I recently received an email that I could have written myself in the past. This was from a young woman who suspected she was suffering from chronic telogen effluvium (or CTE) because she had experienced heavy and worrying shedding for the previous several months. Recently, she had started counting her hairs. She was doing this because she wanted to know who she was really dealing with. She wanted to be able to see any trends or improvements (in hopes of linking treatments she was trying with positive or negative changes in her shedding).
And, while this all sounded fine in theory, it was very problematic in real life. She told me in part: “It seems like counting hairs has become almost an obsession for me. I worry I’m going to miss something, so now I find myself constantly running my fingers through my hair.” I run it to see how many hairs will come out. Most of the time, at least a few varieties emerge. And it’s true how often I do this. Of course, I am very happy if I don’t get any hair. But this usually does not happen. Case. I know it’s silly and only making me more upset which just makes things worse. But I can’t stop because I always feel like I always need to check and see how bad it really is. ,
To those who have never experienced CTE or severe shedding, the sentiment in that email may seem extremely silly and illogical. But, for those of you who drift for long periods of time and know the frustration of not knowing when it’s going to end or not, this scenario may not seem as strange as you’d imagine. The truth is that many people in this situation are counting hairs. And of those who don’t, many will at least glance down the drain or on their clothes to track the current state of their hair loss. Everyone wants to see (and is often looking for) improvements.
So this all makes a lot of sense, but I have to tell you, from my experience, counting hairs or constantly running your fingers through your hair is really a path you don’t want to travel down. Yes, it can become a habit and no, it will never make you feel better. And most people know it’s devastating when they’re doing it, but it seems like they can’t stop because their worry and panic about hair loss keeps them from always wanting to “check in” to see if it’s happening. feeds the need to see whether things are getting better or not. getting worse.
My best advice is to do whatever you need to to stop the habit of running your fingers through your hair and counting the ones that come out. When your hair has been falling out for a while, you can usually tell pretty quickly whether you’re having a good day or a bad one. You shouldn’t really need to keep counting or checking.
Some people are able to stop cold turkey through sheer willpower, but that was not my reality. It was a gradual process for me. At its worst, I’ve had to make some deals with myself to wait two hours before checking in again. Next time, it will be four hours and so on. The less I ran my fingers through my hair or counted the strands, the better I felt and eventually I realized that the whole thing was ridiculous. Not only that, but the longer I went without doing it, the better I felt. So, I eventually stopped and, psychologically, it helped.
I completely understand that excessive hair loss can have a psychological impact and can lead you to do things that you know are unwise. Still, if you know in your heart that these things aren’t doing you any good, it’s often in your best interest to stop and sometimes it helps to “stick” if you do it slowly. does.
Source by Ava Alderman
