What is eating your hair called?

Some people with intellectual disabilities and certain psychiatric disorders eat their own hair – a behaviour called trichophagia.

What disorder makes you eat your hair?

People who compulsively swallow their own hair are said to have a psychiatric disorder called trichophagia. The disorder is related to a slightly more common one in which people have an irresistible urge to pull out their hair, called trichotillomania or hair-pulling disorder.

What are 3 symptoms of trichotillomania?

Noticeable hair loss, such as shortened hair or thinned or bald areas on the scalp or other areas of your body, including sparse or missing eyelashes or eyebrows. Preference for specific types of hair, rituals that accompany hair pulling or patterns of hair pulling. Biting, chewing or eating pulled-out hair.

What is Rapunzel syndrome?

Rapunzel syndrome is an extremely rare cause of digestive symptoms, such as abdominal pain, anorexia, or weight loss in children. Delays in diagnosis are relatively common taking into account that it is rarely considered in the differential diagnosis of children with digestive symptoms.

Is trichotillomania a form of OCD?

What is trichotillomania? Trichotillomania (often abbreviated as TTM) is a mental health disorder where a person compulsively pulls out or breaks their own hair. This condition falls under the classification of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Is trichotillomania an anxiety disorder?

Trichotillomania appears to be a fairly common disorder, with high rates of co-occurring anxiety disorders. Many individuals with trichotillomania also report that pulling worsens during periods of increased anxiety.

Do I have Rapunzel syndrome?

The symptoms and physical signs that characterize Rapunzel syndrome depend on the size of the trichobezoar and the presence of complications. Current case reports show that the most common symptoms and signs are abdominal pain (37%), nausea and vomiting (33.3%), obstruction (25.9%), and peritonitis (18.3%).

Why do people with trichotillomania eat their hair?

People with trichotillomania feel compelled to pull out their hair, often to the point of visible hair loss. It’s very common for people to then play with the removed hair strands. For example, nibbling the root of the hair or mouthing the hair along the lips can feel relaxing.

Why do I chew my hair?

Trichophagia: It is common for people with trichotillomania to nibble on their hair or hair roots as well. They can do this with other people’s hair, too. Like the other BFRBs, trichophagia is often triggered by stress. Most trichophagia patients accept that nibbling hair helps them to feel relaxed for some time.

Is trichotillomania related to ADHD?

Background: Individuals with trichotillomania (TTM), a disorder characterized by repetitive pulling out of one’s own hair, often have co-occurring ADHD, but little is known about this comorbidity. Additionally, there have been intimations in the literature that treatment of ADHD with stimulants may worsen TTM symptoms.

Does trichotillomania run in families?

Trichotillomania (TTM), an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (OCSD), is a psychiatric condition characterized by repetitive hair pulling. Evidence from family and twin studies suggest a heritable link of TTM.

Is trichotillomania caused by trauma?

We can conclude that trauma may play a role in development of both trichotillomania and skin picking. Increased duration of trichotillomania or skin picking was correlated with decreased presence of post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Why does my child eat hair?

Hair/fuzz eating is not uncommon and may just be a bad habit. It could however be a form of PICA (eating things that are not food) which may be due to something missing from her diet so a visit to the pediatrician to discuss the hair eating is a good first step.

What causes trichophagia?

What causes trichophagia? Trichophagia is likely to be the cumulative result of multiple factors, such as genetic predisposition, social environment, and neurobiological factors. There are several psychoanalytic theories and associations, although none are supported by empirical evidence.

What is trichobezoar and Phytobezoar?

In humans, the most common type of bezoar is the trichobezoar, which is mostly made of hair. However, bezoars can also be made of vegetable or fruit fiber (phytobezoars), milk curd (lactobezoars), or any indigestible material.

Who is most affected by trichotillomania?

People typically develop “trich” around age 12, and 75 percent of those who have it are female, according to research findings. Their compulsive hair pulling often results in a “thin” appearance on the scalp, says Mouton-Odum. Some people also pluck other hairy areas, such as their eyebrows, eyelashes or body hair.

Is trichotillomania an addiction?

Trichotillomania is not an addiction. People with Trichotillomania do not compulsively pull their hair out in order to reach an altered state of consciousness, they do it because they have an uncontrollable urge to do so.

How do you beat trichotillomania?

1. Identify pulling behavior trends.
2. Identify triggers.
3. Practice mindfulness.
4. Identify and dispute negative thoughts and feelings.
5. Separate from the behavior.
6. Create competing responses.
7. Create stimulus controls.

What happens if trichotillomania is left untreated?

If left untreated, trichotillomania can lead to hair loss, bald spots, lack of eyebrows or eyelashes, and skin damage at the follicles.

Is trichotillomania a mental disorder?

Trichotillomania is a body-focused repetitive behavior classified as an impulse control disorder (along the lines of pyromania, kleptomania, and pathologic gambling) which involves pulling out one’s hair.

Will my hair grow back after trichotillomania?

In cases of trichotillomania — a condition in which a person frequently pulls out hair from their scalp or elsewhere on their body and feels powerless to stop — the repeated damage to their hair follicle can slow hair growth. If a follicle has been damaged, it may take 2 to 4 years for new hair to grow back.

Can a human Digest hair?

Hair is made up of proteins called keratin which cannot be broken down by our body. They can only be processed at very high temperatures which do not exist inside our body. So, when you swallow small strands of hair accidentally, they just end up passing out of the body with other undigested food.

When was the first case of trichotillomania?

TTM was first described in 1889 by Hallopeau. It is currently ranked among the habit and impulse control disorders. Age at TTM onset varies from 9-13 years, and is more common in females, epidemiological characteristics consistent with our patient’s.

How do you treat trichobezoar?

Trichobezoar can be treated by using endoscopy for removal of hair, laparoscopy or Laparotomy. Laparotomy had 100% successful rate while 5% for endoscopy and 75% for laparoscopy.

Can you eat hair to survive?

No, they cannot survive on such a diet. Nails and hair are made of keratin. Keratin is very much not digestible: Keratin is highly resistant to digestive acids if it is ingested (Trichophagia).