I just had an interesting conversation with a new client that I’d like to share as it highlights one of fundamental factors supporting the work that we do. This woman, we’ll call her Tricia,  was referred to us from her medical doctor who knew of our work with neurotransmitter imbalances.

Tricia was 42 years old and had started pulling about 12 years ago after a very stressful couple of years. Tricia had a constant urge to pull and had pulled all the hair on her head out about 7 years ago. Since that time, she has been buzzing her head with a clipper to keep it short. However, she was now pulling any hair that was long enough to grab and had bald spots again. Several years ago, she had also started pulling out her pubic hair as well as picking at the skin on her chest.

In addition to pulling, Tricia suffered from depression and anxiety, both of which she was being treated for with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication. She didn’t feel the medication was helping, but she felt worse whenever she tried to go off of it, so she continued taking it.

While discussing her health history, Tricia told me that her mother was manic-depressive, was a chronic alcoholic, had migraine headaches and displayed very obsessive-compulsive tendencies for as far as she could remember. Tricia desperately wanted to know why she felt the way she did and what we could do about it.

Tricia’s case is representative of many cases of trich that we see. We have found that trichotillomania, or more specifically the urge to pull hair out, stems from an imbalance in neurotransmitter function.  However, several other disorders are also caused by neurotransmitter imbalances, including depression, anxiety, migraines, addictions, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, over eating, binging and cravings (especially for sweets).

Both Tricia and her mother displayed many symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalance. This is incredibly common. In fact, I’d estimate that over 50% of the clients we see with trich also have one or more of the other disorders associated with neurotransmitter imbalance, with anxiety, OCD and depression being the top three. In addition, it is very common to find familial traits or tendencies towards disorders involving neurotransmitter imbalances that may indicate genetics also plays a role.

No matter what the cause, the solution is to address the dysfunction by addressing the underlying neurotransmitter imbalances using properly administered amino acid therapy. After I explained this to Tricia, she couldn’t wait to get started.

The great news for people like Tricia is that by addressing the root cause – neurotransmitter imbalance – we can effectively address many symptoms; in Tricia’s case, this includes the urge to pull, depression and anxiety. Once proper neurotransmitter function has been achieved, all of the disorders related to the underlying imbalance will improve, which can be an incredible relief to our clients.

I’ll keep you posted on Tricia’s progress in this blog. In the meantime, if you’d like to see if we can help you, please contact us. We’d love to help you eliminate the urge to pull as well as be free of any symptoms associated with neurotransmitter imbalance.