Bipolar Support Group

my mom works with this girl and my mom (sue) and her friend (ash) have both noticed a gross and disturbing habit there shop owner/friend they work with she has started to pick at scabs, zits, scratch her head and more and then eats it. THEY DO HAIR FOR A LIVING!!!! this is very gross but i wanted to know if this could be do to a medical reason or something lol well respons appreciated

ellebeard7

What you describe is an impulse control disorder and can resemble a habit or addiction. It has the name trichotillomania. That pertains to the hair part of it, but I imagine the treatment would address both the hair and the other syndrome. Unusual!

Treatment is available and it called Habit Reversal Training that involves recognizing the impulse and redirecting it. The article I read indicates some medications help and should be used along with the therapy.

I read up on it at Wikipedia, and the link to the information is at the following url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichotillomania

There's more to it, of course. I've never encountered it and it is interesting to learn about it.

Post edited by: scooby, at: 03/17/2009 19:02

I have dermatotillomania which is very similar. I don't eat my skin after I pick it though. I have read that can happen though. The most common medication is an anti-depressant. I just started prozac a little over a month ago and I guess it's helped a little bit. Most people look at it as a self mutilation issue and most the time it's not. It is categorized as OCD disease. You find some imperfection and you have to fix it. I have tried very hard to stop. I have little scars all over my arms and legs and I still can't find the motivation to stop doing it. My pdoc was going to put me on naloxone which is a med to block your pleasure centers. I refused it because it didn't sound like a very tolerable treatment. I am afraid of not enjoying my food and things of that nature.

I find it interesting that she just started doing it. My guess would be that maybe she's under a lot of stress and it's come out in the open where people can see it now. Most the time it starts at a young age... in your teens or even earlier. Stress does make it worse. Because it is a self soothing thing. Like thumb sucking and toe tapping... almost an unconscious action. I have to catch myself sometimes and stop when I'm in social situations.

Defiant,

I like how you write! You are so clear. The question above got me to thinking because I have met people with some of the stuff I have and, of course, some that have different stuff.

When I looked in Wikipedia to answer the question before, it indicated that, like you said, it is OCD but they stressed that it was impulse control, and then they also suggested that intervention in the cycle happens early on in the process. They did mention the use of antidepressants (like Prozac) but I think they also mentioned others as effective or more so.

The idea of having a medication targeting one's pleasure center? I can understand your reluctance about that.

I used to listen on the radio to a marvelous psychiatrist, David Viscott, and he had a radio show and people would call in with their concerns, and he was uncannily accurate with his advice, almost intuitive. One person called in and said she had a problem with nail biting. Dr. Viscott's cure? He suggested she go down and get a professioinal manicure and do them often. The concept was that when another person would see and know about the problem, she would rethink it and redirect the impulses that led her to nail bite.

Almost too easy!

Well, what about you going to a professional masseuse or masseur and getting a full body massage as your therapy for a few times, as long as it takes you. I think the same forces of self-revelation might come into play for you and it might have an effect. See, the thing about a compulsion is that it is SECRET and it stays that way until something like a massage chases it out in the open where it loses its power over us. Or so it goes...

Lastly,

When I was a nerd in school I studied how to diagnose using the DSM III (the old one, I'm old as dirt ) and I listened to a set of tapes on the manual by Alan Francis, M.D. Dr. Francis is one of the biggie authors of it. He told of an admission to the ER by a person who was a cutter and it wasn't pretty, of course. What Dr. Francis prescribed was also a paradoxical way to deal with it.

He suggested to the person that they find a tall cylinder that they could fit their entire arm into. They were to get a couple bags of ice (like at the store). Then the person was to fill the cylinder with ice and water and let it get totally freezing cold. When the impulse came on strong, the idea was to have the person plunge his arm into t he ice water and leave it there even if it got numb.

The theory behind that type of treatment is a substitution theme. The ice and water would have a shock value that cutting used to provide. The cassette ended before I heard the epilogue, but I think you may get the impression I want to convey that there are ways of working with disorders and impulses that are what is called "paradoxicals."

I encourage you to discuss and brainstorm with your therapist and see together what you can come up with. Also, the massage, if you ask the therapist to use healing cremes like aloe vera and Vitamin E, it will help your skin along towards healing.

Post edited by: scooby, at: 03/18/2009 17:32

Thanks Scooby. Unfortunately my therapist has been less then helpful with the situation. Like I said I started picking as a teenager so it's just been a part of my life for a long time. I began therapy about three months ago and the third session I brought it up to her. She wanted to see my legs and I showed her. She didn't do a very good job at hiding her shock at the sight. Then she went on to tell me how concerned she was about me and my health. She said I was self-mutilating and less then a week later she was urging me to go inpatient. I didn't go of course because that just seemed silly to me. The next appointment she informed me that I was being a bad influence on my son for doing it. As a mother that is an insult of the worst kind.

So... I have found that adding lavender oils to my bath has made a huge difference when every other moisturizer has done nothing. Don't know why. I wonder if it's the type of oil. It's not like I haven't tried other oils before. I do know that it's harder to find things to pick when you don't have dry skin. I will look into getting massages that's probably a good idea even though I don't think it will help my self-esteem any

defiant,

I am surprised. I don't think shaming would work for me. I am not sure what the answer is. I know at age 15/16 I was bulimic and it was a compulsion. I think it was to do with my feelings about my mom divorcing my dad and the loneliness I felt then. I wasn't a happy camper. The compulsion just became less. I made myself sick, though (ulcer), and that helped.

I went to Amazon Books and looked up OCD and they had several books, some are available used for a bargain price, too. The url for one book (as well as others) is:

http://www.amazon.com/OCD-Workbook-Breaking-Obsessive- Compulsive-Disorder/dp/1572241691

The baths sound like a good idea. I like the smell of lavender.

Post edited by: scooby, at: 03/19/2009 09:03