Whitney’s Story

Following is an amazing testimonial from one of our clients.  Read on to learn Whitney’s story and hear how we can help.

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Lifestyle Habits to Help Improve Sleep

Recently, we did a post on the negative impacts lack of sleep can have on increasing the symptoms of trichotillomania (see Can Skimping on Sleep make Trichotillomania Worse?). This happens due to the relationship between sleep and neurotransmitter levels – if you sleep less (or erratically), your neurotransmitter levels will likely become imbalanced, which will increase your urge to pull.

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Getting Back to the Basics – Start at the Beginning

You have the urge to pull. You can resist the urge, but it can take a lot of effort to do so. If you give in, you may or may not like what you feel after you pull (exhilaration, pleasure), but you probably don’t like how you feel (guilt, shame, despair) or the end result of pulling (i.e., bald spots, thinning or non-existent hair, eyebrows or eyelashes, etc.). You feel out of control and powerless to change it.

This is a typical scenario and when it comes down to it, we have to start at the beginning – with the urge to pull. If we can eliminate the urge to pull, we can eliminate everything that comes after it.

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Food Allegies and Trich

We have covered a number of ways that different environmental and genetic factors could adversely affect trichotillomania in this blog. This post will focus on another common biological cause for neurotransmitter imbalance that can exacerbate or cause trichotillomania, and that is food allergies or food hypersensitivities.

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Can Skimping on Sleep Make Trichotillomania Worse?

As you read through the numerous articles and research on this blog you will quickly see that we have found that imbalances with certain neurotransmitters (which are brain chemicals that control most of the body’s functions) can lead to a great many disorders, including trichotillomania and the urge to pull, depression, anxiety, compulsive and/or obsessive thoughts and behaviors, food cravings, binging behavior, addictions, migraines and many others, including sleep disturbances. Therefore, it would not be surprising to find a relationship between these seemingly varied imbalances.

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A Very Trichy Case

Many of the testimonials and case studies I write about are about very fast results where people suddenly have a complete elimination of the urge to pull within days or weeks of starting balanced amino acid therapy. Truth-be-told, most cases of trichotillomania do resolve within a relatively short period of time, so these case histories and testimonials are representative of what we typically see at the clinic. However, we do have a few cases where things aren’t quite so cut and dry; in these instances, it can take months to get the amino acid dosing right. This obviously requires incredible dedication on the part of the client, as well as their family, as this case history illustrates.

Jenna came to us after her mom had been searching the internet for three years trying to find a solution for her daughter. Jenna had started pulling the hair out of her sheep-skin blanket before progressing to pulling out her eyebrows and then from her head. By the time we spoke with Jenna’s mom, the right side of her head was bald and she didn’t have any eyelashes or eyebrows.

In addition, Jenna had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), with the onset of symptoms occurring when she was just six years old. Her mother stated that she had a period of several years when she did exhibit any OCD symptoms, but that about three years ago, she started constantly washing her hands (to the point that her hands cracked and bled), “straightening things”, developing extensive bedtime rituals and became very worried about contamination and germs. Jenna had been on Prozac for about a year when we first spoke. Both she and her mom were desperate.

We began by attempting to balance out Jenna’s neurotransmitter levels as we always do. However, it became obvious quite quickly that this was not working, so we ran some testing to help guide her care. Jenna’s body was requiring incredibly high levels of amino acids to show any kind of change and the testing was extremely valuable to help make sure we were on the right track.

It took 12 tests and 10 months until she got the result she was looking for. The dedication and support exhibited by Jenna and her parents was incredible over this time period, especially considering that Jenna did not experience any relief of symptoms for the first 10 months we worked together. However, her diligence, and her parents dedication paid off. Like flipping a switch, everything changed.

I spoke with Jenna recently and she told me it was suddenly “easy to control my trich and OCD” and that she “didn’t need reassurance as much”. She was sleeping well, eating normally and doing well in school. Her mom was ecstatic. She said both she and Jenna were realizing most of the repetitive actions were now only habits versus being due to OCD or anxiety and that Ana was now able to differentiate between them and stop when she wanted to. This was a HUGE improvement according to her mom; “We have a life again, and we have our daughter back!” said mom. Now, Jenna’s work is awareness; becoming aware of when she is doing something mindlessly and asking herself if she wants to continue. Now she has control.

Everybody wants instant gratification – and why wouldn’t we? Getting something for less or little effort is always preferable, especially when we are talking about ending what could be a debilitating condition such as trich or OCD. However, when things don’t happen right away and our resolve is tested, then we find out how badly we want a solution. In this instance, desperation was the key to sticking with the program until we achieved the desired result. This means preparing for the long-haul knowing that a resolution will come when we determine exactly what your body needs to achieve balance. We will help you reach your goals, but it is your resolve and dedication that will matter most if and when the going gets tough or the journey grows long.

A Novel Way to Improve Trichotillomania

We talk a lot about using amino acid therapy to help correct underlying neurotransmitter imbalances to help people overcome trichotillomania and other disorders related to neurotransmitter imbalance, such as depression, anxiety, OCD, ADD/ADHD, migraines, obesity, fibromyalgia and insomnia. However, recent research has shown that you may be able to fine-tune your neurotransmitter levels by using the right combination of probiotics.

Probiotics – good for your (brain) health

Probiotics are the “good” bacteria that normally reside in your gut. It is known that if  these bacteria become imbalanced in some way (due to illness, improper diet or toxin exposure), a condition called “dysbiosis” results, which can have many dire consequences including decreased immunity, improper immune function, food allergies, inflammation, indigestion and numerous other physical disorders. However, until recently it was not known that these bacteria can also generate neurotransmitters that can also affect your brain, impacting your mental and emotional states.

Researchers at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center found that the following bacteria can produce neurotransmitters in the gut:

This could mean that the microbial balance in your gut could be a key player in improving and maintaining your neurotransmitter levels, and therefore alleviating the urge to pull. It also provides more scientific evidence for something that we routinely see in the clinic – that many people with gastrointestinal disorders develop or have one or more disorders related to neurotransmitter imbalance and that correctly the underlying gastrointestinal disorder is imperative to long-term recovery. Think of it like this – the gastrointestinal disorder (like IBS, Crohn’s disease, food allergies or Celiac’s disease) is like a hole in a bucket, causing neurotransmitter levels to decline (or become imbalanced). In order to fill the bucket back up (using amino acid therapy) over time, you have to first fix the whole.

Certain gastrointestinal disorders create neurotransmitter imbalances through inflammatory, immune or genetic influences. This research provides another potential way to explain, and address, the resulting neurotransmitter dysfunction. Obviously, more research needs to be done to define just how this can be useful in real life, but for now, it seems logical that anyone that suffers from trich or other disorders associated with neurotransmitter imbalance must heal any underlying gut issues while restoring proper neurotransmitter balance using amino acid therapy to achieve long term success.

Amino Acid Therapy and Trichotillomania

Amino acid therapy can be very effective at restoring proper neurotransmitter function and alleviating the insatiable urge to pull that some many people with trichotillomania experience. There are really two ways in which amino acids are used for people with trichotillomania. The first is to use n-acetyl cysteine, or NAC, which has been shown in clinical trials to reduce the urge to pull in about 56% of people that use NAC (see our post entitled N-acetylcysteine and Treatment of Trichotillomania for more information). NAC is thought to work by increasing the concentration of glutamate (an excitatory neurotransmitter) in a part of the brain that reduces compulsive behavior and hair pulling. Glutamate works in conjunction with GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter) to control many functions in the body. Thus, NAC provides a safe and moderately effective strategy to use amino acid therapy to decrease the urge to pull associated with trichotillomania.

However, we have found that a more effective way to implement amino acid therapy in regards to trichotillomania is to address the serotonin/dopamine system.  By providing the brain the proper proportion of the necessary amino acid precursors and cofactors necessary to achieve optimal serotonin and dopamine function we have had an 86% success rate with eliminating the urge to pull, as opposed to just reducing the urge to pull.

This increased success rate is attributed to the fact that dopamine exhibits control over the release of glutamate and GABA in certain parts of the brain. Therefore, the imbalance between glutamate and GABA that leads to trichotillomania in most people is likely to be caused by an imbalance with dopamine and serotonin (as they are farther upstream). By optimizing serotonin and dopamine function, all the systems downstream, including glutamate and GABA normalize as well. When this happens, the urge to pull disappears.

Another key distinction between using NAC or this balanced amino acid approach is the ability to remain symptom free once the amino acid(s) have been discontinued. With NAC, the urge to pull often returns once the supplement is discontinued (this provides further evidence that NAC may not be addressing the root cause of the imbalance). However, with balanced amino acid therapy we have found that once optimized neurotransmitter function is established and maintained for a period of time, most people can reduce or eliminate the amino acids and remain symptom free utilizing dietary and lifestyle factors to maintain optimal neurotransmitter status.  This means that it is very likely you won’t have to take these supplements forever and you can remain trichotillomania-free. This occurs because we are addressing the underlying root imbalance that seems to lead to the urge to pull for most people with trichotillomania. By correctly the underlying neurotransmitter imbalance with balanced amino acid therapy you effectively eliminate the problem, which allows you to stop pulling your hair out.

A Touching Story

Lacey was at wit’s end with trichotillomania. She had pulled for 28 years, with no end in sight. She had constant, uncontrollable urges and could not stop pulling hair out. She thought she was mentally ill, and worse, she feared that she’d pass along trich to her 4 year-old son.

Then she met Dr. Chad Oler, and everything changed. Listen to her story, and find out how she learned to stop pulling hair out.

Lacy’s Podcast

When Lacey found Dr. Chad, she discovered a way to stop pulling hair out that’s surprisingly easy, has produced dramatic results, and is ready for you to start IMMEDIATELY.

Support for People With Trich

One of the things we hear most often in the clinic from people suffering from trich is that they feel very alone, very isolated and very fearful. They are usually afraid that someone will find out about their pulling and they are burdened by the stress of guilt and shame. Most of the time, this only adds to their stress levels, which causes anxiety and an increased need to pull. Obviously, in order to stop pulling their hair out, they need to break this vicious cycle.

Many people find relief in some form of counseling. As we’ve mentioned in several other posts, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) works especially well for some people with trich. For many people, simply telling their story and how trich has affected their lives allows them to release a HUGE burden – for this, support groups are wonderful.

If you live in a large city, you may be able to find a local support group where you can go in person. Here is a great resource to see if there is a support group in your area: http://www.trich.org/treatment/support-groups.html.

Going to an actual group can be a big stretch for many people and/or they don’t have the luxury of having a local support group, so online support groups can play a vital role. There are many support groups out there, so find one that works for you. Here are a couple to get you started:

http://trichotillomania.supportgroups.com/

http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Trichotillomania-Hair-Pulling/support-group

http://www.mdjunction.com/trichotillomania-ttm

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/TLCTrichSupport/

Check some of these out, read some of the posts and get involved to your comfort level. There are a LOT of people out there that know exactly what you are going through and just connecting with them may help ease some of your pain. It certainly won’t hurt.

There is a great quote that I have posted in my office – “True understanding is found through compassion.” Nowhere is this more true than with trich. Reach out and let yourself be supported.