Do you know what is under the bald patches and missing eyelashes and eyebrows that you see?

My students often share that before they found my TrichotillomaniaFree Women’s University online program, they did not have a way to uncover or express their truths.

Through years of counseling, willpower, anti-depressants and anxiety drugs, Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), hypnotherapy, NLP, EFT, EMDR, special diets, supplements, taping their fingers …through both conventional and alternative treatments, ignoring the problem and even religious or spiritual approaches to stopping trichotillomania, these truths sat silently waiting for the day when my students could finally express their inner experiences.

At last, these are their words…words they were never before able to tell themselves, let alone tell you. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Want to know what goes on in TrichotillomaniaFree Women’s University?  A ton! There’s an amazing curriculum, an honest and engaging continuing dialog about the truth of trich and an incredible worldwide support community completely focused on healing.

There’s no conversation about how to live with trichotillomania for the long-haul. Because for our students that not even an option.

Ever wondered what real support looks like?  Here’s a snippet–only the names have been changed to protect our students’ privacy:

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Trichotillomania: The Inside-Outs of Compulsive Hair Pulling

I recently read this from a practitioner who treats trichotillomania sufferers,

“It is not necessary for you to find or know the cause of your hair pulling.”

Whoa! While this sounds good on the surface, there’s a big problem with it.

Also, if you don’t learn the cause of your pulling, how can you be sure that the problem is solved and you will never pull again? You’ll always be powerless with your trichotillomania and with those whom you rely on to help you stop pulling.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

This coming May, I will have been free of Trichotillomania for 16 years without medication, dietary changes, behavior therapy, hypnosis, supplements of any kind, or any outside intervention. After 27 long and painful years, I found the answers within myself. So can you!

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Addiction and abuse are inseparable.  In any environment where abuse exists, addiction is likely mixed in along with it.  In any environment where there is addiction, there is bound to be some abuse going on just around the corner.  Think about how this plays out in your own world.

“The first time that you challenge your addiction, and the second, and the third, you may not feel that anything has been accomplished.  Do you think that authentic power can be had so easily?  As you hold to your intention, and as you choose again and again and again to become whole, you accumulate power, and the addiction that you thought could not be challenged will lose its power over you…”                                                                               –Gary Zukav

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new study out about hair pullers who took the amino acid, N-Acetylcysteine.

The Trichotillomania study has received lots of press, but many hair pullers are wondering why. In some participants, high doses of N-Acetylcysteine lowered high-moderate hair pulling to low-moderate hair pulling, but did not stop it, nor did it improve their quality of life.

N-Acetylcysteine is made from chicken feathers, pig bristles and human hair consequently it may have some homeopathic influence but the smell, taste and lingering-effects of this amino acid might cause some hair pullers to resist trying it. N-Acetylcysteine reportedly smells like a combination of garlic and sulfur.

On a more serious note, N-Acetylcysteine comes with a warning bell from the University of Virginia. Taking this amino acid may lead to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a serious condition producing high blood pressure in arteries leading to the lungs.

Please see my full article at: N-Acetylcysteine and Trichotillomania

Abuse is incredibly contagious.  It is passed from generation to generation.  The experience of abuse creates a deep hole and a lack of belief in the self.  Whether or not you think so, it affects you and me.  Truly, we are all victims and we are all perpetrators because we all respond in our own way to fear and pain, though some of these ways are socially acceptable and others are not.

Abuse is a very personal experience.  Sometimes very sensitive people can experience something as abusive when many others may not consider it so.  So keep in mind that we must remain focused on each person’s personal experience and not necessarily the exact truth of a situation.

What is Abuse?

There is no universally accepted definition of abuse.  I propose that,

The experience of abuse causes a feeling of having been seriously injured at a deep core level regardless of what did or did not occur physically as in sexual abuse, or physical abuse, or verbally, as in verbal or emotional abuse.

As you allow this definition to sink in, remember that a major premise is that it is absolutely possible to heal from this type of core injury.

Relational trauma is when a situation in your child’s life (remembered, or not) caused your child to perceive that her positive relationship with someone she cherished was severed or ripped away against her will, never to return.  Unvalidated relational trauma often goes underground, remains unresolved and turns into a deep wound.