Hey everyone!! So I’ve been diagnosed with moderate ocd. Sometimes when a new symptom arises with my ocd, I don’t how to combat it. Since I have ocd, sometimes I get scared that it might mean somethings else. So basically I have this weird thing where I need to pull my hair or rip it out. I thought it was trichotillomania but I’m not sure. I was gonna talk about it in therapy today but I forgot. When this happens I usually get a feeling in my scalp where I have to pull or rip my hair out to feel better. It is weird. Sometimes I don’t need to pull my hair out, I can get that satisfaction just from tugging of it and feeling the hair being tugged . The feeling of needing to pull my hair even shows up no only on my scalp but my shoulder muscle and I have to pull my hair or stretch it to feel better. I’m not sure if it is Tourette’s. Can someone let me know if they have had this or similar to it. What if so what is it? Is it just plain ocd. Help!!

hi, this is random but how did the whole diagnosing process go? i haven’t been professionally diagnosed yet so i’m a bit nervous and not sure how it works

Well for me, my therapist simply asked me questions (about 25) and then I got a score. I got 24/40 which is moderate. I would definitely recommend talking to someone about the ocd. I remember I was hesitant to tell my therapist, but when I did I felt an instant relief. I was in a VERY dark time before I told her.

I’ve struggled with trichitillomania off and on since I was 7yrs old. I’m now 38 and struggle with scalp picking. I absolutely feel where I need to pick or pull or scratch. After lots of research, people with trich/dermatillomania DO have an increased sense of interoception. These behaviors are called Body Focused Repetetive behaviors. It’s been lumped under OCD, but it’s treatment is still debatable. It’s anxiety related, sensory processing related, habit related, impulse control related, etc etc. you aren’t alone. More people have it than you may realize. We just gotta work thru it.

I also have a sensation of needing to twirl my hair until it breaks. I don’t know if you would call it trich, because I don’t necessarily pull directly from the scalp, but sometimes when a strand twirls around it pulls out at the root. Gross. Anyways, I also get that feeling in my scalp where I have to do that to feel better. I know it’s gotten bad because my hair is so short now, I guess from the breakage, that people are asking if I got a haircut. I haven’t gotten a haircut in years. This is why I got on this site.