You know what I never see on Tumblr? Encouraging or supportive posts about people with trichotillomania and/or dermotillomania. I never see those posts because you can’t romanticize it, people don’t see it as beautiful and therefore don’t want to talk about it. It’s really fucking hard having a disorder that is so painfully obvious to anyone who looks and so hard to understand, so shout out to my buds with trich and/or derm, you are still beautiful and worthy of love
Yeppp. One thing that I do have an issue with in BNHA is that, even though a lot of the main characters are coded as neurodivergent and I LOVE that, the bad guy has derma and it’s definitely played for shock value :/
I have trich. It sucks, is embarrassing, and I can’t spell it.
You know what I never see on Tumblr? Encouraging or supportive posts about people with trichotillomania and/or dermotillomania. I never see those posts because you can’t romanticize it, people don’t see it as beautiful and therefore don’t want to talk about it. It’s really fucking hard having a disorder that is so painfully obvious to anyone who looks and so hard to understand, so shout out to my buds with trich and/or derm, you are still beautiful and worthy of love
Thanks for this post. I have trichotillomania and it really sucks. (I mean, you can’t tell from looking at me, but I’ve had it pretty much all my life. I just have some better ways of dealing with it now.)
I've never been officially diagnosed with trichotillomania, unless it happened when I was little. (I'd have to ask my parents really.) But ever since I was a child, I've had a…weird relationship with my hair. I have vague memories of when I was younger, (seven? eight?) of my mum and one of her friends examining the bald patch I'd made in my hair. Ever since I can remember, I've picked up my hair, wound it round my finger (when I was really little, I used to wind it round my tongue…this was not something my parents or teachers appreciated. And yes, I used to eat it) and pulled it out. It used to be pulling it out at the roots, but now I just make a knot and pull out the knot. It just…feels good I guess? I don't know why.
And when I was a teenager, I loved pulling my eyebrows out at the roots with my fingers. I remember staying up one night hearing my parents argue, and in the morning a whole chunk of eyebrow was gone. I don't do that anymore, but…I liked it, and I probably still would. It was almost like a stress reliver.
I think it was something my parents worried about when I was growing up, because I have (again, pretty vague) memories of my parents making me get my hair cut short when I was about ten or so. Nothing really worked, though, I still pulled it out. And of course, it lasted well into adult life…remember this? (Remember keeping pulled-out hair in my pencilcase, not wanting to part from it? Remember when people found it? God, they must have thought I was such a disturbing twat.) Sigh.
I used to do it without even realising…I'd be watching a movie or something and afterwards, when I turned the lights back on, there'd just be hair everywhere. My laptop table at my parent's house used to have knots of hair scattered all over the carpet below it, which made me feel disgusting, even though I realise now I had no need to feel that way, it was just a…thing. My dad once commented loudly about the hair-mess at a school parents evening…I was mortified, but this other girl I barely knew (and still can't remember the name of) looked over and gave me a sympathetic sort of half-smile. I still remember that…
Anyway, a couple of years ago my boyfriend came up with the idea of getting a scarf with tassles, that I could pull out, that would feel like hair…and it actually worked pretty well. I still pull my hair out more than I'd like, but I've destroyed two scarves and kept my hair pretty much as good as I'll ever get it. (Anyone else tried this? Did it work?) It's awkward having to take a scarf around to friend's houses and on holidays and stuff, but…eh.
So, that's my Hair Story. Fun, eh?
(Don't judge my parents too harshly- there's a lot they didn't get, but they had to deal with so much awful stuff I'm constantly amazed they managed to do the good job they did.)