Trick-oh-till-o-mania

Trichotillomania is an "impulse control disorder" that results in people having the uncontrollable (debatable term, I know) urge to pull hair from various places on their bodies. In the most severe cases people have bald spots or entire bald heads. A large number of people, though, have the urge to pull hair from only specific places on their bodies.

I was 16 and bored when I first started pulling out my eyebrows and eyelashes. It started simply enough and quickly escalated (that day) to having nearly no eyebrows and no eyelashes at all on my upper eyelids. Over the years it has progressively gotten worse, despite my constant counter impulses to "stop doing that."

In July of 2009 I read about N-Acetyl Cysteine, which is just an amino acid supplement (not a prescription drug), being found in some study to have relieved these impulses in 50% of the participants. I read about this while in a grueling calculus summer session, during which my picking had progressed to cutting off the ends of my hair (inches at a time). After 5 weeks of the 8 week course I had cut off about 5 inches of hair all around my head. I did not want this to progress as it did in people I had seen on TV- I wouldn't look right with a wig, and I'm aware how these things have a way of creeping to scary levels (scarier than the below eyebrowless picture):

July 26, 2009:

Started taking 600 mg of NAC. Within a week I noticed a difference, though was very aware of a placebo effect (is a placebo effect counteracted by being aware of it?). After calculus ended the picking dropped off dramatically.

We'll see how things go in a few more months. Maybe by October I'll be able to convey eyebrow conveyed emotions.