
Also known as compulsive hair pulling, trichotillomania is an uncommon disorder in which a patient pulls out hair from different parts of their body. This disorder results from and causes anxiety, embarrassment, different physical complications, as well as social isolation, especially in the case of a teen.
ADEONA Healthcare of Rancho San Diego provides treatment for trichotillomania along with any underlying conditions which might be feeding it. Females are more prone to develop this mental disorder than males, with signs generally appearing at the age of nine. Symptoms might disappear for a period of time however they may persist throughout life. Patients, suffering from this mental disorder, tend to pull hair not only from their scalp but from their eyebrows and eyelashes too. Extreme hair pulling leads to bald patches. This creates a social problem for a teen with their peers.
Unlike other mental health disorders, like depression, trichotillomania is a disorder that affects a patient’s physical appearance. Due to loss of hair, teens are more prone to suffer from embarrassment and even discrimination by friends who do not understand the disorder. Physically, due to excessive pulling of hair, the skin around the hair roots might get damaged, leading to sores and infection. Excessive pulling also affects hair regrowth. Sometimes a patient might also suffer from trichobezoar, a condition in which a hair ball forms in the digestive tract because of eating hair.