[Hmelanie]

Hi, I am a 41 year old Mother of 4 daughters, ages 9,10,16,18. I am looking for help in dealing with one of my daughters diagnosis of Trichatillamania, to start, i live in a small town in Texas where no one I have ever met has heard of this or has known anyone with it, except for on cruddy tv talk shows, any and all help or personal story on how to deal with this is appreciated.

[mcl6136]

Originally Posted by Hmelanie

Hi, I am a 41 year old Mother of 4 daughters, ages 9,10,16,18. I am looking for help in dealing with one of my daughters diagnosis of Trichatillamania, to start, i live in a small town in Texas where no one I have ever met has heard of this or has known anyone with it, except for on cruddy tv talk shows, any and all help or personal story on how to deal with this is appreciated.

there is a post on a website...melanie lynn griffin

[fantasea17]

I have trich as well since I was 11, but not a severe case.
What I know though is that the earlier you catch it, the more chance you have of stopping it. I was diagnosed when I was 13, and ever since I have been able to "limit" my pulling to specific areas. in other words, it didn't go away, I just stopped it from spreading.

You can try behaviour reversal techniques, which do help but require ALOT of will power.

1. Identify the times your daughter spends pulling her hair(on the phone, while doing home work, watching tv, eating, sleeping in bed, reading, et.), and keep a record of when she does it for a full week. Along with the steps that lead into the pulling like: patting the hair, rubbing, twirling, searching, etc.

2. set limits as to how many hairs can be pulled out. sometimes it is an irresistable urge that a single "pull" will be satisfactory to relieve the itch. start with a reasonable number, then try to cut it down to least amount of hairs possible.

3. which hand does she use to pull with? It is important to develop another habit to replace the pulling habit, and it is important to replace it with something that is repetitive. For example, I have trained my right hand to not pull because I developed a habit of a rythmic counting of my fingers. it goes like this: my thumb is the "counter" and I count my fingers in this order: pinky, ring, middle, pointer, middle, ring, pinky, ring. then I repeat this sequence over and over.
it is VERY VERY VERY important to develop an allternative habit

but you have to be the one to enforce that new habit.

4. at one point I used to put clear tape on my pointers and thumbs, that way i am unable to "feel" the hairs that I want to pull out, and the tape is clear, so most of the time nobody notices it.


one thing I have to stress though is be consistent and attentive with helping your daughter, but don't make her feel bad about it because she really can't help it and it is a very embarrasing condition for us trichs.

don't smack her hands when you see her pulling, make fun of her movements, give comments like "why can't you just stop?"
instead, hold her hand like friends do. pat her head for her, comb her hair, or braid it if there is enough and it is long enough. let HER buy headbands(not the kind that cover up half the head), barrets and things to make her feel good about her hair. confidence is important for a trich.

hope this helps