My son has this (he's 8; it started at 4). We go day by day here. My heart breaks for him because he's at the age where kids might start making fun of him. He's been lucky so far. We just have to deal with all the "what happened to you?!" and "is he okay?" questions. I wish I could get people to understand that my son is not mentally disturbed!! The public is not educated on this disorder. Those who have it tend to stay pretty quiet about it. With my son, it's pretty much out there for everyone to see because his hair is short. We feel it's better to tell everyone we know that he has this so they won't be completely surprised to see missing hair. We've noticed that his friends are very kind to him--seems like they really don't even notice!
I tried to get a meeting with his teachers at the beginning of the school year for 2 weeks! I could feel my son's stress-level rising daily and I was hoping to prevent a pulling episode. Well, needless to say, we got the meeting... AFTER he pulled. Suddenly, everyone was very accommodating. Oh, I've lost a lot of sleep and cried many tears for him. I just hope it gets easier for him as he gets older and not harder.
He's been in therapy for the past year. We haven't seen much change. My son pulls only 2-3 times per year but he usually pulls big patches, including eyebrows and eyelashes...
Anyway, I'm just glad there's a place I can come now for support... Thanks for listening.
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