified...
Will try that

Do you think that this changed your life and confidence in public? Knowing that it could trigger anytime? (assuming if it does)