If you have a child who suffers from trichotillomania — the urge and action to pull out their hair — you are probably confused and a bit afraid. Trichotillomania is part of the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) family and your child cannot control these urges without professional mental health. For the treatment of trichotillomania a combination of Cognitive Behavior Treatment and certain medications are suggested, but another option is HRT Plus which is a behavioral intervention for trichotillomania that involves Habit Reversal Treatment in addition to Stimulus Control. But, what is HRT Plus and how can it help treat my child’s hair pulling disorder?
Learning What HRT Plus is for Trichotillomania Treatment
HRT is an acronym for Habit Reversal Treatment. This behavioral treatment for TTM (trichotillomania) involves 4 steps and followed up with Stimulus Control (SC) treatment. These 4 steps, at first, are done individually over a course of several weeks. Once all of the steps have been learned, the behavioral specialist for trichotillomania will then teach your child with trichotillomania how to incorporate and use all 4 steps simultaneously to help ward off the urge to pull their hair as well as give them processes to resist pulling.
Learning What Stimulus Control is for Hair Pulling Disorder
Stimulus Control is actually the ‘plus’ in HRT Plus. This behavioral treatment for hair pulling teaches your child alternatives to pulling their hair out. Learning SC will help your child identify what may be causing their urges to pull their hair. Your child with trichotillomania will learn if their sensation to pull their hair or their actual pulling of their hair is caused by something environmental, possibly it is stress induced, something done out of boredom, or whatever unique reason it may be to have the obsessive and compulsive urge to pull out their hair.
By learning what may be the biggest cause for their urge to pull out their hair your child may be able to find alternatives when the urge begins. The stimulus control treatment for TTM will also help enable your child to avoid certain environment, teach new ways of dealing with boredom or stress, and overall help them find an alternative to pulling their hair or otherwise having some type of destructive behavior when faced with something that gives them certain types of painful urges.
Combining Habit Reversal Treatment and Stimulus Control to Help Children with Trichotillomania
When these two behavioral treatments are combined to form HRT Plus it is often effective for many children to stop pulling their hair. This behavioral treatment will teach your child what the possible causes of their hair pulling urges come from, how to avoid, eliminate, or reduce those causes so that they do not feel the urge and techniques to avoid pulling their hair. Some of the techniques taught include keeping a journal of their hair pulling episodes.
Logging where they were when the episode occurred, how many hairs were actually pulled, if they were even aware they were pulling their hair, and so on will help the child understand better how serious their condition is and makes them more likely to accept the behavioral treatment program. They will also learn muscle relaxation techniques to use when they feel the urge to pull out their hair as well as breathing techniques to use to combat the urge symptoms of trichotillomania.
Speaking with a Mental Health Professional about Your Childs Hair Pulling
When you speak to the mental health professional about your child’s trichotillomania, come prepared and knowledgeable about the disorder and the options available to treat the condition. Consider asking the doctor if HRT Plus is a good behavioral treatment for trichotillomania for your child. Studies conducted involving this type of treatment for hair pulling has been very successful and may well help your child the most. Speak with your doctor and learn about other treatment options and together decide trichotillomania treatment is best for your child.
Trichotillomania is a complicated condition that is frustrating for the person treating the condition as well as the person suffering from this type of OCD. More studies need to be conducted or finished to understand the condition better and find even more effective treatments for trichotillomania. HRT Plus is just one of the treatment options available but many mental health experts have found it to be very successful and more of a long lasting treatment for those with TTM and does not usually require medication; making it one of the most healthy treatments for trichotillomania for your child.