Trichotillomania Treatment
Dr. Bryon McQuirt
Medically Reviewed by Dr. Bryon McQuirt
April 24, 2024
Call us Now!
If you haven’t heard of trichotillomania, you’re not alone. Even people who have this condition may be baffled by their actions and not know that it has a name. Trichotillomania causes a person to pull out their own hair and can cause great shame and embarrassment. The good news is this is a treatable mental health disorder. Peachtree Wellness Solutions offers effective care at their trichotillomania treatment centers to help people minimize their symptoms.
You are not alone. You deserve to get help.
Peachtree Wellness is an industry leader in mental health treatment. Our team of top medical experts specialize in dual diagnosis treatment and are committed to ensuring that each patient is treated as an individual. Call us today, we’re available 24/7.
Signs and Symptoms of Trichotillomania
Someone in need of professional help from trichotillomania treatment centers will engage in common signs. These include:
- Consistent urges to pull your hair out from the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, and other areas of the body
- Repeatedly acting on these urges
- An elevated sense of anxiety or tension before pulling your hair
- A sense of calmness or relief after pulling out hair
- Isolating yourself in order to use behaviors
- Thinning hair or patches of baldness on the affected areas
- Missing eyelashes or eyebrows
- Trying to resist acting on your urges but being unable to do it
- Biting, chewing, or eating pulled-out hair
- Experiencing embarrassment at work, school, or in social situations due to hair loss
- Hiding hair loss with wigs, scarves, and make-up
Some people may also engage in related behaviors, including picking at their skin or compulsive nail biting. They may also feel compelled to pull out the fur on their pets or stuffed animals.
What is Trichotillomania?
Trichotillomania is a mental health disorder that causes a person to experience recurrent urges to pull out their hair. It is also referred to as hair-pulling disorder. The person typically focuses on pulling out hair from their scalp, eyelashes, or eyebrows but may also pull out hair from other parts of their body. How much it affects someone can vary. Some people find they can manage some of their urges while others progress to a severe case. In either case, the person battles with their impulse to pull their hair out. The individual may use their fingers, fists, tweezers, or other instruments to remove their hair. This disorder can be challenging and usually requires that a person seek professional help at a trichotillomania treatment center.
Causes of Trichotillomania
There isn’t one specific reason a person develops trichotillomania. A person may have a genetic predisposition to developing this disorder. Many people begin pulling out their hair after experiencing a stressful or traumatic event or series of events. As well, some people also have obsessive-compulsive disorder, which involves a similar compulsion to engage in behaviors that do not make logical sense to the person. The most common age for the onset of trichotillomania is from the beginning of adolescence to young adulthood.
How Our Trichotillomania Treatment Center Works
At our trichotillomania treatment centers, we begin by performing a thorough assessment of each person so we fully understand the state of their mental health. This allows our clinicians to design a menu of therapy sessions that will meet their needs. We also offer access to many FDA-approved medications that can help ease the symptoms of trichotillomania. This combination of therapy and medications helps people understand their condition and make important improvements to their mental health. We provide both outpatient and residential treatment in order to meet the needs and schedules of each person we treat.
Ways to Treat Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania treatment centers use different approaches to help find what works right for each person they treat. We evaluate each person to understand how severe their disorder is and if they have any co-occurring illnesses.
Talk therapy is a popular way to help people minimize their symptoms of trichotillomania. This can include individual or group therapy. One common type of talk therapy that can prove successful is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It helps people identify faulty thinking patterns and the behaviors that result from them. From there, the individual learns to develop healthy and positive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Another type of therapy that works well is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT teaches people to engage in mindfulness and move past the emotions and actions that have a negative impact on their mental health.
Services Offered at Peachtree Wellness Solutions
We offer a variety of services to help people overcome trichotillomania and other mental health disorders. This includes access to several types of evidence-based therapies that help people control their behaviors and feelings and improve their mental health. The therapies we offer include:
- Red Light Therapy
- Biosound Therapy
- Neurofeedback Therapy
- Holistic Therapy
- Psychiatry
- Spravato Treatment
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
- Somatic Therapy
- Medication-Assisted Treatment
- Genetic Testing
Get Treatment for Trichotillomania in Atlanta
Do you find yourself unable to stop from pulling out your hair and want professional help? Peachtree Wellness Solutions provides multiple therapy modalities as part of our trichotillomania treatment centers. We help people explore causal factors and any co-occurring conditions that might contribute to their urge to pull out their hair. We can help you minimize or even stop using these behaviors.
For more information about how to get enrolled in our program, visit our admissions page now. Our staff can answer your questions and help you find the help you deserve.
If You are in need of immediate assistance...
Contact us immediately. In the case of a medical emergency, contact 911 or visit your local emergency department.
We Work With Most Insurance
Most major health insurance plans with out-of-network benefits can cover the costs associated with our program. Find out your coverage options right now.
