Timmy’s parents came to us after their third unsuccessful trial with psychotherapy to help him stop pulling out the hair on his head; they had also tried several rounds of medications with no results. Timmy was a 9 year old boy and had progressively pulled back from most social interactions over the past 6 months due to embarrassment over the ever-enlarging bald spots on his head. His parents also noted that Timmy had become much more defiant and rebellious over that same time frame and was now very quick to anger and constantly irritable. He had also gained a substantial amount of weight over the past year and was now clinically obese. His parents desperately wanted to help their son as they felt he was becoming depressed and isolated from his peers.
We started Timmy with a low dose of balanced amino acids to help improve overall neurotransmitter function. Within a week he noticed a slight decrease in his appetite, but not much other change. Over the course of the next month we adjusted Timmy’s amino acid dosing to achieve proper neurotransmitter function. As we did so, Timmy’s mood began to improve – his parents noted that he “laughed and smiled” for the first time in months, and he was doing it almost daily. His appetite also went down and he started to lose weight. Most importantly, the urge to pull decreased significantly and he felt more and more in control when the urges to pull reared up.
We may still have some minor tweaking to do with Timmy before we can say he is completely urge-free, but he has improved substantially over the past couple months from where he started. His parents are overjoyed – “we have our child back again” was Timmy’s mom’s comment at our last visit.
Like Timmy, many children with trichotillomania have a hard time expressing themselves and what they are feeling. They may not know why they pull or have the urge to pull; they just know that it’s there and it feels overwhelming. Timmy’s parents tried the standard approaches to trich – medications and psychotherapy – with little benefit. Luckily, they found us before Timmy’s behavior deteriorated any further.
Trichotillomania in children can be overcome once we successfully address the underlying imbalances that cause those incredible urges to pull. Timmy’s words sum up the effects of properly administered amino acid therapy nicely, he said, “I don’t know what happened, one day I had the urge to pull, and the next day I didn’t.” That is a common occurrence and it illustrates the power of using science and nutrition to optimize neurotransmitter function.
