Trichotillomania

I like pulling my hair, especially when my hands are free and not doing anything, ie most of the time. I like the feel of each strand of hair on my fingers. I find it some what...erm...relaxing. I'd like to think of it as exercise for my fingers=p When i feel that my hair is 'curly' or 'weird-shaped' i'll pull it out. It's funny how other ppl around me find it annoying. For example, my dad and my mum. Wait, even my roommate notices it. In fact, i think many ppl other than me notice it! Then, they'll usually advice me not to pull me hair anymore, esp my parents. My dad will hit my hand if i touch my hair. My mum jz scolds me =)

But, i'd never thought of it as a problem. Cause i've got loads of hair, yanking out a few strands each day wouldnt hurt much would it, right? Plus every normal human being loses ten or twenty strands of hair each day.

At least that was what i had on mind until i read about TRICHOTILLOMANIA.(what?? its pronounced as trick-o-till-o-mania) I had actually read it a few months or maybe a few years back n never really paid any attention to it. But it seems that recently more n more cases or trichotillomania have been reported throughout the years, and so more reports on it are published in magazines.

So i surfed the net to find out more about it, and guess what? i have almost..ALMOST all the symptoms.

1. recurrent pulling out of one's hair resulting in noticeable hair loss
- i pull my hair constantly, but thankfully i have been blessed with thick hair and so, i hv no noticeable hair loss, at least i dont notice any difference

2. an increasing sense of tension immediately before pulling out the hair or when attempting to resist the behavior
- erm...its hard to tell whether i hv this symptom cause i always pull my hair, n i'll scorn at my dad if he stops me from plucking, then i'll go back touching my hair again

3.pleasure, gratification or relief when pulling out the hair
- yup, this is definately true. I love it when i see that the hair i pulled out is actually curly. But if the hair i pulled out is normal, i'll regret n tell myself not to pluck anymore hair...and well, since i'm a stubborn girl, the process repeats itself

4. a disturbance that is not better accounted for by another mental disorder and is not due to a general medical condition (e.g., a dermatological condition)
-This i dont understand..what does it mean huh?

5. a disturbance that causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning
- So far i hv not experienced any problems yet, but who knows what might happen in the future..like my mum said, 'Ppl will find it annoying and ur future employer might not want to employ u" hmm...let's hope this never comes true, otherwise i'll be jobless!

SO, i score erm...mayb 3,5 out of 5. Yeah! High score of the day! I'm jz kidding. It's a rather scary condition esp once u read up more about it.

"A survey of college students in the mid-1990s confirmed this estimate -- almost 2 percent of students reported past or current problems with the impulse to pull out their hair.
Some people with trichotillomania pull out just their eyelashes or eyebrows; others focus on removing the hairs of their head, beard, pubic area, or arms and legs. Some pull out hair from all parts of their body. "

Now, in the 90s its 2%. Almost a decade from then, the figures are most likely to increase exponentially. So work it up mayb it'll be about erm 4-5 percent? So it means i'm definately not alone and there are more ppl like me. Hehe..thank goodness i'm not the odd one out.
But, the scary part is that ppl pull hair on other parts of body too. What if my 'obession' grows? Whoa..now that'll be scary!

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation. W H Auden(an english poet sometime ago)