Mandis Experience

During her therapy, Mandi was very resistant. She felt that being treated meant that something was wrong with her, with shot down her confidence even more.

We can all relate to her when she says that not having hair makes her feel ugly. The therapist asked her what it would mean to her if she had a full head of hair, and I was surprised when she said she hadn't even thought about it. What this means is that her thought processes are so invoked, so embalmed in trichotillomania, that she doesnt even think about the results of recovery.

Her main goal to recover was to no longer feel guilty, to not feel remorse after pulling. First off, may I say that she is a beautiful woman, and hair or not, I thought she was a beautiful person. Regardless, after her therapy to which she was resistant, I am glad to say that in her video diaries she said that she now had all the tools to recover, she just had to apply them.

I think that most of our goals to recover are to NOT pull. This focuses on the negative. We should NOT pull, pulling is BAD, pulling RUINS us, pulling makes us UGLY. I think we should shift our ways of thinking. Instead of thinking these things, we should think "I will have my own hair", "My hair will grow", "Trich isnt bad, its a good indicator of when I am stressed or emotional, and trich will tell me before anything else."

Unlike from what I have heard before, Mandi did not recover (in the episode) however I do not know how she is doing now. She struggled and struggled, but she did have new growth. She did have improvements, and thats whats important. The process is a slow one, but its step by step. We cant just stop pulling tomorrow and have a full head of head in a few months.

Every small improvement counts. Even not pulling right now.