Trychotillomania(spelling?) | Autism PDD

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Hello everyone.  Does anyone on here deal with this?  It is hair-pulling for those unfamiliar with the term.  It is a constant battle for us with our beautiful son.  With all that we deal with PDD-NOS and ADHD it would have been nice to be spared this condition.  It comes and goes in waves.  Right now our son has no eyelashes.Can you explain more? What is it?

[QUOTE=JillNJake]Can you explain more? What is it? [/QUOTE]

It is literally pulling out the hair.  They get a sensation from it and it is very habit forming.  I even know of an adult without autism that has this condition.  From what I understand I don't know if it will ever go away.

 

Oh, sorry, I've never heard of it.  Jake likes to rub his eyebrows and has rubbed bald patches into them, but I don't think that's the same thing. Hi, Jeff!

I thought I was the only one on this board dealing with Trichotillomania.
My beautiful 10 year old Asperger's son has been suffering from Trich for
the past 6 months. It has the ability to take over a household. It's a
compulsive anxiety disorder, most commonly on the OCD spectrum, but
it can also effect high anxiety Aspies and HFA's as well. We've had a good
deal of success treating it with a combination of meds, diet, Cognative
Behavior Therapy and counseling, but every time I think we have it
completely beat, he'll start pulling again for a day or so. And he's so
secretive about it, too. He knows he won't get in trouble, and that talking
is the best way to head it off, but I constantly find myself having to check
his eyelashes and head to see what he's been up to.

I must admit that as much as it can depress him at times, I take every
step backward much harder than he does. I get very depressed after each
setback. It breaks my heart to think that my son's anxiety is so high, that
this is the only way he can relieve his stress. He has all kinds of stress
relieving alternatives, but when things get really bad, he goes right for
the hair and eyelashes.

FYI - When Connor first started pulling, he pulled out all of his eyelashes,
too. They had all finally grown back in when he went to camp a few
weeks ago. By the sixth day he got so anxious he pulled out half the
upper lashes of his right eye. Sigh. One day at a time.IBGECKO38592.91625

Jeffrey does this off and on.  It is his eyelashes and eyebrows.  I know I have caught him just sitting on the couch and doing it.  So we have done redirection therapy.  He has a school picture where some of his eyebrow is ahhhhh not there.

Tammy

[QUOTE=tabitha]

Jeffrey does this off and on.  It
is his eyelashes and eyebrows.  I know I have caught him just sitting on
the couch and doing it.  So we have done redirection therapy.  He has a
school picture where some of his eyebrow is ahhhhh not there.[/
B]


Tammy

[/QUOTE]

Redirection helps. Connor likes to shred fabric to relieve stress, so I got
some satin bunting from a fabric store, and cut it into small pieces and
make sure I have it on hand when he needs it. I even give it to his
teacher, so he has access to it at school, where stress is always very high.
At home we also use gloves, and band-aides on his fingertips. He has
gotten very good about self-management so I don't constantly have to
monitor him. He will get the band-aides himself, or ask me for the
gloves when he feels the urge to pull.

Funny you should mention school pictures. The other day Connor was so
stressed that he would look weird in his school pictures from the
hairpulling that he - you guessed it - pulled hair! Talk about your vicious
cycle. I told him that if he doesn't like the way he looks, he doesn't have
to have his picture taken. He was so relieved. It never occurred to him
that he didn't have to do it. That ended his stress, and he hasn't pulled
since then. That was Wednesday.

I know with Jeffrey it is so subtle at first most people won't notice it.  I say most people because mom's tend to notice those things first.   I remember one time when he came home from school, half of his eyelashes on one side was missing.  So I had to call the school and inform them.  Of course they didn't see anything at school.  But those eyelashes were there when he left for school that morning.

Tammy

Connor's elementary school was very good about keeping an eye on it. It
was the school social worker who first told me what trichotillomania was.
I had been pleading with him for about a month to stop, to no avail. I had
no idea that it was an anxiety disorder with a name. This dear woman
called me throughout that first weekend giving me lists of websites and
doctors, told me to ask for an IEP and request AB3632 mental health
services, and was just the best form of support during those first weeks.
She even recommeded the institute where he recieves his therapy.
Thanks to her, we just started AB3632 funded therapy with a wonderful
psychologist who used to be a special ed teacher and specializes in
Asperger's kids. I feel very fortunate. [QUOTE=Jeff]

Hi, Jeff's wife here, Michele.  Wanted to thank y'all for
your response to Jeff's post.  I've been on the web today doing more
research on trich just trying to find something else we can try.  Our 10 yr.
old son has been pulling his hair and eyelashes out since he was 4 years
old.  I've read books, searched the web, and sought help from his doctor
and two therapist in an effort to give him some control with the trich.  As
you know, it comes in cycles and he did very well for about a year.  He
was still pulling but it was much less and not noticable.  After several
high anxiety social situations and rejection by some children at some of
the gatherings, he started pulling with a furry.  He now has no eyelashes
and several LARGE bald spots on his head.  He was diagnosed by his first
doctor with Aspergers.  His second doctor said not Aspergers, but
PDDNOS.  He also has ADHD and social anxiety disorder in addition to the
trich and PDD.  And, if that wasn't enough, he is now "picking his skin"
which I understand is very common with trich.  I would love to know what
meds y'all have found helpful in treating trich as he goes to the doctor on
Wednesday.  From what I found online today, Prozac is supposed to be
one of the more successful meds in treating trich.  Of all the problems we
deal with, trich seems to be the one I can't come to terms with.  It is just
very hard to see your child do this to themselves.

[/QUOTE]

Hi Michele,

Connor has been on Zoloft for over two years now, but he didn't develop
trich until six months ago. I have an appointment with a new psychiatrist
in two weeks, and I'm going to make a point of asking if the Zoloft is the
most effective SSRI for him. His current psychiatrist doesn't want to
change his meds, but he is on the maximum does for a child his age, and
he is still a stressed out mess most of the time. Like your son, he had a
period when he pulled out all of his eyelashes and a very noticable bald
spot at his hairline. Most of his eyelashes and hair have grown back to
the point where it's only noticable to us, but he still struggles with the
trich about once a week, and I fear this will increase when school starts. I
certainly can relate to what you say about how you take it so hard. I do
too. I've dealt with his Asperger's quite well, probably because in spite of
his quirks, he's such a joy to be around, but this trich is a whole other
story. Only someone else who is going through the same thing can truly
understand.

Hi, Jeff's wife here, Michele.  Wanted to thank y'all for your response to Jeff's post.  I've been on the web today doing more research on trich just trying to find something else we can try.  Our 10 yr. old son has been pulling his hair and eyelashes out since he was 4 years old.  I've read books, searched the web, and sought help from his doctor and two therapist in an effort to give him some control with the trich.  As you know, it comes in cycles and he did very well for about a year.  He was still pulling but it was much less and not noticable.  After several high anxiety social situations and rejection by some children at some of the gatherings, he started pulling with a furry.  He now has no eyelashes and several LARGE bald spots on his head.  He was diagnosed by his first doctor with Aspergers.  His second doctor said not Aspergers, but PDDNOS.  He also has ADHD and social anxiety disorder in addition to the trich and PDD.  And, if that wasn't enough, he is now "picking his skin" which I understand is very common with trich.  I would love to know what meds y'all have found helpful in treating trich as he goes to the doctor on Wednesday.  From what I found online today, Prozac is supposed to be one of the more successful meds in treating trich.  Of all the problems we deal with, trich seems to be the one I can't come to terms with.  It is just very hard to see your child do this to themselves.

Wow, I have never heard of that.  I am so sorry that on top of everything else that goes with Autism, your lives have also been effected by this.  I actually learned something today, thank you for explaing this condition.  I will have to ask the members of my Autism Chapter if their children do this.Baaaaadddddd night with the Trich. Connor's behaviorist implemented a
new plan to get him to eat more fruits and vegetables. It's a token
system where he earns 5 tokens for every serving of fruits & vegetables or
healthy snack he eats. He can redeem the 5 tokens for 20 minutes of
video game time. He became so stressed by having his video game time
limited, that he started pulling his hair. This is the kind of stuff that
stresses him out! I'm terrified thinking about what he will do when he is
faced with real stress, and not the lack of video games variety.
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