i have had trichtollomania since i was around 7 or 8... i cant twist my hair and tug on it anymore because i started shaving my head out of embarrasment at first, by the damage i had done, but then i really started going bald at around 23 or so and continued to shave my head since. For me, it seemed to be a product of my frustrations with anxiety issues. It was a form of release and it felt good. Its like my conscious fights my subconscious as in the subconscious creates anxiety and obsessive intruding thoughts and my conscious tries to combat what it knows to be unrealistic by performing rituals over and over to reasure how unrealistic and crazy it is. subconsious lying to conscious... conscious getting frustrated by the never ending checks and balances it has to perform, creates forms of relief through outlets like pulling hair and ticks etc... so its not a mental disorder, its just something you do because of your anxiety disorder... i understand what your going through and if what i said rings a bell with you then you should probably worry less about the hair pulling and focus on the underlying anxiety issues that cause you to perform such acts.