If you have found yourself pulling out eyelashes then it’s probably left you with a lot of questions. Why do I do it? Am I the only one that does it? Am I mad? The truth is you’re not mad! Pulling your eyelashes is part of a condition known as trichotillomania which simply causes people to pull out hair from various areas of the body.

This condition can make you want to pull your hair from any area of the body. Most commonly this affects the scalp, but it can also include eyelashes, eyebrows, and any other kind of hair.

Symptoms of Eyelash Pulling

When it comes to pulling out your hair you tend to do more damage physically than you do emotionally. However, the most noticeable physical symptom is baldness. It is a form of hair loss, and this can occur on the eyelashes as much as on the scalp.

If you’re finding that eyelash pulling is getting bad then there are ways in which you can try to cover up, including the use of makeup and false eyelashes. However, you can also try a number of treatment options.

Ways of Treating Eyelash Pulling

These treatments can help the condition of trichotillomania:

Making sure that your hands are always kept busy, putting something like Vaseline on your eyelashes to make them harder to pull out, using relaxation techniques, taking medication and getting psychotherapy.

Not all doctors will have heard of trichotillomania, despite the fact that literally millions of people do suffer from this condition. This is why it’s essential you try to understand it yourself, as well as take any measures you can to help.

Getting Help

It is not going to be easy to stop pulling out eyelashes, and there is also no one cure that’ll instantly stop you from pulling. However, try your best to use a number of techniques and you should be able to find a method that helps you to control the problem.

Try chatting to others online who do the same as you. They may be able to suggest a tactic you haven’t yet tried. Even if they can’t, they will be there for you and give you strength in knowing that you are not alone.

Pulling out hair might seem like a weird habit, but the truth is that around two percent of the population also do this. Pulling your hair from any area of the body is known as trichotillomania (or trich), which is a disorder causing you to pull out your own hair.

Trich can have terrible effects, both physical and emotional, for those who suffer with it. Here are a few things to think about if you want to stop.

1) Find the Cause:

There are many common causes of trichotillomania:

* A method of dealing with stress, *Being bored, *Experiencing some sort of trauma during childhood, * Diet, *Being tired, and more.

The more that you are able to find out about the reasons for pulling your hair, then the easier it will ultimately be to improve things.

2) Finding Ways to Deal With Stress:

No matter what the underlying cause of your trich, learning how to handle stress will help you to handle your hair pulling.

Learning to handle stress better is a lot easier said than done, but in time you’ll get better and noticing the kind of stress that can trigger trichotillomania. You should try to talk about them with family and friends, and you might even benefit from counselling.

3) Drugs:

Taking drugs is not going to magically cure your trich, unfortunately. So don’t just rely on your doctor. He or she may not even understand the condition fully – and could even prescribe Prozac which is unlikely to work. Try to use the other methods mentioned here.

4) Hypnosis and Meditation:

These are just two examples of alternative therapies that can help you cure hair pulling. They help for a number of reasons:

* They can help you to relax, * They can help to clear your mind of all that stress, * They can help to stop you from blaming yourself for your pulling, * And they can help you to understand yourself a little better.

5) Accepting Trich: You can put yourself in the very best position to stop pulling out hair when you accept this as part of you, and that there are many other people who also do it.