Monday, October 28, 2013

Can You Treat Trichotillomania ?

By Stella McLeod


Trichotillomania is an impulse control or brain disease similar to OCD or addiction where the person pulls out their own hair. The hair can be located anywhere. Trichotillamania may be caused by trauma, rape, physical violence, torture, child abuse, and very severe emotional abuse. It may be minor and easily managed or severe. This disease can overwhelm the person. It is very important for the person with this disease to eliminate or minimize exposure to any severely negative people in their life that are abusive or exploitative. It is an emotional disorder that usually needs several therapies in order to be managed successfully. There are many alternative therapies which are untried for this illness, but these may successful due to the large emotional component of the illness. Trichotillomania seems similar to addiction, OCD, and a bad habit. Quieting the mind should be one of the goals of any therapy. Alternative therapies that quiet the mind include Yoga, scalp acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, Emotional Freedom Technique(EFT), botanical extracts, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS),and orthomolecular medicine.[
[Hair Pulling Disorder]
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This person must be evaluated by a medical professional. A full physical and diagnostic testing of hormones and neurotransmitters must occur. This patient must be evaluated for AIDS and a brain tumor. There are several diseases that are severe enough to result in very irregular symptoms. It is extremely important to be very aggressive in treating this disease. Amino acids therapy for this may be useful and could include 5-HTP, theanine, GABA, and phenylalanine. Chinese herbal patent formulas may be considered along with Chinese liquid herbal extracts. Scalp acupuncture may be very successful in treating this type of illness. It should be done with larger needles for this type of disease. Scalp acupuncture treatments last about thirty minutes to one hour. It may take nine treatments in order to see results. Laser therapy using a cold medical grade laser may work well on this patient. You may need several sessions of cold medical grade laser therapy before you see a significant change.

Today, more behaviorally based therapies are in use, and with insurmountably high success rates. Especially successful are of the type known as "behavioral substitution", or "behavioral replacement" therapies. These actually provide a means for patients to educate themselves further on their conditions while they benefit from them. Many have changed from drug therapies over to the more behaviorally base therapies as a result of the successes that are had by thousands of sufferers, even with cases of trichotillomania in adults.

The first and the foremost way to cure trichotillomania is to know almost everything about it. Hair pulling disorder is basically a mental disorder or variance that leads to several horrid consequences like pathological nail biting, gambling, picking ones own skin, setting up fires, stealing and aggressive behavior and pulling own hair. However, several people have different takes on pulling hair disorder. Some experts believe that it is an anxiety disorder, a tic or addiction whereas others believe that it is an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is interesting to know that the term disorder was given to trichotillomania only 20 years ago.

A vital step to stop pulling eyelashes is that you learn to relax and free yourself from any anxiety, stress or emotional anguish. By distracting yourself and engaging in other activities, you will be too occupied to be pulling out eyelashes.This method can be very effective to stop pulling out eyelashes. By applying a coat Vaseline to the eyelashes, they become slippery and make pulling eyelashes extremely difficult. A negative would be that this creates more frustration for the sufferer and hair gets pulled from other parts of the body.

The onset of the symptoms is between the range of ages from nine to fourteen. Reports claim that more than 75-95% patients suffering from hair pulling disorder are females. The primary symptoms might lead to several other secondary symptoms like depression or panic attacks. The main root cause of pulling hair disorder is still unclear. However, many people believe that it is a genetic disorder. There are several other people who believe that trichotillomania is a learned behavior thereby refuting its genetic basis.

Many doctors suggest that one can cure in two important ways. The first way of treatment involves the use of drugs or medications whereas the second treatment to stop hair pulling disorder involves the use of psychological intervention.Medication based therapy: This involves the use of several medications and drugs to cure trichotillomania owing to the fact that its root cause is the chemical imbalance created in the brain.Psychology based therapy: This involves the use of several behavioral or psychological therapies and training protocols to cure trichotillomania owing to the fact that its root cause is the learned behavior itself.There are five simple ways to cure trichotillomania.

They are as such:Determination of the root cause: This involves a quick study for the care takers. They should observe the components that trigger the trichotillomania symptoms like pulling own hair and eating it. The triggers can be stress, boredom, unhealthy diet, trauma encountered in childhood and many more. Once these triggers are controlled you can cure trichotillomania.Adaptation to stress and its triggers: Many doctors believe that the simplest way to cure trichotillomania is to carefully handle your stress within your tolerance limits.Medications like Prozac, Luvox, Anafranil and so on so forth can cure trichotillomania.Behavioral therapy: This involves meditations and substitution behavior therapy. There therapies reduce the stress levels and urges significantly and thereby helps you to cure trichotillomania.Acceptance: The acceptance of the disorder would miraculously lower your stress and thereby helps you to cure trichotillomania.




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