A recent client urged me to write an article about the prevalence of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in those that suffer from trichotillomania. She herself has both OCD-like tendencies, including ritual washing and bathing and obsessive fears about cleanliness, in addition to trichotillomania.
My experience has been that people with trichotillomania often suffer from one or more of the following: depression, anxiety and/or OCD. This is also supported in the literature. (1, 2). For those of you that are familiar with this blog, this should come as no surprise, as a root cause of all of these disorders is improper neurotransmitter function.
The Link Between Trichotillomania and OCD
Neurotransmitters are a class of chemical messengers in the body that help regulate, either directly or indirectly, most of the other systems and functions in the body. If there are imbalances in these neurotransmitters, many bodily functions will start to function inappropriately, which can lead to a number of unpleasant or debilitating symptoms, including:
| Depression | Anxiety | Obsessive thoughts |
| Insomnia | Compulsion | Binging behavior |
| Cravings | Increased appetite | Mood swings |
| Addictions | Sleep difficulties | Poor memory |
| Weight gain | Poor weight loss | Hormone imbalances |
| Poor mental focus | Poor concentration | Restless legs |
| Fibromyalgia | Fatigue/Chronic fatigue | Poor thyroid function |
| Parkinson’s Disease | ADD/ADHD | Trichotillomania |
| PMS | Hot flashes | Eating disorders |
| Migraines | Low pain tolerance | Crohn’s disease |
The key point is that when imbalances in neurotransmitters occur, information is not relayed optimally in the brain causing symptoms. Most people exhibit more than one of these conditions but fail to make the connection between them. This connection is not made because most health care professionals don’t know much about brain chemistry or how to use amino acid therapy to correct the underlying neurotransmitter imbalances.
We have a novel approach to help those with trichotillomania eliminate the urge to pull. The beauty of using properly balanced amino acid therapy to restore proper neurotransmitter function is that in addition to eliminating the urge to pull, it can also be used to address and eliminate the conditions listed above.
Addressing the cause to find a solution
It makes perfect sense that those with trichotillomania would also suffer from depression, anxiety, OCD or any of the other conditions listed above. They all share a common root cause; by addressing that cause, there is a solution that can substantially reduce and/or eliminate their symptoms. Properly administered amino acid therapy is that solution; it addresses the underlying neurotransmitter imbalance(s) responsible for the conditions above. Once proper neurotransmitter function is restored, the biochemical causes of the condition(s) are eliminated and you are free to live your life as you see fit.
References
- Chamberlain SR, Menzies L, Sahakian BJ, Fineberg NA (April 2007). “Lifting the veil on trichotillomania”. Am J Psychiatry 164 (4): 568–74. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.164.4.568.
- Christenson GA, Crow SJ (1996). “The characterization and treatment of trichotillomania”. The Journal of clinical psychiatry 57 Suppl 8: 42–7; discussion 48–9.
