October 1 through till October 8 is National Trichotillomannia Awareness Week. What is Trichotillomania^ (or Trich, for short), you ask? Put simply, Trich is a compulsive hair pulling disorder that causes people to pull out their own hair from the scalp, eyebrows or pretty much anywhere on the body. Because they often pull repeatedly from the same spots, they may develop bald spots that are difficult to disguise and which sufferers are often very ashamed of. Sometimes they may even injest the hair, which is sometimes fatal. It is unknown exactly how many people suffer from it, but it is known that the vast majority of those afflicted are female. But for those few people who suffer with it, help is at hand! There's a documentary about it which you can watch, a website devoted to helping people learn how to deal with it, blogs and even an anonymous AskMe question. For those interested in learning more about what National Tricotillomannia Week entails, check out this page.
posted by Effigy2000 on Oct 1, 2006 - 30 comments