In your case, I would think that the combination of prescription drugs, and anesthesia have left you way low on B vitamins, and your doctor would not even know about this. When your stomach is bombarded with pain meds, anti-biotics and enzyme suppressants, you can't make B vitamins in the usual way, which happens in the stomach and intestines. Without restoring your intestinal flora, you will be low on every single B vitamin. In the short term, you need to take some powerful B complex frequently, in addition to getting some stomach enzymes like acidophilus.

I'm about to cry.
I've had that same obsession for a year and I'm so embarrassed of my legs. Just like you, I actually enjoy doing it and I have also tried to hide the tweezers. Even when I don't have any tweezers on hand, I use my nails to dig them out of my skin. I am so happy that I have found someone like me and now I know that this is called trichotillomania. I'm too embarrassed to mention this to my parents so I can't get any help. My back is also killing me because I'm always bending over to get to my legs.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you posting this.

I am so beyond relieved to see this. I, too, have been obsessively plucking for so long. It started with my eyebrows when I was 14 and for about a year, it has been my legs. I am so sad when I look at my legs.
I also chew on the inside of my cheek-been doing that since I was 15 and now I have a wrinkle that looks like a smoker's wrinkle.
My main concern is how I can stop plucking my legs. I need help.

Hello all...well like many I just want to start off by letting you all know how happy I am to see that I am not alone. I'm not happy that you all have the same problem as I do, but at least I'm not alone.

I am a male about to be in my mid-thirties and I have been plucking my leg hair (between my knee and the ankle) out with tweezers for about eight years but seriously plucking for the last three. And by serious I mean an almost daily event which results in sometimes close to hundreds of plucks. I used to just do a few with my fingernails, but now I use a pair of tweezers. I am obsessed with hairs that haven't breached the surface of the skin yet and especially the little black ring that they make. If I can get a root-ball to come out then I get excited. For me if I start to think about the little hairs that need to be picked then I start obsessing, so much so that I cannot think of anything else. I have even taken along a pair of tweezers to work with me just in case I start thinking about picking. Once I do start I actually do not get a "high" as some people describe, but rather a relaxing feeling overtakes my body & mind. And in most cases I do not stop picking until I cannot find anymore "young hairs" to pull out.

I have a problem and it makes me sad because I feel powerless. My GF knows what I'm doing now because there was no way that my excuses for all of the red marks and scabs could continue. I'll go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet seat and spend over an hour in there just plucking (or picking as I call it).

I recently had some surgery and I noticed after returning home that while under the influence of opiate pain killers, the urge to pick was at an all-time high for me. Is there any "tricks" that anyone here knows about who was able to stop w/out the use of drugs?

Wow I just want to say thanks to anyone who read this. It's so nice to know that I am not alone and better yet I no longer feel like a freak for doing what I'm doing to myself. Sometimes when I run into a "fighter" (which is what I call a hair that just doesn't want to come out or a hair that breaks in half and the attached half of hair snaps back under the surface of the skin) I will use the sharp corner of the tweezers to "dig" it out creating a hole in my skin and lots of blood. So I worry about infections a lot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

5FF

Hi 5-For-Fighting,

I am not an expert on dependency problems, but I understand that sometimes work well shock treatments. I guess you will not be easy to understand because I translate literally from my native language.
What I mean is something like what happens to Mr. Scrooge in Dickens' story "Chistmas carol. Mr. Scrooge had the opportunity to see their future and that made him change.


I have selected some pictures for you to see the aftermath that leaves your addiction:



In the first leg of a girl who had been subjected to the uprooting of his hair for some years. Fortunately she decided to quit their habit and took a drastic decision but very effective: The electrolysis. Unfortunately, previous scars were irreversible and could no longer do anything for them. The treatment ended its two problems, hairs and the imperative to pursue it.


In the second case, it is also a woman and her bikini line. Years before the electrolysis, plucking the hair with tweezers. Prevent serious sequelae appreciate a beautiful velvety skin.

Josefa

The Pfeiffer Research Institute in Ohio and Biobalance Australia have some success in the treatment of OCD's. They work with vitamins and minerals to rebalance the body's biochemistry, after comprehensive testing to find the causes. I once treated a clients' face to perfection, and a few years later while bedridden, she began tweezing the vellus hairs , causing a new facial hair problem. Co incidentally, she was a compulsive house cleaner, as was her Mum. She vacoumed her room everytime she brushed her hair.

Thanks Christine. It seems that when I say that OCD's have a connection to food, nutrition, and biochemistry, everyone rolls their eyes.