Does anyone have a teen who suffers from Tricotillomania(hair pulling)

[moomoo1967]

I am at my absolute wits end and in tears, I just don't know what to do. DD started pulling at her hair Dec13(that I first noticed) then it seemed to tail off last year. I have never really had long hair so thought that all the hair in the bath plughole and on the carpet was just a result of her brushing her hair but I have since realised that it is because she is pulling her hair again. My Mum was diagnosed with lung cancer last year which I think may have been the trigger. Her first BF finished with her last Monday 23rd and it has got much worse since then, with the hair on top of her head now being about 2 inches long, with the rest past shoulder length. Up til now she has refused to go to the doctors but we have an appointment on 8th April.
I just don't know how to deal with it, if I mention it when I notice her doing it she gets upset. She has got definite bald patches, she is also refusing to go out of the house so I am worried that she will refuse to go to school when they go back on 13th April.
Any advice would be most gratefully accepted

Thanks for the suggestion of fiddle toys, I have made lots of suggestions to her, someone said a ball of blue tac works for them, someone suggested knitting, crocheting etc, I managed to get her to start on a 1000 piece jigsaw yesterday. She does not want to do anything I suggest so I have had to back off

My dd 3 has done this since she was 3, it comes in fits and starts depending on her stress levels. At the moment it's low level and she's finding lots of the lush products really useful ,she's also picked up the craze for having her hair in a bun which is great as it means there is nothing for her to pull. We've been to cahms when she was 6/7 but they discharged her after 5 sessions. We've just coped since then, I have told school (the pastoral office) specially when school was being the trigger and she is in a school support group for confidence and she has told all the members of that group so she has people who will gently stop her if they see her doing it. She prefers a gentle distraction along the lines of , "what's your hand Doing?" Which she finds makes her think what she was doing or thinking before/whilst pulling.

Fiddle toys are a great idea, stress balls etc things you can really stick your fingernails in to. I would buy some and just leave them lying around the house. She's cl army going to reject suggestions from you (ad would most teenage daughters!) so you'll have to be less direct with your help. Don't lose sleep over it though - this is not life or death. Also, she will learn how to cope with stress by observing how you cope - if you're not coping well (with exercise, healthy eating seeing friends, generally looking after yourse) this will make it more difficult to see the point in doing anything differently.

thanks ovuma that does make sense, and I have explained how Reiki is Holistic and she said that she would give it a go. To be truthful I have had a lot of pressure personal and work wise over the past year and was sort of teetering on the brink, it won't have taken much to push me over

Auntpetunia she can put her hair into a high ponybtail but it is not that which she has been pulling but the hair on top of her head which is not so short it just sticks up. And last night she must have been scratching her head as she has 2 bloody scabs on the top of her head. That said after 2 hours of her being in tears, trying to style her hair so the patches don't show, we are on a bus to the next town to go shopping so ending this post on a positive note

thank you