Highly stressed situations often leave many people on the brink of the breaking point.
There are several people who feel rather satisfied when they pull out their hair to relieve stress.
However, there are several people who pull their hair because of an urge that is triggered by several reasons.
This pulling hair disease is scientifically termed as trichotillomania and is sometimes called as trich.
The onset of this hair pulling disorder is generally between the ages 9 to 14.
  In case of adolescents and adults, the disease is predominantly observed in females.
Whereas in pre-school children this hair pulling disease is observed equally in both male and female.
Trichotillomania is an anxiety disorder that is marked by the symptom of pulling hair.
Individuals suffering from trichotillomania pull out their own hair from scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, pubic or perirectal regions, face, limbs, axilla, torso and so on so forth.
In this hair pulling disease, the urge is so intense that it generally leaves bald spots at several places which leave the individual feeling too embarrassed to face any social situations.
Due to this reason, it becomes necessary to stop pulling hair.
Patients suffering from this pulling hair disease get this urge when they are highly stressed, anxious or essentially bored.
Besides pulling out hair, several individuals also eat their own hair, a condition that is scientifically termed as trichophagia.
Eating your own hair leads to the formation of trichobezoar or a hair ball that result in bowel obstruction, nausea, vomiting, anemia, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding, obstructive jaundice and so on so forth.
Hence, it is very much essential to decrease the urges and stop hair pulling before the problem becomes all the more serious.
One of the foremost ways to stop hair pulling is to know the reason behind it.
The root cause of trichotillomania is yet known but there are several theories that were put forwards to explain it.
Some of the causes of trichotillomania are: -    Abnormal brain metabolism: Owing to several observations with the help of positron emission topography (PET) it was found that trichotillomania can be linked to high metabolic rate of glucose in bilateral, right superior, cerebellar, and global parietal areas.
-    Structural Brain abnormalities: Abnormal structure of the lenticulate was linked with trichotillomania with the help of observations from Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
-    Deficiency of serotonin: Several science experts believe that trichotillomania can be linked to low levels of serotonin in the brain.
Once the reasons that lead to this hair pulling disease are known, you can easily understand about the approaches that are used to stop hair pulling.
The two major approaches are: The medicinal approach: wherein medications that involve serotonin reuptake inhibitors and those that have serotonergic properties are used.
Some of these medications include Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, Tricyclic antidepressants and many more.
The psychological approach: wherein habit reversal therapy that deals with recognization and monitoring of the trigger leading to urge and their subsequent behavior, hypnotic therapy that deals with equating the urge to pull hair to a negative feeling at the subconscious level thereby helping you to stop hair pulling.
The easiest way to stop hair pulling is to confide it to your near and dear ones and reduce your stress levels.