Posted by wittgensteinz on February 19, 2009, at 5:08:14
In reply to Re: Hair pulling :( Support please, posted by no_rose_garden on February 18, 2009, at 23:54:21
No Rose,
I don't think the lack of responses the last time is because 'you don't support others enough' - I hadn't had that impression about you in any case. I think it could be that unfortunately there are few or no active posters on this forum who are dealing with these issues. That said, maybe those dealing with other compulsions of some kind or another might be able to offer general suggestions as to how best to deal with them.
I can imagine this must be very distressing for you - and scary. I took Celexa for over a year (for depression) and I never noticed any benefits - I took 60mg. It can be that this AD doesn't suit/help you either - or that it could be supplemented by an additional AD (I'm no pdoc, just wanted to say that not everyone responds to every AD and sometimes it takes a while to find the right one).
There have been studies into the medical treatment of trichotillomania. They found that SSRI's offer no significant improvements (Celexa is an SSRI). However, they did find that Clomipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant, offered signifiant improvement. Maybe you can discuss with pdoc the option of tricyclic antidepressants. I've also read that some ADs can make the problem WORSE - that's something important to be aware of.
It's good you have been able to bring this up with your pdoc and therapist - last time you posted hadn't spoken to them - I see this as a positive step. Have you been able to express how worried you are about these behaviours? How much of the therapy is focusing on helping you with this? Is there more that can be done within therapy to tackle the problem? CBT is the obvious method I guess but maybe there is some underlying 'cause' at the root of the problem that if uncovered could take the need away (maybe I'm thinking wishfully).
I wonder whether there are support groups specifically for those with trichotillomania?
With a quick search I come across this site: http://www.trichotillomania.co.uk/ (no idea how reliable/good it is but they have a lot of resources)
Hope this helps.
Witti
poster:wittgensteinz
thread:881011
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090214/msgs/881026.html