Thursday, October 22, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

Do you know trichotillomania?

Every year or so, I post about some information or patterns regarding this disorder that I have (that some people like to argue I have not been diagnosed therefore I do not have it) and this is my re-welcome entry into the subject.
I have trichotillomania. It is a psychological disorder that causes one to compulsively pull out body hairs. It is a compulsion, and is described as a type of OCD, but more specifically as an impulse control disorder. There are many other ICDs out there that people are more familiar with, such as nail biting, skin picking and non-tourette's related ticks. It is not as uncommon as many sufferers believe.

My amazing friend, Rachelle,the awesome book publicist, alerted me of a book called "Marni" which is part of a series of books called Louder than Words-a series of books by teenaged girls for teenaged girls. The story is written by Marni Bates and she suffers with trich. She is 19 years old.

The book, while a good read, is not highly focused on Marni's development of trich or struggles with it. It is mostly about her troubled family life. She doesn't begin to mention trich until page 93. In this, I was a little disappointed. I want to read or hear about other people's triggers and trials because I want to come to understand what makes this tick happen and, hopefully, how it can be stopped.
Marni does describe when she first started pulling her hair and where (specifically, her eyebrows at first) and by page 100, she describes quite the annoying habit that I share with her: the desire to pull other people's disheveled facial hairs! Javonda and Jeff know all too well that I may be staring at an out of place eyebrow hair or a criss-crossed eyelash while I'm supposed to be participating in a conversation. That is sometimes more embarrassing than the desire to pull my own hair.
Marni also mentions her discovery of tweezers-a harmless invention that can be the ultimate tool of destruction for someone with trich. I started pulling the hair around my face when I was eight, but stopped a few months later, only to have the desire arise in the eighth grade. I would pull eyelashes out by the chunk and this annoyed me, as I was only after one-the "bad" one. I soon discovered what precision I could receive by using tweezers but this ultimately fueled my pulling instead of restricting it. I didn't notice how serious it was until high school, when I saw a picture of myself and a friend and there was a gap in the thick black lashes on my right eye. I had been walking around like this and I never realized it. For poor Marni, the damage to her face was obvious in the beginning, in middle school.
It is a short book and a quick read and I would recommend it to anyone who is suffering from trich or knows someone who is. Just knowing how many people are out there that have this disorder can ease the stress of doing it. Part of the destructive cycle in trich is the shame that we feel from thinking that we are alone in experiencing this, and the shame creates stress which causes more pulling. Awful cycle, no?

My sister also suffers from very mild trich, and she has been able to get it more under control than I can. The hardest thing to deal with about having trich is having non-compulsive people telling you to just STOP. Please, if you know someone with a compulsion, do not tell them to stop, because they can't. And the embarrassment of your expectation makes it worse. When I was a child, my dad would put his dirty gym socks on my hands to keep me from pulling my hair. This, more than having someone slap my hand or yell at me, helped me to keep my hands out of my hair for a longer period of time. But clearly, the desire is still there.

One of the most relevant things that Marni says in her book is that she realized that pulling her hair cleared her mind; she was able to be free from all of the worries that swam in her mind throughout her day. This is more true than anyone may realize. I didn't realize it. I have been told that I am pulling my hair and I wasn't even aware of it. Marni was told that some people even pull in their sleep. Until I read her words, I didn't realize that pulling my hair made me concentrate. I have been trying to find my trigger for a long time now; was it stress? was it work? was it sadness? It may very well be that I need to concentrate and the only way to quiet my mind is to occupy the part that I'm not using. I pulled my hair while watching "The Time Traveler's Wife". If you saw the movie, you'd understand! So much going on that it takes a lot of effort to watch, much less care about the movie.

Reading Marni's book has been a huge revelation for me. While I try to journal every time I pull, it hadn't revealed some clear cut reason for doing it. This most recent time I had been pull free since the viewing of the above mentioned film until I started working on a project for a job I'd applied for. Intense concentration was needed. My hair was not. I thought it was odd that I didn't have the tingling sensation that usually causes me to pull and now I understand why. It's not my scalp, or stress, that causes me to pluck out those kinky black hairs, one by one, by the root. It's the need to quiet that incessant hum inside my brain that keeps me awake at night, that makes my mind wander while reading, forcing me to read and re-read the same lines over and over again, or while someone is talking to me about something that I have no personal investments in. I can now put the pieces together. I can now work on a solution, or at least an alternative. The only other time I am so clear headed is when I walk. One mile, two miles, three miles. If I can replicate this free-mindedness, I may have a way to spare my hair (and eyelashes), and recover from a little known disorder with even fewer known cures.

Marni's book is available on Amazon and there's more info about her on the Louder than Words site.
All of my posts about my trich are here

Thursday, October 15, 2009

a bunch of fun vids

I have been slacking on posting but I hope that some of these funny videos make it better. I can't help myself, I love goofy comedy.

Obama's healthcare reform in auto-tune. It's funny. I avoided it at first but it is actually LOL worthy.
What does that hand say to the face? SLAP. REMIXED. Thank you, Dave Chappelle.
Vince Schlomi's Slap chop remix.

I don't think this guy is trying to be funny, but if he is, he's a genius. Watch him sing up to five octaves. Watch out, Mariah. Shane's coming up!

And on the heals of the Hammond judge that wouldn't marry an interracial couple, I offer THE BLIND DATE. This guy and his group are hilarious.

And for some sweetness, this video is of the most awesomely coordinated Halloween light show ever. I'm never going back to the Halloween laser show at the planetarium again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83VJ6fzQ-1s

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Stuff you should know

I've been away! I've slacked on my articles! But here are some good ones to check out:

News
Oldest human skeleton found. Huge deal, since she is MUCH older than Lucy. What I don't understand is that they are saying that this disputes the missing link argument when, to me, it seems to be evidence for it.
Toyota makes huge recall on nearly 4 million cars.
Everything you need to know about the Swine Flu vaccine.
A few quick facts about H1N1 flu:
People born before 1957 were exposed to ancestors of the new pandemic virus, which are in a lineage that goes back to the notorious H1N1 virus that touched off the raging pandemic of 1918-19. That's why people older than 52 are likely to have some protective antibodies that "cross-react" with the new H1N1 flu.

In 1957, for reasons flu experts don't fully understand, H1N1 viruses disappeared for 20 years. They were supplanted by other seasonal flu strains, such as the currently circulating H3N2. So younger Americans didn't get exposed to H1 viruses while they were growing up.

Then in 1977, H1N1 came back into circulation, possibly because of a laboratory accident in Russia that released an archived virus. Since then H1 viruses have evolved further away from earlier versions.


On average, 20,000 Americans die of the season flu, also known as H3N2-this far surpasses the current number of fatalities due to Swine Flu.
It's also important to acknowledge that though this is a mutation, it is still a previously existing virus and there shouldn't be alarm about this new strain. The approximation for deaths in the U.S (that I can find) is under 200.
Getting the vaccine is a personal decision, just like getting the season flu shot. This is just information to help make your own, informed, decision.
Scientists may have a vaccine for the HIV virus.
Helpful
29 ways to change a habit. All very true.
How to turn anxiety into inspiration

Stuff:
Malawian man powers town with windwill. Amazing video embedded.
Come stream the "Where the wild things are" soundtrack
Thom Yorke and Flea formed a new band. This should be interesting!
Watch out, Twitter worm steals user info. I hate Twitter.
Blockbuster FAILS. They are reported to close as many as 960 stores due to slumping sales in competition with Netflix and Redbox. Yeah, they should go down since they don't carry "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"...
For your funny:
Riverdancing dog. He does a good job...