My Sarah has been struggling. She is seeing her counselor once a month and this month has 5 weeks. School work and peer pressure has definitely kicked in. Last week was very tough for her. She expressed a desire to pull a couple of different times. She didn’t, but she wanted to very badly.
The following are examples of her VERY helpful friends.
Friend 1: This particular girlfriend has been so very supportive throughout the last year. She is so sweet. She sent her a very encouraging text message telling Sarah that she knows this is a difficult time for her and she believed in her and that she is here for her. The following day, this friend wore her pull-free bracelet to support her. (tear)
Friend 2: She texted a buddy one of these tough nights when she couldn’t sleep and was really close to pulling. He called her immediately in the middle of the night to talk to her and walk her through her rough moment.
I can’t tell you how much these friends mean to Sarah. Not only do they accept her having Trich and don’t judge, ridicule or minimize Trich, but they encourage and support her. We are so lucky that she has had such positive results with “coming out”.
As her mom, I’m always worried about her. It wouldn’t bother me if she pulled. But I know how much it would disappoint her. Last night we briefly discussed using NAC again. She admitted that things are getting pretty tough for her and would like to begin taking it again. This morning I had a long conversation with our Chiropractor and Friend. He suggested a few other supplements to take in addition to NAC. Standard Process Inositol, Fish Oil, Min-Tran and Grape Seed Extract. Sarah will begin taking all of the above including NAC and Standard Process Cataplex A-C-P (vitamin C) on Monday. I’m hopeful that this will help. I’ll keep you posted on the results.
Oh no, sorry to hear about the struggles! Should we set up another group lunch? :) Should i text her more often? What do you think?
ReplyDeleteFeel free to reach out to her. Shes better this week. I'm hopeful that the supplements will help.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: My daughter (17yr old) has been on Inositol and NAC for six days. She was feeling a bit "irritated" from time to time throughout the day. Today, I sent her with a couple of protein snacks and have been checking in with her from time to time to get a "mood meter". She did not feel cranky at all until just before lunch. She does not have any additional snacks for the day (she shared them). We'll see how she feels in a couple of hours. I will definitely be more prepared with snacks tomorrow. She said she had the urge to pull last night but didn't. Thinking back, she didn't eat very much for dinner last night. Will work on this.
ReplyDeleteHi :) This is the first time I've been to your blog but it definitely won't be the last--you are an amazing mom, and the way you support your daughter is amazing. My mom is great too, but back when I was first pulling (age 5, in 1995 before most people knew what trich was) it was rough. I found out recently she has dermatillomania, as does my brother, and I believe, looking back, my dad had it too--so I think the only times she still gets frustrated with me about pulling is when she's feeling ashamed of her own condition. She just found out it had a name, so I've been trying to help her cope and convincing her to research it more instead of ignoring it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...got a little off-topic, haha. I'm now 24 and have been pulling 19 years. It's gotten better and worse at different times in my life, but I've never had eyelashes or eyebrows and a completely full head of hair (except for a year after my dad died, which I guess was from PTSD or something). I even pull in my sleep, and every therapist I've seen says mine is very hard to treat because the reasons I pull are all across the board--genetics, stressful childhood, a general OCD-like personality...I've heard it all and tried it all!
Behavioral therapy has helped, though due to cost I wasn't able to continue it as long as I would have liked. For me, Zoloft did nothing; Prozac made me angry and irrational (and fat); and Abilify nearly ruined my life. It was great at first--my pulling decreased 50% at least. But then I started getting panic attacks, and for two years after stopping the drug, I'd get DAYS straight of panic/anxiety and crippling depression, for no reason. I just recently found out the Abilify caused "pharmacologically induced bipolar disorder," a fancy way of saying the drug that was supposed to help an imbalance, created one.
It took two months of simple amino acid therapy (specifically, 30 mL of TwinLab Amino Fuel every morning with 500 mg Magnesium and 1 tsp L-glutamine powder, with another magnesium at bedtime) to fix this two-year problem. Now that the dust of my anxiety/depression ordeal has settled, I've decided to add NAC and inositol to the regimen. I take 1200 mg of NAC (capsules) with 2 tsp of inositol in water every evening. So far (about two weeks) I've noticed a higher awareness of my pulling, and a slight decrease. Today I was feeling for eyelashes to pull and actually got BORED. !!! That's never happened to me before--once I find one, it's going to get pulled, and that's that. But today I was able to just ignore it, simple as that.
I don't know if it's the NAC or the inositol, or maybe both, or if the regimen as a whole is synergistic enough to produce the effect. Perhaps it's placebo, though two weeks in I doubt that effect would apply.
Anyway, sorry for the novel...just wanted to post my experience so far and know how your daughter is doing? :) Best of luck to your family, especially Sarah.