Body Focused Repetitive Behaviours

Three primary features define TTM:

• Ongoing and repetitive pulling out of one’s hair resulting in noticeable hair loss.
  • The most common sites are the head and face (i.e., eye brows and lashes), although youth also pull from other areas such as the arms and legs, the pubic region, under the arm, as well as on other individuals and even from pets, such as cats and dogs. Children are less likely than adults to pull from multiple sites, often favoring a single location.
  • Repeated but unsuccessful attempts to reduce or stop the pulling.
  • Significant impairment or disruption in routine life functioning.

Additional features of TTM:

• Youth with TTM engage in two types of pulling behaviour: focused and/or unfocused/automatic pulling, with many individuals experiencing both types. Focused pulling typically occurs in response to an internal state (e.g., anxiety, boredom, sadness, shame, etc.), often triggered by an external event (e.g., a fight with a friend, or the memory of that fight), and is more common in older adolescents and adults. In contrast, automatic pulling usually occurs out of the individual’s awareness, often during sedentary activities such as watching television, reading, or playing. It is this type of pulling that predominates in children.
• Pulling episodes can last several minutes to over an hour or more in duration.
• In order to successfully extract the hair, the youth may use their thumb and index finger, other finger combinations, or tweezers to pull one hair at a time. Pulling clumps of hair is unusual.
• Pulling episodes often include a variety of component parts as follows:
  1. Fingers being close to the area (e.g., elbow resting on arm of chair, and head resting on hand).
  2. Fingers touching the area (e.g., smoothing down eye brows or hair twirling).
  3. Fingers seeking out the “optimal” hair. For some children this will be a thicker hair, or a hair with a bulbous follicle.
  4. Internal arousal or mounting tension (not typical in younger children).
  5. Manipulating and then pulling the hair.
  6. Playing with the hair. This may be with fingers alone, or rolled on the face and lips, and in some youth, chewed on and even swallowed.
  7. As it is rare for an individual to pull only a single hair, throughout the entire pulling episode, the individual typically experiences a flood of pleasurable sensations such as relaxation, as well as relief from negative feelings such as boredom, frustration, or loneliness. Pain often occurs in equal measure with pleasure in children.
• A critical piece that contributes to youth continuing to pull despite the often obvious signs of damage (e.g., bald spots), as well as a strong desire to stop the behaviour often due to shame and embarrassment, are the pleasant feelings that result from pulling, as well as the relief from negative emotional states, during an episode. These aspects are a powerful form of self-soothing that is highly rewarding and thus difficult to resist, when urges to pull arise.

• Avoiding routine activities such as swimming, getting hair cut/colored, medical visits, and more
• Financial strain upon the family due to cosmetic costs to cover or correct hair loss
• Impaired relationships including reduced romantic intimacy and social isolation
• Missed school or related activities
• Trouble concentrating or sustaining attention in school

Another BFRB of clinical relevance is Excoriation Disorder, which shares many of the same features as TTM. The three primary features of SE are:

• Ongoing and repetitive picking of one’s skin that may or may not be triggered by a visible scab or other mark (e.g., bug bite or pimple), which due to the force of picking, creates or worsens a skin lesion. The most common sites are the face, arms, and hands, although other body parts can also be a target, such as the legs and pubic areas where ingrown hairs may be more frequent.
• Repeated but unsuccessful attempts to reduce or stop picking.
• Significant impairment or disruption in routine life functioning, such as social isolation and/or problems with academic or job success, permanent scaring, low self-esteem, financial strain upon the family, and more.

Additional features of SE:

• As in youth with TTM, youth with SE also report that the picking behaviour exists as either a focused or unfocused/automatic activity. Focused picking typically occurs in response to an internal state (e.g., anxiety, sadness, shame, etc.), often triggered by an external event (e.g., seeing themselves in the mirror or feeling a pimple), whereas automatic picking usually occurs out of the individual’s awareness often during more sedentary activities such as watching television, reading, or typing. This latter type of picking often also involves touching, rubbing, squeezing, biting, and other forms of manipulation of the area.
• Prior to picking, some children report internal arousal or mounting tension, that will increase in intensity if the urge is not met, followed by pleasure or relief after picking.
• Picking episodes can last several minutes to over an hour or more in duration. If one also includes time spent anticipating a picking episode and thus being distracted from the task at hand (e.g., schoolwork), episodes can consume hours each day.
• The child or adolescent typically will use the fingernails to pick, but other methods can include tweezers, pins and other related objects. The youth may play then with, or even eat, the resulting scab or skin.
• Once more, like youth with TTM, a critical piece that contributes to ongoing picking despite the often obvious signs of damage (e.g., open sores and scaring), as well as a strong desire to stop the behaviour often due to shame and embarrassment, are the pleasant feelings that result from picking, as well as the relief from negative emotional states, during an episode. These aspects are a powerful form of self-soothing that is highly rewarding and thus difficult to resist, when urges to pull arise.

• Family financial strain due to cosmetic costs to cover or correct skin damage
• Impaired relationships including reduced romantic intimacy and social isolation
• Missed school or related activities
• Modifying hair, and using hats, long shirts, and other clothing to hide lesions, scabs, etc.
• Trouble concentrating or sustaining attention in school

My Anxiety Plan (MAPs)

MAP is designed to provide children/teens struggling with anxiety with practical strategies and tools to manage anxiety. To find out more, visit our My Anxiety Plan website.