Stopping The Pull – Soothing Trichotillomania

Trichotillomania is a compulsive, often unconscious drive to pull out the hair on the head, eyebrows, eyelashes, arms, legs, or face. Children who suffer from hair pulling disorder’ often experience either an intense drive to pull similar to the need to follow through on a sneeze, or they become unaware that the pulling is happening while they zone out on television, reading, or sleeping. Trichotillomania is a frustrating illness for parents to deal with because it’s a stressful situation for children, it often leads to intense bald spots that have a hard time growing back, and it can lead to isolation and self-esteem issues in people of all ages. While there’s no absolute cure for this disorder, there are a variety of coping mechanism that help people stop pulling, stay more present with the stress and other emotions that may be triggering the drive, and even ways to help damaged hair grow back. Today, we’re going to be looking at ways to use the ScratchMeNot flip mittens to help prevent unconscious or habitual hair pulling while also helping kids stay comfortable and more mindful of their behavioral patterns.

When Pulling Happens

In many cases, hair pulling happens while the mind seems to be wandering or extremely focused on something outside the self. Watching television, daydreaming, bouts of boredom, waiting in lines, or just drifting off can all be times when the pulling impulse creeps up. Other cases focus on people who find a relief, release, or sense of gratification by the successful pull of a hair. In either case, the underlying stress and anxiety of the disorder seems to take over giving the person a method of releasing tension in a way that can be felt instantly.

How Trichotillomania Affects Kids

The average ages that pulling begins tends to be between 9 and 13, although some younger cases have been reported. It seems that as kids start being able to recognize and process stresses and anxieties, the disorder comes into fullness. The hair pulling drive itself can be embarrassing and alienating, but the resulting hair loss and sores can be even worse. Many people create noticeable spots of baldness in areas where they cannot be hidden. Cases that are left untreated can even leave the head and face nearly completely without hair. Since the hair is being pulled instead of cut, it takes hair follicles longer to recover and re-grow hair.

How Mittens Help

While the ScratchMeNot flip mittens were created to help children with eczema avoid the scratching that leads to infections, scars, and pain, they have proven invaluable to many children and adults dealing with trichotillomania.

The mittens mimic the ‘wing span’ of the body and make it easy and comfortable for them to be worn. Once on, the hands are safely tucked away in a breathable and soft mitten which prevents the ability for gripping hair or scratching skin.

If hair is grasped, the soft fabric of the mittens prevents enough traction from being given to pull hair out. This means that a child or adult can actually go through the pulling motions in many cases without actually taking hair.

Putting ScratchMeNots To Work

Having the ScratchMeNot mittens on hand is a great way to stop the behavioral pattern of pulling while also minimizing damage done to hair and skin. They provide a soft, soothing, and comforting addition to therapy to help change patterns for the better – and in many cases they create enough of a barrier between then person and the pulling that more conscious and healthy choices can be made.

Here’s how they work…

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