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Trichillomania
Can anyone please tell me a bit about this disease. My ten year old daughter has just been diagnosed with it. She also has nocturnal epilepsy. Is there anything that I can do to help her?
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i got this from google.
Well I have been dealing with an impulse control disorder called Trichillomania. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a disorder in which you have impulses to pull out your own hair. Well about a year ago I started pulling out my eyebrows, I have pulled them all out and they have been this way for that amount of time. I keep plucking them out every time a new one grows in. Well now I am in therapy for this and taking anti-depressant medication(Zoloft) which has helped the intensity go away to pull. Now my eyebrows are starting to grow back. It has taken them a week to finally start growing back without me touching them. I was wondering how long do you think it will take for them to be fully grown back in, and is there anything I can do to make them grow faster? Rogaine? I heard it works, but not so sure.
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Hey there,
I have worked with clients with this before and what was most helpful across the board was medication in conjunction with behavior therapy. The best thing you can do for your daughter is to ensure that she knows that you love her no matter what, also ensure that she gets help.
Also if you are blaming yourself as many parents do will not help your daughter but will increase her stress levels and cause her to pull more. Don't tell her that she could stop if she really wanted to, and look for other signs of OCD as her pulling decreases she may mentally try to compensate by picking up another obsession.
ALso make sure that she is taking her medication for the epilepsy, because many people with trich are also depressed, she may think medication is pointless. Below is a link with further info, if you have more questions feel free to ask me.
By the way I think its awesome that you are exhausting all avenues to help your daughter.
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
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Trichillomania is a kinda sickness where a person does self harm to himself like cutting,hitting,pulling their hair out and its usually cuz of stress,becareful if you dont talk to your daughter about whats upsetting her and help her out,this disease will increase with her as she grows till its uncurable.Its like a cry of help from your daughter for help.
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as someone who kicked trich myself, I can say that there's not much parents can do. research all that you can and explain it to your daughter. don't automatically assume that she's not well-adjusted. never hint that she's any different from anyone else just because she pulls. no matter what any doctors say, do not take her to a psychiatrist. my parents did this to me at 8 when I was diagnosed which only caused me more stress. I was told by school-mates that I had to go talk to him because I was crazy. and I firmly believed I was crazy up until a short time ago when my mom told me it was for trich related to a traumatic incident that happened to one of my cousins that I had witnessed, but have since blocked out. if you absolutely have to have her see someone see if you can bring that person in as just another of your friends, but she really needs your support more than anything.
make her feel important. take her to get her fingernails done and her hair done (depending on how much there is left). you can get her into activities that help to minimize stress. acting classes (where she can be someone else who doesn't have problems), yoga, even knitting and sewing can all be beneficial. I started out in therapy which made my problem worse, then shifted to stress eating, and finally knitting and acting. when I'm acting I don't notice that I have to go through OCD-like rituals to feel better. when I'm knitting I can just sit and think about everything while my hands are busy moving. almost like yoga.
9 years from when I was diagnosed, I am a perfectly fine person and I am here to help you as much as I can. drop me any other questions in my inbox.
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Trichotillomania (TTM) or "trich" is an impulse control disorder characterised 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 both similarities and differences. Trichotillomania has been mentioned as a disorder in very early historical records. Onset generally occurs at puberty. **There is a strong stress-related component, that is, in low-stress environments some stop pulling altogether. Pulling resumes when one leaves this environment.**
WHEN DID IT HAPPEN: People often start compulsive hair-pulling around the ages of 12-13; although it is not uncommon for it to start at a much younger or older age. Frequently, a stressful event can be associated with the onset, such as: change of schools, abuse, family conflict, or the death of a parent. The symptoms also may be triggered by pubertal hormonal changes.
WHAT CAN I DO?: While there is no cure, there are some treatments. There have been a few small and not well-controlled clinical trials of drug treatment for trichotillomania, for example using such drugs as anafranil, prozac, and lithium. No one medication has been shown to have a particular advantage over any other, and drugs alone have not been shown to be particularly effective for many people.
Trichotillomania Learning Center, Inc.
303 Potrero #51
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: 831-457-1004
www.trich.org
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