Call Lyta Humphris on Plymouth (01752) 788321 or use my contact form to email me for an appointment now.
Website design © 2009
How to Stop Hair Pulling With Hypnosis
Stress caused by the day-to-day issues of home life and work can bring people to
their breaking point. Many people struggle with the feeling of wanting to pull out
their hair. Problems arise however when you reach the point where you actually do
pull your hair out. The actual scientific word for hair pulling is Trichotillomania.
French dermatologist Hallopeau created the term in 1989 when he saw the results of
hair pulling in his patients. The Trichotillomania Learning Center estimates that
there are between 6 and 8 million Americans struggle with Trichotillomania.
How To
Know That You Suffer From Trichotillomania
So, if you have pulled your hair out in
the past, how do you know for sure whether or not you have Trichotillomania? DSM-IV,
or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association,
offers five different symptoms of the disease.
The first is pulling out your hair
repeatedly, leading to “noticeable” hair loss.
The next is a feeling of tension right
before pulling out your hair or when in you “attempt to resist the behaviour.”
Third
is a feeling of pleasure, or relief. The next two can be summed up in the following:
the “disturbance” is not “better accounted for” by either a medical condition, such
as a dermatological condition or another “mental disorder,” and in addition the “disturbance
causes impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.”
What
You Should Know
There are several things that you need to know if you are struggling
with this disorder. The first is that as mentioned above there are at least six to
eight million other people going through the same thing. You are not alone. In addition,
you need to understand Trichotillomania. The Mayo Clinic offers that Trichotillomania
is not something that you choose to do. The hair pulling urge that you often feel,
is very hard to overcome, so do not judge yourself for these feelings. Beware of
how you approach your Trichotillomania. Many people fall into a depression because
of their Trichotillomania. This with the combined physical traumas that your body
goes through creates a problem that needs to be corrected.
How Does Hypnosis Work?
If
you are dealing with Trichotillomania, you need to get help. Hypnosis should definitely
be considered. So how does it work? Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis does not
equate to your eyes spinning in your head as a result or being put into a numb state
by a dark figure. Instead, it is a process of tapping into your subconscious. What
is your subconscious? It is the section of your brain that deals with the automatic
actions you do throughout the day. Starting your car or taking a shower, for instance,
have become immediate parts of us that do not require conscious thought.
In the normal
day to day, you exist in your conscious brain, thinking through problems as they
arise. When you sleep, your subconscious is allowed to reign. The process relaxes
and subdues the conscious portion of your brain, allowing your subconscious portion
to come forward.
While counselling may change behaviour on a conscious level, hypnosis
works to change the subconscious level. With a hypnotist, you will work to equate
hair pulling with something negative, like nausea and when you feel the urge to pull
out your hair, the negative will help you avoid it.