Suzanne is a person that suffers from what is known as Trichotillomania, hair pulling. This disorder is a form of OCD as well as anxiety. It is brought on by stress, by which my case is dealing with from middle school to college

For this week’s discussion I chose the case of Suzanne (20). Suzanne is a person that suffers from what is known as Trichotillomania, hair pulling. This disorder is a form of OCD as well as anxiety. It is brought on by stress, by which my case is dealing with from middle school to college. Suzanne went from the 7th grade of pulling out her eye lashes to college where she began to pull out her hair. These issues were part of the stress she was dealing with because of not liking school, her parents were hard on her, she finally had a boyfriend and that relationship failed.

Transcript:

Hello my name is Suzanne
I am reaching out to you regarding my continued care for my issue. Growing up I had a hard time, not only with school but the way that my parents seen me, very hard on me about getting better grades, being more athletic, and the way I dress is just a few of the things I had to deal with. Prior to me entering high school, I was already pulling my eye lashes out of my eye lids and although there was a little pain, after I plucked the lashes, I felt more relaxed. I went from just single lashes to multiple lashes to the point that I had no lashes left and my mom embarrassed me at dinner about not having lashes. I was able to work through that but after entering college and finally began dating, the relationship ended, which was a very stressful situation on top of being away from home and just the stress of college alone. I began to pull my hair out on the right side of my head to the point I went bald. I was coming up with different hair styles to cover up my bald spot but when I went home for winter break, and although I had been trying to cover it up, my mom seen it and again she embarrassed me. This time was harder to stop than the eye lashes but after my mom said something to me, I told her that I was in therapy, but I really was not. I am about to graduate college and I am in basketball and I have finally made my mom and dad happy, so my stress level has not been too high, so I was able to stop pulling my hair out. I am currently in therapy, but I am looking for a second opinion as I fear that although I have this under control to a point that I am not pulling my hair out that if I become stressed out again, I may revert to this behavior. I just want to come to a concluded diagnosis for this behavior and get a long-term treatment plan that will keep me from reverting.

Thank you for listening to my concern and the willingness to help me with a second opinion.