I felt a strong sense of wanting to cry as I listened to you because I have maybe talked about it once in 45 years. I actually learned about these disorders when I was in cosmetology school at age 21. Once during that time I had to go to ER to have my nose cauterized. I remember picking scabs in high school, even during class. I had to dab the blood. I am sure people saw it. High school was extremely stressful for me. I was not well-liked and obviously this might have been one reason because it was disgusting. It also did bother me when I was age 46 and worked in children's social services with workers who thought they were all that and clearly treated me that way by not talking to me unless they needed me to work with their clients. It felt like high school all over again. Then, it didn't happen often until I had a boyfriend when I was 54 take me for $10,000. I went through a horrible recovery for 2+ years. See my other comments for current occurrences and how I am trying to cope with it. One example is that I never mention it to my friends, in fact to no one, when my eyelashes are about all gone.
This was so informative. I have a friend with anxiety who used to pull out her eyebrow hair, never considered it being a whole other disorder along with the anxiety. She's thankfully been able to manage it these past few years.
I have this and have had it since about age 12. I am now 67 y/o. I pull only my eyelashes. I also have dermatillamania where I pick scabs anywhere on my body, not as much, but mostly in my scalp and nose because I cannot stand any little hair or flake in my nose. I can feel every tiny thing. I pull with a tweezers. I document every day how many eyelashes I pull. I have pulled up to around 15 to 20 in one night. My lash line looks horrible-- like I have alopecia of the eyes. I try to do less every month. It is because of stress and because I do it while reading or watching videos on my phone. Actually, tracking it made it worse because I was disappointed in myself for failing, si I stopped last month. Ihave slowed down by being aware of it and telling myself to not reach for them. I can't think of anything that traumatized me around age 12. Maybe starting my period. Ha.
