Trichotillomania is an impulse control or OCD-like brain disease or addiction in which the person pulls their hair out. Hair can be located anywhere. Tricotillamania can be caused by trauma, rape, physical violence, torture, child abuse, and very severe emotional abuse. It can be mild and easy to handle or severe. This disease can overwhelm the person. It is very important for the person with this disease to eliminate or minimize exposure to any seriously negative person in their life who is abusive or exploitative. It is an emotional disorder that usually requires several therapies to be managed successfully. There are many alternative therapies that have not been tested for this disease, but they can be successful due to the large emotional component of the disease. Trichotillomania seems similar to addiction, OCD, and a bad habit. Calming the mind should be one of the goals of any therapy. Alternative mind-calming therapies include Yoga, Scalp Acupuncture, Auricular Acupuncture, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Botanical Extracts, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), and Orthomolecular Medicine.

This person should be evaluated by a medical professional. A complete physical and diagnostic test for hormones and neurotransmitters should be performed. This patient should be evaluated for AIDS and a brain tumor. There are several diseases that are serious enough to cause very irregular symptoms. It is extremely important to be very aggressive in treating this disease. Amino acid therapy for this can be helpful and could include 5-HTP, theanine, GABA, and phenylalanine. Chinese herbal patent formulas can be considered along with Chinese liquid herbal extracts. Scalp acupuncture can be very successful in treating this type of condition. It must be done with larger needles for this type of disease. Scalp acupuncture treatments last between thirty minutes and one hour. It may take nine treatments to see results. Laser therapy using a medical grade cold laser may work well for this patient. You may need several sessions of medical grade cold laser therapy before you see a significant change.

It is important for this person to get a good night’s sleep and eat a well-balanced diet without nitrates, amines, or food dyes. This person should avoid genetically modified foods, food additives, MSG, turmeric, and drink plenty of plain water to stay fully hydrated. The diet should allow for the Swiss method of decaffeinated coffee or organic coffee and tea. This person should consider trying the Rotation Diet, in which each food can be eaten once during a four-day period. It is also a good idea to identify and reduce exposure to all allergens. You may want to consider some type of allergy treatment. The convention of allergy treatments with injections is an alternative. NAET is a painless alternative that incorporates chiropractic and acupuncture with a special diet to treat allergens. This person should consider a form of regular exercise such as walking, gymnastics, biking, Bikram yoga, walking, and dancing.

© Dr. R Stone, MD-India