Split End Pickers?

Hey everybody, Im 24 years old and I have this same problem. I have been doin this since I was 13 and I can not stop. I am completely obsessed with it and it gives me a since of relaxation and comfort when i do it. I find myself picking my ends when I am nervous, sad, mad, very upset, anxious, depressed, picking after arguing with someone, anxiety issues or jus plain out bored. I will sit in my room for hours upon hours doing it, like some people say, I usually dont go after the baby ones either I like to find the ones thats really big and the ones that have about 10 or more strands of a split on it makes me so happy and relieved. I will pick my ends anywhere like the bathroom, at my vanity table where my desk lamb shines bright on it, at work, in the car waiting or sitting at a red light and sometimes I get honked at too lol but ( I find that the natural sunlight is the absoulte very best when picking your split ends) and the worst was in school. I would pick them so much in school because I was so bored, didnt get very good grades and my teachers would hold a parent teacher conference with me regarding my issue with this for not paying attention. Im a very girly girl and likes makeup and stuff like that but when I want to pick my ends or jus feel that need to I like to wear black or hold my hair in the direction of something dark in the background bc I found I can see them alot better that way. I have been yelled at so much by my parents and friends bc they said its nasty and annoying lol. My friend said she can hear the popping and it drives her crazy. I am not on any meds for this nor have I ever and Im still to this day picking my split ends for hours and hours. But here recently I have developed another obsession to picking my acne bumps on my face some will be tiny bumps some large but not the very big nasty pus kinds jus like the little whiteheads or blackheads that have the tiny little white thing that pop out with a hard squeeze. I have sat in my room yet again picking these bumps on my face, everytime I find one that has the whitehead pop out I get this overly excited feeling that jus utterly comforts me so much. I wish I could stop these obsessions bc I feel like not only is it unhealthy and damaging to my hair and skin but Im wasting my young youthful days sitting in my room doin this instead of being out with my friends or having hobbies. These are the prime years of my life where I should be focused on school and getting a college diploma and finding someone to settle down with and starting a family but instead im too distracted and lost in my own little word of obsessive complusive disorder and all im doin is jus working and living with my mother still. I hate it and have came to a conclusion that I need help and this needs to stop. Im currently in the process of seeking a therapist for every matter that I have in hopes that I can get my life on the right track instead of having it wasted with no accomplishments. So if your like me I strongly urge you to seek help immeditely. If these obsessions are taking over your life and doing nothing but causing so many problems for you, then get help please. If your comfortable in your life and have all your goals met and have settled down and already has everything goin for you then picking your split ends doesnt have to stop unless it takes over you and controls you then yes, but then do it because it makes u feel good and dont pick them cut them off with shears. But the picking of the bumps has to stop its jus all around damaging and in the long run you will just end up having nothing but a bottle of pills for ocd and a scarred up face. Good luck to everybody that suffers these issues I hope you all find a cure for yourself and jus know that your not the only one who has these problems others like me suffer from it too and no your not crazy by the way, WE JUST CANT HELP IT. lol. Take care everybody. :)

Hi, please see my post earlier today. I have been doing this for 40 years and can relate. My teacher once asked me if I was picking bugs out of my har!!!! That was humiliating. But please don't get too overwhelmed. The best thing you can do is get your hair trimmed a lot. And maybe talk to your parents about counsiling. Also, I think keeping your hands busy helps too. I do jigsaw puzzles, crochet and play on my DS.

I know exactly how you feel! Here's some advice, recently I've been adding a little bit of olive oil to the ends of my hair when it is wet, this helps make split ends less noticeable when your hair dries (but unfortunately you can still find split ends even after doing this). I use to have blond hair and I also got extension because my hair was short and not growing because of how much i picked at my split ends. One thing with extensions I noticed is that it did some what help me stop picking at my split ends BUT instead I was picking at the split ends of the extensions instead! But i guess that is better than picking at your real hair's split ends. Since I was picking at my extensions split ends it did help my real hair grow out some. However, now I don't have extensions and I recently dyed my hair brown.. one thing I've noticed compared to my blond hair and brown hair is that I notice more split ends and dead ends when i have darker hair. With darker hair I found it easier to notice split ends in all different kinds of lighting. So be careful if you do dye your hair dark because the same might happen to you. I definitely recommend using olive oil on your ends and getting extensions to help deter you from picking at your real hair's split ends. So far this is what I've found to work best for me, but I still struggle with the urge not to pick. Good luck! Hope this advice helps!!

Don't think of it as "just a bad habit"! This is not normal. I do this too (in addition to skin picking) so I totally understand your pain. My hair is so much thinner than it would be if I didn't have trichotillomania and that is indeed a blow to confidence. You really do need to seek a counselor. This is not a habit that you can just kick. I had no idea that dermatillomania and trichotillomania were so common (or even that they had NAMES!) until I found this site a couple of weeks ago. Since then, my problems with those two and with anxiety and schoolwork got so bad that I finally was desperate enough to call the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health at my university. I have now had two appointments and I cannot praise the experience enough. I was SO nervous about it and have been avoiding therapy for years because of that fear. But all of that nervous-ness faded very soon after the first appointment began. I really recommend that you try to see a counselor. I didn't have much trouble telling him about how my family stresses me out and my problems with schoolwork, but I was pretty worried about telling him about my skin picking and split end pulling. While I have talked to friends and family about other problems, I have never spoken with anyone about my trichotillomania nor dermatillomania. I got the courage to open up about it during my second appointment and was relieved when he used the clinical names before I did. He understood. Just like this website has helped me in realizing that I am not the only one that suffers with these, talking to a professional made me feel better because he was very understanding and clearly had knowledge about these things. It's the end of the semester, so I won't be able to see him again until the end of January, but I'm going to try to see someone at home in the meantime. Apparently I have lots and lots of anxiety and OCD. He recommended I my ask my doctor for a referral to a psychologist so I can start treatment which may be a combination of behavorial therapy and medication. Girl -- I promise you that this is not just a bad habit. You need to see someone. Your health is worth overcoming whatever is holding you back.

Hello, I am 48 years old and I have been doing this since I was 8. It is worse at times and better at others. I have found that when I am nervous about anything, it is very bad. I have even caught myself picking while driving!!!! Sometimes the only thing I care about is picking. Not my husgand, not my kids or job. Believe me I really know about this obsession. Anyway, the things that I found that have helped me, is............ I have to have my hair cut short, not really short, but short enough that it is hard to pick comfortably. And I get frequent hair trims. Nothing makes it worse than knowing I have damaged hair. So after I get the trim, I usually have a few weeks of not obsessing. But I am also on Zoloft. I know you might not want to go to drugs, but hey, If you need it, it is silly not to. You just need to get over the obsession for a while to see how much better your life is without it. But if you only do one thing, get your hair trimmed often. Let me know how you are doing, Shelley