Skip to main content

Trichotillomania-Things Not to Say


With up to 4 percent of the population suffering from trichotillomania, it is shocking how little the disorder is talked about. Sufferers often face harsh comments due to lack of education and understanding. The first step in being able to help is knowing what not to say to someone with trichotillomania. 

  1. "Just stop pulling."
If it were as easy as "just stopping", really, nobody would have hair pulling disorder. There are causes and reasons that bring a sufferer to pull, and telling someone to just stop can be embarrassing, hurtful and even drive the sufferer to pull more. 

  1. "You've ruined your hair."
Telling a sufferer of trichotillomania that they're ruined their hair, or look bad as a result of their compulsive hair pulling, is damaging and unnecessary. Trichotillomania is draining and hard enough to cope with, and making someone feel even worse about the effect trich has had on them isn't helpful at all. They probably feel bad enough about what their mental illness has caused them, so why make it worse?

  1. "You don't look like you have trich."
On the other hand, sufferers can be told they don't look like they sufferer from trichotillomania. The amount of hair someone has doesn't determine how much-or how little- they are suffering. Also, people with trichotillomania don't just pull the hair on their head. People can pull leg, eyelash, pubic, and eyebrow hair. Anywhere they grow hair, they can pick from. 

  1. "If you keep pulling, it won't grow back."
Trichotillomania is a mental illness, that can sometimes even be chronic in sufferers. Knowing what to say to help them stop when you see them suffering is hard, but scaring them into stopping is rarely the way to help. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Reality of Harm OCD

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder differentiates between each sufferer, but there is still a massive and barely touched-on stigma of OCD being all about cleanliness that remains. To break that stigma, is it essential that people know about the different forms OCD takes. Harm OCD is a common-and terrifying-type of the disorder.  So, what is Harm OCD? Harm OCD is a common form of OCD. A sufferer of harm OCD has repeated and unwanted thoughts about harming themselves or others (called intrusive thoughts). These thoughts are often unwanted and cause a great deal of anxiety and stress for the sufferer (intrusive thoughts). Some examples of Harm OCD intrusive thoughts would be about harming a family member or loved one, purposely crashing a car into a group of people, or killing someone. The intrusive thoughts differ between the sufferer, but these are all common examples of intrusive thoughts in Harm OCD.  These thoughts are always unwanted. Intrusive means "causing ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pure O-The Silent Subtype

When a mental illness affects so many people, education and awareness is vital. There are many different types and subtypes of Obsessive Compusive Disorder, but a common yet invisible one is rarely talked about.  What is Pure-O? Pure O is a type of OCD. It stands for "Pure obsessional", meaning that the obsessions and compulsions are mental, and only exist in the sufferers head. This could mean that a sufferer of Pure-O OCD can spend hours daily reassuring themselves that their obsessions won't become a reality-or in my case, completely rituals mentally.  At the height of my OCD before diagnosis, I would be completing mental (and physical) rituals up to eight times every minute of every single day I was awake. Repeating phrases of reassurance over and over, counting everything over and over again. Ordering numbers and words in my head, I was exhausted.  I was completely drained and utterly exhausted, but how does someone without any knowledge of OCD or w...
Post a Comment
Read more