By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Hair-Pulling Disorder – Trichotillomania.

Yes Hair-Pulling Disorder, the repetitive uncontrolled kind of hair pulling is a mental health issue. Humans are not the only creatures who resort to this kind of self-mutilation when under stress. Caged animals, especially birds do this when stressed also.

Hair-pulling Disorder sounds like an odd problem to have at first glance unless you or someone you know has had this disorder and then it takes on huge importance.

The way we understand this one has been changing. This is in flux and will take some time to sort out.

In the past, as reflected in the DSM-4 this was seen as a form of impulse control disorder. Much of the way it was treated in the past was behavioral. The focus was on the behavior and not the meaning or function it had for the person pulling the hair.

As an impulse control disorder, it was in with Pathological Gambling and Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Hair pulling was for sure different than compulsive gambling but most people who had to treat clients with this problem didn’t know what else to do with it.

In the new DSM-5, when all the professionals switch to the DSM-5, this disorder will move to the section on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders. This will put it more in the class of disorders with Hoarding and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. We are seeing that obsessions and compulsions are more driven than chosen behaviors.

This change in thinking makes a whole lot of difference in how it might get treated and it makes even more of a change in how the person who has the problem might react to that treatment.

Behavioral treatment is focused on the behavior and interrupting that behavior. So grandma might have used a treatment that consisted of slapping that hand each time the young person reached for the hair. The idea was that stop the behavior and you had the problem cured.

If we see this as OCD behavior, then this is not something the person is consciously doing. The behavior is functioning to reduce tension and there is this overwhelming need to do it. This would not be something that the person thought about beforehand and no amount of slaps or yells will change anything.

You might as well yell at someone for yawning. Once they yawn it is over. Besides we think yawning is about physical sensations, not inappropriate behavior. Despite that feeling, we still can get annoyed at people who yawn and we all try to stifle the yawn from time to time.

But if you got smacked for each and every yawn eventually you might give up and just avoid the person slapping you or you might feel that you were a bad person for not being able to control this sensation and you could punish yourself in some way.

So if this is a form of OCD we would want to know what the function of the behavior was. What anxiety or tension is the person trying to relieve by hair pulling? Reduce that tension; treat the anxiety and the hair-pulling stops on its own.

Young women are ten times more likely to get this diagnosis than young men. We do not mind seeing young men with very little hair but a young girl with bald spots, that gets noticed.

People who have Hair-Pulling Disorder (Trichotillomania) are also at higher than average risk to do other self-injurious behaviors. Someone with the hair-pulling disorder might also pick at their skin excessively, technically called excoriation, or they might nail-bite excessively.

There are also likely to become depressed and or develop another anxiety disorder.

So if you or someone you know is finding their life messed up because they are constantly pulling out hair, they develop bald spots for which there is no known medical cause and when they try to stop find they can’t, consider professional treatment.

Yes, absolutely Hair-Pulling Disorder (Trichotillomania) is a real mental illness of the obsessive-compulsive disorder type.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

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