'Why am I always pulling my hair out?' is an extremely common question. Whether you pull your hair from your scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes or any other part of the body you probably wonder why most other people don't do it. Is it just you? Are you normal?

The answer is that you are a lot more normal than you think. There are many more people asking the same question 'why am I always pulling my hair out?' and the answer is a little-known disorder called trichotillomania.

Trichotillomania - What Is It?

Trichotillomania basically means that you pull your hair out compulsively. It isn't as scary as you might think. In fact, I had this for years before I had even heard of the word! It is a bit like a habit, but hair pullers will also do it at times without realising, which can make it hard to stop.

What Causes People to Pull Out Their Hair?

Trichotillomania can be quite mysterious, and nobody knows for sure what the true reason is for pulling out hair. I had always liked to play with my hair when I was younger, and when I reached the age of 10 it simply developed into pulling it out.

There are some suspected causes of trichotillomania which include OCD, genetics, childhood trauma, ADHD and even your diet.

Those that pull out their hair will often never realise why it is that they do so. Don't worry about finding out just yet - it's more important that you take the time that you need just to come to terms with what it is.

Getting Support

In my journey I found that I needed to give myself time before I even looked for support. Eventually I started to participate in online forums, and eventually documented my chronicles in a blog. However, I am still not ready to tell people in real life about my troubles.

Make sure you move at your own pace, and slowly you will come to accept trichotillomania as part of who you are.

The Most Significant Thing to Take Away from all this? You are not weird! There are so many people who ask themselves 'why am I always pulling my hair out?!' - and you can find comfort in connecting with them when you are ready.