What does it mean when you constantly twirl your hair?
Body-focused repetitive behavior
There's some research to suggest that there's a link between this type of behavior and impatience, boredom, frustration, and dissatisfaction. Hair twirling can alleviate boredom and also help you wind down when you're feeling tired.
Trichotillomania is hair loss from repeated urges to pull or twist the hair until it breaks off. People are unable to stop this behavior, even as their hair becomes thinner.
Sensory Stimulation: “A person's own movements/actions feel good to that individual. For example, a child twirls his or her hair as they sit for an extended amount of time. If twirling hair gives that individual the sensory input they are seeking, then hair twirling will continue.”
Infrequently, hair twirling can be a symptom of conditions like autism, anxiety, OCD and ADHD.
Trichotillomania can be related to emotions: Negative emotions. For many people with trichotillomania, hair pulling is a way of dealing with negative or uncomfortable feelings, such as stress, anxiety, tension, boredom, loneliness, fatigue or frustration.
Trichotillomania (often abbreviated as TTM) is a mental health disorder where a person compulsively pulls out or breaks their own hair. This condition falls under the classification of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
The Rapunzel syndrome is an unusual form of trichobezoar found in patients with a history of psychiatric disorders, trichotillomania (habit of hair pulling) and trichophagia (morbid habit of chewing the hair), consequently developing gastric bezoars. The principal symptoms are vomiting and epigastric pain.
- repetitive pulling of their hair, often without any awareness.
- a sense of relief after pulling out hair.
- inability to stop hair pulling, despite repeated attempts to stop.
- anxiety and stress related to hair pulling.
We all use stimming sometimes. For example, some children suck their thumbs or twirl their hair for comfort, and others jiggle their legs while they're working on a difficult problem or task. You might pace up and down if you're anxious, or fiddle with a pen in a boring meeting.
Regardless of gender, hair-playing is a very common example of body language in people. There are a lot of different things it could mean when a woman plays with her hair, but the most common reasons are anxiety, boredom, self-consciousness, confidence, and even flirting.
What does it mean when you play with your hair?
The most common reason for playing with the hair is that it is a self-soothing or calming activity. It can be interpreted as somewhat mysterious and give opportunities for other accompanying gestures like tossing one's head to make the hair go where it is wanted.
Stimming can take many different forms: visual: staring off into space, drawing, spinning things like pens or coins. verbal/auditory: repeating sounds, excessive giggling, constantly clearing throat. tactile: rubbing fingers, chewing/biting nails, chewing the inside of cheeks.
What Is Happy Stimming? There is a type of stimming called "happy stimming."1 This is when people stim to express pleasure rather than to focus or calm down. Happy stimming can involve any type of self-stimulatory behavior, but it's typically done to express enjoyment rather than to manage negative emotions.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is thought to be the most effective form of treatment for hair pulling disorder and other BFRBs. One of the techniques proven to be effective is Habit Reversal Training (HRT). During HRT competing responses are explored to counter the urge to pull.
Background. Trichotillomania appears to be a fairly common disorder, with high rates of co-occurring anxiety disorders. Many individuals with trichotillomania also report that pulling worsens during periods of increased anxiety.
We can conclude that trauma may play a role in development of both trichotillomania and skin picking.
This condition is an impulse control disorder caused by anxiety or stress. Often called “hair-pulling disorder,” people with trichotillomania have the irresistible urge to pull out their own hair, eyelashes or eyebrows.
Purely Obsessional OCD, also known as Pure O, is a type of OCD in which a sufferer engages in hidden compulsions. Instead of combating their intrusive thoughts with visible rituals such as hand-washing or counting, they perform repetitive, mental rituals to minimize stress.
OCD can manifest in four main ways: contamination/washing, doubt/checking, ordering/arranging, and unacceptable/taboo thoughts. Obsessions and compulsions that revolve about contamination and germs are the most common type of OCD, but OCD can cover a wide range of topics.
Doubting and having difficulty tolerating uncertainty. Needing things orderly and symmetrical. Aggressive or horrific thoughts about losing control and harming yourself or others. Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious subjects.
What does bezoar mean?
A bezoar is a ball of swallowed foreign material most often composed of hair or fiber. It collects in the stomach and fails to pass through the intestines.
It can result in serious medical consequences and can even be fatal. People who eat hair over a long period of time may begin to have abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or constipation due to the accumulation of hair that develops into a hairball, medically referred to as a trichobezoar.
Bezoars occur in both humans and animals. Sometimes the material is not digested at all and tightly packages itself in the digestive tract. This causes a blockage in the stomach or intestines. Many bezoars are asymptomatic, but some cause symptoms and require medical treatment.
Trichotillomania is more related to Tourette disorder than to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Trichotillomania is a body-focused repetitive behavior classified as an impulse control disorder (along the lines of pyromania, kleptomania, and pathologic gambling) which involves pulling out one's hair.