We Need To Talk About Trichotillomania

Trichotillomania is More Than Just a Bad Habit

Start Seeing The Positives In Your Mental Health Battle

Mental health illnesses can be completely debilitating. They can sneak up on you when you least expect them and turn your world upside down. They are powerful, far more powerful than many people dare to realise. But suffering doesn't have to be a negative experience. Even the word 'suffering' itself has wholly negative connotations; that's simply the meaning of the word. So how can suffering ever be positive? Rather than seeing yourself as a victim of a mental health illness or disorder, I find it far healthier to view it either as a battle (which you positively have a chance of winning) or as an integral part of yourself (alongside the mantra of loving yourself, flaws included). If you are struggling with any form of mental health issues at the moment, hopefully this post will demonstrate that it can be flipped from that default 'suffering' outlook, to something far more grounded, positive and beneficial to you.

Why The 'Attention-Seeking' Label Needs To Stop Within Mental Health

If you ask people why they don't talk about their mental health, their silence will be for one reason: fear of their illness being fobbed off by others. The stigma that has been created around mental health illness never originated from the sufferers themselves, but rather their peers telling them that they are being silly, overexaggerating and that they should simple 'get over it'. Because mental health illnesses are invisible in comparison to, say, a broken arm, there is always an air of doubt whenever you start a discussion around it. Supposedly, there is no proof. How can we believe these people when they have nothing to show for their illness? It is this attitude which leads to may sufferers being called attention-seekers, and this approach needs to stop.

Life With Trichotillomania

I have suffered from Trichotillomania for 18 years. Seeing as I was so young when I started (3 years old, or at least that's what my family and I assume), I can't even remember why I first reached for my eyelashes.

What Is TTM?

Trichotillomania (TTM) is a hair-pulling impulse disorder, or body focused repetitive disorder, which affects between 1-3% of the population. Although it is statistically more likely for sufferers to be female, men are affected by it too. Most people with the disorder are presumed to develop these tendencies in their teenage years, but it is not uncommon to hear of stories, like mine, where it develops in any stage of childhood.