Posted by Bob on September 25, 1999, at 19:56:07
In reply to Trichotillomania, posted by Shelley Madryga on September 25, 1999, at 17:53:24
Go to Excite or another search engine, type trichotillomania in, and let it spin. For such a polysyllabic tongue-twister of a word, Excite came up with 843 hits for me. This is the first on the list:
http://members.xoom.com/ets/index.html
Check it out -- it looked promising from my brief examination.
It seems like prozac would be a good call, since its supposed to be effective with OCDs as well. If its not working well enough after three years, tho, looking at other treatments also sounds like a good call.
It does remind me of a close friend of mine from back in high school. She was a very nervous, jittery sort of person and she was always pulling out her hair as well. One thing that seemed to work miracles for her was this teardrop-shaped plastic thing her dad found for her. It was just a little larger than her palm. Whenever she felt the urge to reach for her head, she just started rubbing this teardrop with her hands. It was really easy on her hands, and it didn't seem to wear out the way her hair would! She always had it with her, and it was out most of the time.
For a five year old, that might be a tough call. Having something to keep his hands busy -- he might not remember to use it, and who knows how many opportunities he'll have to lose it. Other kids in his class might pick on him for it, just because its different ... but so is the hair loss. Having mom have a conference with his teacher to talk about this and, if the teacher is too inexperienced to suggest it in the first place, suggest that the teacher talk with the class and explain what it is and how it helps him be well (if it works) may be a good idea as well. Young kids who have these sorts of differences explained to them by an adult --instead of picking up on the adult's avoidance as it being something wierd -- tend to respond really well.
Check out those web resources!
Bob
poster:Bob
thread:12038
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990914/msgs/12045.html