stop pulling my hair

hey lunefromage. you seem lonely on here and i know how much it sucks to post with nobody else there.

you should check out dailystrength.com in the beating trich group. my name on there is the same as it is on here. people check in more frequently and its filled with people who have trich and pull their hair.

im at day 5 and im hoping i can conquer this.
60 days is my goal!

stay strong

hi i hope everyone is doing well here and staying strong!
if not, always remember that on any day you can start fresh. you can do this and it does not have to be this way! keep on fighting we are all here fighting together and are here for you.
(i post in the “dont pull my hair for 45 consecutive days” group almost daily if you want to come join me there!)

this is long, but worth it. i did not write it and i can’t remember who did. very inspiring, check it out.

Whenever you set an ambitious goal, it’s virtually guaranteed you’ll encounter some roadblocks.
There’s no reason to let that stop you though. A roadblock isn’t much of an obstacle for a human being. You can climb over it, walk around it, blow it up, get someone else to move it, or otherwise bypass it.
Roadblocks do an outstanding job of frightening away the timid. But to those with a modicum of courage, roadblocks have very little power. When a committed person tackles a roadblock, the roadblock stands very little chance. After a little time spent hacking away at the roadblock, the universe will tend to do the equivalent of saying, “Well, alright then… I was just checking to see if you were serious. I won’t stand in your way anymore. You’re free to proceed.”
Perhaps it’s a universal safety mechanism, something along the lines of survival of the fittest. Maybe the universe won’t allow weak-minded people to go too far down the path of goal achievement, since if they were to succeed in a big way, they’d just make a real mess of things. Strong-willed people are free to pass, while weak-minded ones get knocked back and have to train up a bit more.
Time for a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.
So the question is… are you a timid adventurer? Has the world been scaring you away from setting and achieving some really big and meaningful goals?
Is a scarecrow enough to derail you from getting what you really want? Have you been derailed so many times that you’ve stopped pursuing what you want and settled for what you think you can get?
Have you defined as “impossible” or “highly improbable” a whole host of possibilities that other human beings have already proven achievable?
Sure there are some goals that would be really tough for you to accomplish. Maybe you’re right about certain things being impossible for you. So let’s see your battle scars then. Show me the wounds you’ve endured as a result of pursuing goals you couldn’t achieve. Let’s see that bankruptcy, that broken heart, the rejection letter, the lawsuit, the divorce, the public humiliation. Show me the total failures, the brutal disappointments, the smack-downs.
Let’s see them battle scars.
What’s that? Do my ears deceive me, or are those crickets I’m hearing?
No scars, eh.
Alrighty, how about some cuts and bruises? … A skinned knee? … A boo boo? … Heck, I’ll settle for a henna tattoo at this point.
If you have no scars, then you’re a super-duper mega-achiever, right? You must either be a complete genius or incredibly lucky. Nothing but a huge string of successes one after the other.
That’s not it either?
But if you’re not experiencing unfathomable successes and you’re not taking heavy damage either, then what the heck have you been doing with yourself?
Playing it safe, eh? Playing… Pretending…
Did you really come here to live a pretend life? Perhaps you should stop doing that.
Think about living a real life for a change… the kind of life people write poetry about.
If this world were a role-playing game (RPG), would you be classified as an Avatar or an NPC (non-player character)? NPCs sit around and repeat the same actions day after day. Avatars go on quests, where every day is different.
Do you have a quest? Or just a queue? Those last couple letters make a big difference.
Is your life safe? The word safe is both an adjective and a noun. As an adjective it means “being free from danger.” As a noun it’s “an enclosed storage container with a lock on it.” If you’re living the adjective, you’re living the noun too.
The word brave is also an adjective and a noun, meaning “possessing courage” (adj) and “a warrior” (n). Same rules apply.
Put an ending to pretending. Design your character, train him up, buy him some cool weapons, and send him into battle. Leave the safe behind — it will only slow you down.
In other words, decide what you want, develop the required skills, acquire the necessary resources, and go after your goal with courage. Don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way. Be that resolute young fellow (regardless of your age) as opposed to the timid adventurer.
It really is true that you have nothing to fear but fear itself. If you get hurt along the way, then suck it up and keep going. Battle scars are a part of life. To deny yourself disppointment is to deny yourself victory. If you want to go on a meaningful quest, you’re going to have to risk losing some hit points now and then. Imagine playing an RPG without losing any hit points. You’d be playing scared, and it would be mind-numbingly dull and plodding. Is that how you’re playing the game of life right now?
Is your life full of ghastly defeats and glorious triumphs? Or has getting the mail become the highlight of your day?
Do something today that causes you to risk outright failure. Polish that old armor, and clean up those rusty weapons. Put some of those hit points to good use for a change.
If you fail, then nurse your wounds and celebrate that you’re finally living as human beings were meant to live — impassioned, emboldened, and completely unafraid.
But if you succeed, go find yourself a damned good poet.

ahhh this needs to end RIGHT NOW. :’[

Hey its been awhile since i’ve written on here. I had a really bad night a few weeks back and I set my goal to Dec 28 because I want all my hair back when i go to utah with my relatives espeically bc i will have to share rooms and its hard to cover it up in the mornings like that. however, i havent really had a bad night again but i keep pulling a little each day and its hurting my progress.
SO im joining the 20 day goal. i usually set my goal 60 days away bc i know thats how long it takes for it all to grow back (eyebrows, eyelashes) but it always seems so so far away and just takes forever and i get discouraged. great idea everyone to set it smaller and more reachable and take it one step at a time. i hope this works! oh, and im keeping a tally on my mirror with wipe off marker to remind me when i want to pull. i decided to erase everything even if i pull one so i can really stop for good and not just let myself have some here and there.
i hope everyone else is doing okay!! stay strong

Wow, I have to say this site has provided me with amazing support and courage to fight. I remember countless times that after a horrible night that I’ve researched it and come to this and had renewed hope. Thanks guys.
I used to have this problem with my eyelashes when I was younger. It lasted for a while but finally somehow around second grade I defeated it. I can’t remember exactly how, but I remember convincing myself that the devil was tempting me to do it and I had to fight the temptation. Might sound crazy to you, but it helped me then. Not so much now.
In sixth grade it started again and spread to my eyebrows too and I’m in tenth grade and i still have it. I always set goals for myself like I want to have eyebrows for my birthday or Christmas, or trips with friends. I hate when I have to push my goals to a new day…
My parents know about it and used to try to get me to get therapy and go to doctors. I’m not saying that people shouldnt if it helps them, but I’ve always felt like this CAN be fought and medicines and therapy are not the answer. I feel like its something that to truly fight it and win, you have to do it yourself.
Some tips?
1. Stay away from the mirror. If you dont see the individual hairs, you wont be as tempted to pull.
2. Whenever you have to touch your eyebrows or eyelashes, do it with one finger only. Can’t pull with one finger, can you?
3. Set goals. I know it sucks when you dont make it but ALWAYS ALWAYS have HOPE and never give up. We are all in this together.
It helps to make countdowns and calendars. To make time go faster, get involved in lot of things. When you have days that go by without pulling, mark it on the countdown.
4. It takes 60 days for them to grow back. Be patient. Weeks go by kinda fast. This is only 8 weeks. 2 months. Compared to what I’m sure has been years of fighting this thing.
5. FIGHT. and I mean really fight. You let yourself go, you know you do. You let it happen because you always think “one more, this one is a bad one or once I get this one out I will stop.” If you know that is happening, I want you to really not let yourself. You know how people who are addicted get all shaky and freaked out when they need whatever they are addicted to? Let that happen to you. Feel that you are fighting it and know that you dont need it! don’t just allow it to happen.
6. YOU control it! it does NOT control you!
7. Always tell yourself that you love yourself and that you are beautiful no matter what. It truly does help.
8. If people give you a hard time about it, and you are embarrassed, just say that its medical. Usually people wont question this. There are many medical reasons people can lose hair that people are not aware of.
9. KNOW that you are not alone. We are all fighting this together. Everytime you feel the urge remember that we are all fighting with you and are cheering for you to stop
10. I pencil my eyebrows in everyday. This helps hide what I’ve done but it also gives me that cushion to fall into. If I pull a lot that night I know that I can always cover it up. If you dont have to pencil it in then dont because you dont want to feel this way. However, penciling in also helps because I only pull when I have washed it off my face before I go to bed because I don’t want to mess up how it looks and have smudges all over my face.
11. If you must look in the mirror in the bathroom, go in the bathroom with the light off and a light on in the nearby room. This way you wont be able to see the individual hairs and just the big picture and will be less tempted to pull.
12. Tape up motivational sayings and such around the mirror or even right in the middle so when you look to pull you will catch yourself before it happens.

Good luck everyone, always know you are not alone. Never give up, I know this can be overcome. You can do it and I’m supporting all of you! You ARE beautiful, don’t forget it. Think about how much better things can be if you can do this and be motivated for it. I always think of my life and how it will be amazing in the future all the time and I barely think about the present. Its always “when I defeat this..” I don’t want to think like that anymore. Things don’t have to be this way. I know it can be done <3
and sorry this is like 10 pages.