Trichotillomania disorder—also called TTM or compulsive hair pulling—is a mental health disorder in which a person pulls, plucks or picks at his or her hair excessively and irresistibly, a behavior this person continues even to the point of noticeable hair loss.
While a person suffering from trichotillomania disorder might pluck or pull hair from any part of his or her body, most people with the disorder tend to pull hair from their scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes.
In mental health, trichotillomania is regarded as an impulse control disorder, meaning that sufferers continue to carry out the behavior impulsively and despite knowing that they are hurting themselves but are unable to stop the behavior.
Symptoms of Trichotillomania Disorder
Symptoms of trichotillomania tend to include the following:
- • Evident patches of baldness where hair has been pulled out
- • Tension experienced prior to the act of pulling out one's hair
- • Relief or satisfaction after having pulled out one's hair
- • A predilection with one's hair, such that they are often looking at their hair, chewing on it, eating it, or constantly twirling it
Causes of Trichotillomania Disorder
Mental health professionals cannot say what precisely causes trichotillomania, but there is a strong likelihood that it includes a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain, since neurotransmitters often have a hand in controlling impulses.
Trichotillomania disorder does not often appear alone. Rather, it typically is accompanied by other mental health conditions, including the likes of obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and anxiety.
Treatment of Trichotillomania Disorder
People who suffer from trichotillomania may receive relief from the disorder by drugs, including clomipramine.
However, research suggests that the most successful approach to the treatment of trichotillomania is cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT). In CBT, a patient learns coping techniques, stimulus control, and ways to identify triggers that initiate the behavior, as well as ways to respond to those triggers that do not include pulling one's hair.