Other Trichotillomania - is it too late?

[Deleted member 28403]

I just realized that I sort of replaced most of self harm with a bunch of different sort of selfharm and pain...

Instead of cutting my skin, I'm pulling out hair on my body. and I'm at the point of wonder if it's too late for some of the hair.

I do it daily, and sometimes quite a bit is taken off that way. Luckily I'm not ripping out top-hair, like, on the scalp, but I'm ripping off pieces of what would otherwise be a beard, and so on. How do I stop? I don't want to lose hair... But cutting again really isnt an option

 

[joeylittle]

Have you tried ripping off bits of paper? Or hold a sponge that you can pinch bits off of?

At some point you need to transition away from causing yourself pain.

I'm empathetic. I picked at the skin all around my fingernails for most of my life. I actually wouldn't even notice doing it, really. But I would say, experiment with things.

 

[Friday]

I rip out hair both daily & monthly. Have for decades. & While it does grow back thinner & finer? Only to a point. The damn stupid stuff still grows back :wtf: It's called waxing & tweezing. ((It also takes about 1-2 months for hair to even start to grow back. That's why men & women pay to have it done. No shaving every day! So it may feel like it's never coming back, but unless you're also starving yourself -hair is pure protein- it'll be back in a couple months.)) I'll also tell you straight up; there are times I have to avoid waxing because I'm too edgy, and times I'll book an appointment because I need the pain/adrenaline & can't exercise for it. It's not my favorite tool in the box, but it is a tool I use sometimes.

Personally I'm liking the transition from cutting to hair pulling. It's still pain, but it's not damaging, and the risk of infection is very low.

Maybe move to an area that's not emotionally damaging? Away from your face, and somewhere you don't touch a couple thousand times a day? (Most people touch their face 2-3 times a minute.) Even if you like the beard free look, it'll be a hard habit to break if it gets too solid, just because we touch our face so many times a day. Our hands are already there!

Then, like transitioning from cutting to hair pulling, start transitioning from hair pulling into something that uses pain in a healthy way? OR something that doesn't use pain at all?

You've transitioned once. That's a good sign, in my experience. It's both a level of increased control, and it's teaching your body that it can get its wants met in other ways / becomes a more versatile unit. Pain doesn't have to equal cutting. Teaching your body that it can find the same satisfaction it does in pain, in a different way? Another step :)

But I really like the direction you're going in. Less Harmful. More versatile.