Frankly I've never heard of trictillomania but I'm convinced I have some form of that. I focus on my eye brows (I now have tattooed eye brows because I have so little hair left and the rest won't grow back), the tiny invisible hair on my knuckles, but my worst problem is the hair on my head. I keep pulling it (not mental patient pulling it, but sort of like stroking it really hard). When I went to a psychiatrist around 10 years ago to be treated for depression, he gave me a bunch of pills to take (which is why I changed doctors a short while later). One of these pills was for OCD, and I took it for a couple of months. During these two months I haven't touched my hair ONCE. I'm not saying you should be medicated, but maybe seeing a therapist can help?

It sound like anxiety but have watched this movie when this lady would pull out her hair.  Its called numb.  Its kind of a odd movie.

Hello everyone.  I do the same thing.  I started when I was six years old.  I am pull my lashes, eye brows, hair off my fingers, toes, pubic area and will pluck anyone's hair that will let me.  If I see a man with a hair bump, I will focus on wanting to pull out the hair to see if it hurts the person because it does not hurt me. I try to stay busy to keep from doing this, but it seems as though when I finally let the hair grow back, I start all over again.

I completely understand what you are going through. I have had trich since I was 12, and I am 22. I don't pull the pubic hair, but I am constantly pulling my eyebrows and the hair on my head. I actually joined this website because I wanted to get some answers as well. I completely shaved my head in October, and it's gotten kinda long. Well, I have told my self millions and millions of times that I need to stop, and I should be able to control my hands, but I can't. I have huge bald spots that nothing hides. Even certain hats reveals the spots. I've actually gotten addicted to food because of it. I feel ugly when I look in the mirror at the spots and extra weight, and the only thing that I seem to do is eat and pull my hair. It's weird how it works. It's a release when you do it, but afterwards, you feel guilt. This is on a daily basis. The point of this comment was to let you know that you aren't alone. If you need someone to talk to, or anything, just email me. i'm Cassie by the way. =)

my email is cassaundra07@aol.com

My grandmother pulled on her eyebrows until she no longer had any. Of course it was so long ago that she was never diagnosed for it or anything. (back then it wasn't even brought up) I don't have this particular problem but I do have OCD. I take 'Lexapro' and before that I was on 'Prozac'. The Prozac worked best for my OCD but it gives me heartburn and I already have GERD and Acid Reflux. From reading the other comments it sounds like it can go either way, a mental disorder or OCD. I also suffer from depression so please, don't anyone take offense from my 'mental disorder' term. Seek out a good doctor (Psychiatrist or GP) and go from there. Good luck!

I too have this issue of pulling my eyelashes out. I did it when I was a little girl to the point of having none. My mother took me to the Dr. because she thought they all fell out. After that, I found a way to pull them out a little at a time so it was never obvious. I never told her the truth until a few years ago when my youngest daughter, who was 9 at the time started pulling her hair out. She pulled out a strip that was a 1 1/2 inch right down the middle of her head (forehead to back) like a reverse mohawk.

My daughter has a very rare blood disorder called Glanzmann's Thrombasthenia and it causes her to have really bad nosebleeds. As a result and dispite our best efferts, she has trouble living a normal kids life. That combined with her dad's kidneys failing that year caused her to start pulling. She started seeing a therapist at Okla Univ Med Center and that helped her to stop.

4 years later, she is doing really well controlling her pulling, but I have gotten really bad. I know it is stress related because I didn't get bad until my job got really overwhelming and at the same time my husband's health got much worse. I now have very few eyelashes, so bad that everyone notices and comments. I hate leaving the house and even though I make a serious effort to not pull, I still do it.

I am on Zoloft 50mg and Wellbutrin 150mg, but it doesn't help. I don't know what to do and I know I am being a bad example for my daughter who has the same issue.

Hi Ambroasia

I too have the same problem.  I have had it since I was 6 or 7 and I am now 43.  I pull lashes, brows and scalp.  I have a huge bald spot now, my eyebrows quit growing a long time ago and very few eyelashes.  I drive myself crazy about this.  And to top it off, when the hair grows back on my head, it's very curly and I have staight hair, it sticks out like a sore thumb.  If you find a cure or program that will help, please let me know. 

I think the 'Doctors' should do a show on this. Obviously this is a fairly commen impulse and has a deep effect on the women/girls who are doing it. They should have a doctor who specializes in this and get the word out that you are not alone, plus what to do or who to see for help. Maybe we should all send an email asking for them to address this topic? I will if the rest of you will. Let me know!

I think the 'Doctors' should do a show on this. Obviously this is a fairly commen impulse and has a deep effect on the women/girls who are doing it. They should have a doctor who specializes in this and get the word out that you are not alone, plus what to do or who to see for help. Maybe we should all send an email asking for them to address this topic? I will if the rest of you will. Let me know!

Hi Everyone I too just joined the site, I shared some feed back with one other friend. If you'd like to learn more on diseases, OCD's and other areas we are so unfamiliar with, try logging onto (www.webmd.com) this will hopefully give you some feed back or some good help on where to seek help or what the causes of why we do what we do. Good Luck!!!

I have suffered from this since I was around 12 years old and am now 30. I have tried alot of what all of you have posted medicines, etc. the only cure I have found is hypnotherapy.  I was in hypno for about 2 years and was free of pulling (scalp only for me) and then I had a life change and completely regressed.  I am in hynotherapy again now and have been for about 7 months and it is helping getting me back to where I was.  I highly recommend this as an alternative to medicine.  I have found that hair pulling is something I used to do to look for control stressful situations, now I have lost control if that action and hypno allows my mind to disassociate that action as an outlet and find otherways to gain control.