I put thought into it. I pull the hair and measure, check symmetry, find the area that looks like it needs to be cut to match the other side, and then I carefully cut, then check again....find another area that looks "off" in symmetry with the other side, then cut again. and again... Sometimes episodes can go on for hours and hours. The longest episode I've had was 12 hours straight of checking, re-checking, and cutting little by little.

I pull my hair out too but I've never seen it as on OCD thing. It started about 10 years ago when I used to look for split ends. Most of the time I don't realise I'm doing it, till I look at the floor then see masses of hair lying there.

I tried to stop after I got some bald patches but it didn't really last that long. Now my hair is all thin & wispy so I get determined to pull those bits out too...I can't win. My therapist suggested hair extensions but I don't think it would be the same.

I used to suck my hair, how gross was that! And look for split ends ........ but never cutting.

Hair extensions won't be the same - you will get the pulling sensation but hopefully not lots of your hair on the floor!

Are you able to share any of the stressors in your life?

Okay. I was at an appt with my psychiatrist and another specialist. Talking about switching my medications. I said I had TTM, they barely (if at all) knew what it was. I wanted to switch from an SNRI to a high dose SSRI to combat OCD related TTM. I used to take high dose Paroxetine a while ago and noticed - not just placebo because believe you me I know! - a marked decrease in the compulsion to pull. Also, in Peter Kramer's "Listening to Prozac", one of his patients has Trichotillomania, a disorder related to OCD (sic) , and her pulling is remarkably cured when she goes on high dose Fluoxetine. However the two psychiatrists were at once arguing with me, that I "did not have" OCD. Aside from obsessive pulling compulsions, I turn a D*** light switch on and off 20 times at once just to check that it is working, even though I know it is. Tell me I don't have OCD, come on, tell me!

I am switching to Sertraline, going up to high doses, hopefully this TTM monster can go away and stay away, as well as my other more mild obsessive compulsions.