Published on 12, July, 2020
I stim by pulling out my eyelashes, sometimes my eyebrow hair too. I've done it for the past 10 years now and I understand that it's technically damaging my body when I do it. But I wonder if its worth trying to stop? I've resisted doing it ever since people around me started noticing and made me realize that it's not right, but it makes me feel so much better. I'd say its the one true thing comforts me. Nothing I have ever tried has made me feel better than that - fidget toys, textured items, safe foods, none has ever gotten me to a point where I feel like I can stop pulling. I've turned to putting vasaline on my eyelashes or wearing a glove/plasters on my fingers so I don't pull them out. But its getting to the point where even that isn't working and I'm starting to wonder if stopping is even worth it - what's the use in giving myself added stress about the fact that I can't stop if it seems unlikely that I'll ever stop? Does anyone have a similar experience or anything to say on the matter?
I pull out eye brows, eye lashes, ear hair and arm hair. Always have. Not enough to be noticeable to other people though.
Is it really causing a problem?
I suppose it depends on the extent that you do it. I do it to the point that I have noticeable gaps on my eyelashes - at this point I have a few spots of eyelashes and that's it, the rest is completely bald or has small ones growing through. It's causing a problem with my family mainly, they think I look ill from it, but a mental health professional I spoke to did class it as self harm which made zero sense to me from the mental side of it because I didn't do it for the sole purpose of hurting myself. But if a professional has said it needs to stop, I suppose it needs to stop.