Sherry’s story is unique in many ways. First, Sherry developed trich as an adult and only after years of high stress and insomnia. As many of you know, most people beginning experiencing the increased urge to pull associated with trich at an early age, typically between about 7 and 18 years old. But this wasn’t the only category that set Sherry apart. She was also very unique in that she required an extremely low dose of amino acids to help resolve her issues.

Sherry came to us exhausted and “barely able to function”. She had experienced chronic insomnia for over 10 years, sleeping only 1-2 hours at a time during the night and often only 3-4 hours total nightly with many nights of no sleep. After about 5 years of this, Sherry started to develop depression as well as the urge to pull.

Those of you familiar with this blog know that there are many causes of neurotransmitter imbalance and that lack of sleep can make trichotillomania worse. We have seen many cases where someone who is chronically sleep deprived develops depression. However, Sherry was the first person that we worked with where lack of sleep, due to stress, seemed to actually create a situation the resulted in trichotillomania.

We started Sherry on the normal protocol, but found that she reacted very poorly and felt very ill. We decreased the dose to just 1 pill daily of a balanced amino acid formula and did a urine test to determine how to find what she needed. It turned out that Sherry needed only a few pills of amino acids daily to get her into balance. Within a day she was sleeping 10-12 hours at a time and had no urge to pull. She had 10 years to make up for, so she found that she wanted to sleep almost all the time; luckily, she was able to do so and is well on her way to repaying her sleep debt and getting on with her life.

Sherry’s story is a great example how certain disorders can actually cause others; in her case, her chronic lack of sleep created a neurotransmitter imbalance that led to depression and trichotillomania. Sherry’s case also shows how quickly results can be seen when the body is given what it needs. Amino acid therapy doesn’t have to involve gulping down tons of pills daily; we just need to determine what each person needs and give them that. In Sherry’s case, that wasn’t much – a little went a very long way.