we are not alone (other peoples stories)

I get a lot of comments left here. Sadly I do not have time anymore to respond to everyone BUT I do read every single comment. Every one means sooooooooooo much. Thank you. It really helps. Here are some of the personal stories people have shared. (I have taken names and email addresses out.)

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Person 1:

I’ve been a Trickster for about 13 years and never knew that others had the same thing. I’ve dealt with depression and being suicidal..the whole nine yards. It’s refreshing to know I am not the only one that pulls. I actually pull my lashes out and they are pretty much bare. It is so frustrating and embarrassing…

Person 2:

oh this is exactly how i feel as well. it’s like an urge and i cant stop i always wear my hair up and people are always like why don’t you ever wear it down. i simply say. ” because i don’t feel like it” i don’t get in the pool with people or else my bald scalp will show. i just wish there was a cure.

Person 3:

i am so glad i have found this website, i have been pulling my hair out for 8 years and i am 18 now. now i finally know that there are more people with this condition than i thought so glad i’m not the odd 1 out. i tend to wear a wig these days because when i went to school and even now i get really badly bullied for it off people that know me in the street. i feel that and wish that i can wake up one day and i wont get that horrid temptation. i only ever pulled hair out of my head for some reason but still it it has put a hell of a lot of pressure in my life. i hate going out or leaving my bfs side because i get paranoid that people know or there staring at me. its completely ruined my confidence and my independence

Person 4:

I’ve been a puller for 11 years or so. Eyelashes and eyebrows mainly. I find myself in trances when I use my laptop too but unfortunately my work is solely based around using a computer so I have a lot of difficulty trying to stop. When I realise I’m doing it, I usually sit on my hand or put it in the pocket of my hoody or on my belly to make me stop and make myself aware of it. I’ve picked out only 10 hairs today from doing this rather than the million I’d pick out any other day. I’m determined to lower my pull count and have been doing lots of research on trich over the past few days. Awareness seems to be the key.

Person 5:

I am a 28 year old female who suffers from Trichotillomania and I have for 14 years. It started with trauma in my life and escalated to something I couldn’t control. I was eating the hair I was pulling and over 7 years it built up to the point where I could no longer digest my food properly because the hairball took up the entire space in my stomach. I had gone to doctors over many years but got no real answers even though my stomach was clearly larger from the blockage. I was ashamed to tell anyone what the problem was as I knew all along why I was feeling so sick. I thought I was crazy and who would actually pull hair out and eat it. Eventually I had to visit emergency and wouldn’t leave or take no for an answer. I told them to get a specialist in to do an endoscopy and they found what they call a trichobezoar or hairball. I was told I was 6 months away from dying had this been left untreated. This is not something to be taken lightly, if you or someone one you know may have this problem please tell them to get help. I went for surgery in 2001 and never ate my hair again. I still find myself pulling more often then not but I am consciously working on it day by day. We are not alone and there is help we can get, but the most powerful help we can get is from the will of our own minds. It can be overcome….if you make the choice.

Person 6:

Ive been pulling from the back of my head since I was 13. I stopped when I went to college about 3 years then it started up again & I had to shave my head. I kept it shaved for years then my fiance begged me to grow it out for our wedding. 2 weeks after the wedding (now) I started up again. I want to shave my head to stop it but I want long hair again I pulled so much the past two days. Its not noticeable yet.. I mean it is, but my hair covers it still. It just feels so good & what sucks the most about it is that after pulling ill obsessively look at the damage..I can’t stop looking at the damage in the mirror saying to myself ‘ok its a smallish bald spot & if I stop right now it can be covered up & I say ok this is the last hair. I find the last hair that feels really good & say I am done forever. Within a few hours I screw up & pull again then I have to go look to see if the damage is a lot worse or not. Im so sick of wasting my time looking at it but I can’t stop.

Person 7:

Wow…yeah, I pull my hair all the time too; I have had this terrible problem since I was 13 or 14 & vowed to stop since then, but it never goes away. I am disgusted with myself every time I pull, but I can’t make myself stop. My hair has thinned quite a lot since then, (I used to have beautiful long hair but have cut it since from embarrassment partly as well as experimentation). I don’t even pick it up off the floor partly out of fear of seeing the amount of hair & also because my mum parent’s vacuum regularly & insist on it :P. I have sometime’s collected some off the floor though as it fall’s on my books & cd’s by my bed if I pull in bed & it really scare’s me…I don’t want to be bald by them time I’m in my early 20’s! I’m only 19 now. I have naturally golden hair and would really love to grow it long again like it used to be, I really miss that; and luckily it can be mostly conceiled that I pull it now – but I’m worried if I keep going it won’t be a secret for long. But whole immediate family know’s about it though and are very worried. And between washing it you can notice the thinness even more, I don’t know what to do – I have OCD/have been diagnosed w/ it, but my Doctor says it’s not the exact same disorder.

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Please keep leaving your stories, sharing and educating the world. It starts here.

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