Many hair pullers and parents don't understand why true freedom from trich is about so much more than simply controlling your hair pulling. The letter that you're about to read clearly expresses why this is so and I'd like to share it with you to celebrate my own freedom and my students:
May 3rd, 2008
For the last ten years of my life I have been living with a secret that has been the single most debilitating and humiliating thing in my life.
Ironically, so many people, friends and family think I ‘have it all’ – a great job, an incredible husband, a beautiful home…but none of them would know that I have been quietly sabotaging the whole thing.
For ten years I had been pulling my hair out of my head and not having a clue why I do it, how I started or what the reason behind it is, just knowing that I so very desperately wanted to stop but was totally powerless to do so. I had tried everything:
counseling, hypnotherapy, tapping (emotional freedom technique), taping my fingers with sticky tape, wearing hats & scarves, wetting my hair before bedtime so it was harder to ‘pull’, reading, researching, hair extensions – EVERYTHING!!
Thankfully no one would know to look at me (I have a lot of hair and can hide it well) apart from my hairdresser/s. I am regularly getting my hair done for work so it is not uncommon for me to be at the hair salon once, twice or even three times a week which was great on one side (as it would fulfill my wish for “beautiful hair”) but would often come at a huge cost of shame, embarrassment and lies when the questions would start.