How to stop hair pulling? Treatment for Trichotillomania provides a cure for this hair pulling disorder. Blogpost by someone who overcame hair picking and now inspires others to overcome this too.
It’s a funny title for a post: flying hair in the wind & my secret cure to a life without trichotillomania.
But there is an undelaying seriousness and truth to it which allowed me to overcome pulling out my own hair after years of struggle with this behavior.
If you have red my previous blog post on my process to overcome trichotillomania and finding treatment for it, you may recall that in that process I started to realize that I had a choice with trichotillomania.
“I could either keep fighting this on my own as I had done for years or I could try to open myself up to the possibility to find a cure for trichotillomania outside of myself.“
And as a result of going through this process, I started to think more and more how my life would be without my problem.
There had definitely been a time in my life when I did not pull out my hair. I had only started to do it at a certain age. All those years before proved to me that I was able to live without it, to overcome it.
Maybe I just had to learn how to do it again?! Living without the habit of pulling out my own hair?
What allowed me to create enthusiasm for finding a cure for trichotillomania and getting my life back
There is something that I definitely want to make very clear to you if you still suffer from trichotillomania and are looking for a cure, treatment or therapy for it that I believe is very important to understand.
Something I started doing that really helped me when I went through this process myself. What allowed me to create enthusiasm for finding a cure for trichotillomania outside of myself and not only allowed me to grow my hair back, but more importantly allowed me to live and enjoy my life to the fullest again.
In my turnaround moment with my daily fight with trichotillomania I started to think more and more on having a normal life again without trichotillomania. How it would be to walk outside on a windy day with my hair flying loosely in the wind.
Without the fear and shame that someone might see my bald spots on my head, but with a full head of hair and walking with pride and dignity. Feeling great about myself.
I also started to imagine what I could do with all the extra time that I was now wasting on pulling out my own hair and feeling sorry for myself afterwards. I started to think how I could fill all these hours with great activities that really exited me.
I would be able to read much more on the topics that interested me but had not come to in such a long time. I would only do nice things and spend my time with people that I’d love to have around in ways that I had not been able to do in the past, and again imagined doing that.
How I would wake up happy each morning without having to pick up the hairs from my bed or the ground that I pulled out the night before. But instead woke up on a clean and freshly smelling bed each morning.
I imagined starting each day with an inner satisfaction. I imagined how I would be able to go to the sauna again, the swimming pool, the hairdresser, doing all the activities I had ignored for so long!
In essence, I started to imagine my life the way I wanted it to be!
The power to discuss trichotillomania and finding treatment for it by explaining it with dear ones that really care for your wellbeing
Although it was difficult at first to discuss how I suffered from trichotillomania in my life with others, the longing for a better life was on the winning hand.
So I started to discuss it more and more with dear ones that really cared for me and supported me with whatever I would throw at them.
Around that time my friend who had helped me so much to get out of my own vicious circle (see one of my previous blog post: any form of cure or treatment for trichotillomania start with this important first step) came to me with a website of people she thought would be able to provide a cure or help me with treatment for trichotillomania.
That was the Dutch version of this website, still very much in its infancy. They had just launched it and there was hardly any information on it at the time. So I had to give them a call first in order to find out if and how they could help me.
When they had answered all of my questions and addressed all of my concerns, there were no excuses left for me anymore not to take action and move forward.
Because something inside of me told me that I had to give it a try. And somewhere deep inside I knew that if I really wanted I could overcome trichotillomania.
That the suffering had been enough. I no longer wanted this! I wanted more! I was more! I deserved more!
I wanted to feel beautiful and relaxed again. It had all been enough. I probably could have carried on for years, but I simply no longer wanted this.
The simple thing of sharing what was going on in my life allowed me to find a cure for trichotillomania rather quickly
From that moment onwards the step to ask for help in finding a cure for trichotillomania was just a small one. It had become easy because my longing to overcome this had grown really strong by focusing more and more on a life without it.
It felt with all my heart that the decision to ask someone else to help me overcome trichotillomania was the right one, even though if I did not know at the time if I was knocking at the right door. Remember there was hardly any information on the website available at the time, so how could I know?
But you have that information at your disposal right now. Not only through my own blog posts, but with all the information you can find on it. Stories and video messages of myself and others who learned to overcome it.
Ordinary people, nothing special, but we became special when we all took ownership of this behavior by recognizing how it was messing up our lives and simply took action to find a solution. I think that is what you will find in all of these personal stories as shared on this website that allowed us to overcome Trichotillomania.
The reason why we openly share our stories is to inspire you that you can overcome this too. And hopefully shorten the time it took us to come to that decision be learning from our experience.
Because overcoming it was quickly, the fight with myself before to find a way out of the vicious circle with trichotillomania took a lot longer.
So, treatment for Trichotillomania starts with opening yourself up to the possibility!
So what I am really saying is that treatment of / for trichotillomania, or finding a cure for it, starts with opening yourself up to the possibility.
And then it’s up to you to make the next step. All you have to do is trust yourself that you are worth it to overcome trichotillomania.
Because in essence what it’s all about is getting at that point where you are able to make a decision between continuing on the same road to misery or taking action for a better life.
And believe me, allowing yourself to do that feels wonderful! Because there can be all the cures out there in the world, but you will only discover them once you open yourself to the possibility and allow yourself the freedom of choice!
No one else can do that for you but you. And once you do, you will discover that you will find a way out for yourself too!
And I think this is not only true with overcoming Trichotillomania, but any problem in life that is holding us back and we want to overcome!
With all my love and wishing you well on your journey for setting yourself free!
Stephanie
