Trichotillomania, Skin Picking, and Other Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors provides clinicians, researchers, family members, and individuals with the cutting-edge, comprehensive resource they need to understand and address the problem.

Underestimated, under-researched, and often poorly understood, the body-focused repetitive disorders nevertheless cause human suffering that is serious, persistent, and pervasive. These disorders can occur in both adults and children and manifest themselves as hair pulling (trichotillomania), pathologic skin picking, thumb sucking, and nail biting. Although these disorders are common, very few medical students and residents hear them addressed in lectures or know where to begin when confronted with a patient presenting with these behaviors. Trichotillomania, Skin Picking, and Other Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors seeks to remedy this situation by synthesizing the latest research on body-focused repetitive disorders and presenting it in a systematic, easy-to-grasp manner. Much has changed in the more than a decade since the last book on this topic was published. This new volume reflects the most current and substantive research into the etiology and symptoms of body-focused repetitive disorders and therapeutic options. Organized in logical fashion, it begins with a review of the clinical characteristics, moves on to diagnosis and evaluation, and concludes with a full review of treatment options. Special features include: Extensive material to help clinicians and patients understand the underlying purpose of engaging in these behaviors, which include, reducing tension, regulating strong emotion, and alleviating boredom. Separate chapters on adults and children, who may have a different presentation and a different set of treatment options. An additional chapter focuses on the role of the child patient's family in the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. Thorough coverage of the full range of treatments -- including psychotherapy, medication, and alternative treatments -- which provides the clinician with an evidence-based approach to treating patients. Discussion of the psychobiology of hair pulling and skin picking, which allows the reader to understand and contextualize the disorder from a neurological perspective and offers clues that may assist in optimizing treatment. A presentation style that is detailed enough for clinicians, yet accessible enough for a lay audience, including patients with the disorder and the families who seek to understand and support them. Trichotillomania, Skin Picking, and Other Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors fills a critical gap in the literature by addressing this common and frequently debilitating disorder in an utterly current, highly practical, and wholly compassionate manner.

“The definitive guide for those who pick or pull.” —Reid Wilson, PhD, author Stopping the Noise in Your Head A comprehensive treatment plan grounded in evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you overcome body-focused repetitive behaviors for good! If you have body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRB) such as hair pulling (trichotillomania) or skin picking (dermatillomania), you may feel embarrassed about seeking help. But there are proven-effective strategies you can use to overcome these behaviors and improve your overall quality of life—this book will show you how. In this evidence-based resource, three renowned experts and clinicians offer powerful CBT skills to help you move past BFRB. You’ll learn why you engage in these behaviors, and how to identify your own sensory “triggers”—places, things, or experiences that cause your behavior to become worse. Finally, you’ll learn strategies to use when faced with these triggers, and develop your own customized “plan of action” for moving beyond BFRB for good. With time, practice, and solid skills for managing stress, anxiety, urges, and other triggers, this book will help you break free from BFRB and feel more in control of your life.

Tics, trichotillomania, and habits such as thumb-sucking and nail-biting tend to resist traditional forms of therapy. Their repetitiveness, however, makes these dissimilar disorders particularly receptive to behavioral treatment. Now in soft cover for the first time, this is the most comprehensive guide to behavioral treatment for these common yet understudied disorders. Tic Disorders is geared to researchers but accessible to to patients and their families as well.

There is still scant clinical information on trichotillomania. This book fills the need for a full-length cognitive-behavioral treatment manual. The authors share their considerable expertise in treating body-focused repetitive behavior disorders (not only hair-pulling but skin-picking and nail-biting as well) in an accessible, clinically valid reference. This is the first comprehensive, clinical, and empirically-based volume to address these disorders.

Maybe you’ve encountered tips on how to stop in the past. While they probably helped, they never took you all the way. How to Heal Your BFRB teaches you why you weren't healing before and, more important, how to start healing now. Almost no time will be spent on what a body-focused repetitive behavior is, or who tends to have one. You know what a BFRB is, you have one or a few, and you just want to stop. While you may even have come to believe healing isn’t possible, it’s absolutely possible for you to overcome your BFRB. For seventeen years, author Lauren I. Ruiz Bloise compulsively skin-picked before developing these four steps, which she later learned correlate with proven body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) treatments. That said, this guide is simple, not medical or academic. Despite the complicated names for these disorders (excoriation, dermatillomania, trichotillomania, onychophagy, dermatophagia), How to Heal Your BFRB is a reader-friendly guide that walks you through concrete steps so you can feel in control rather than desperate, confident rather than ashamed—so your hair, skin, or nails can be nicer, clearer, and fuller. Join others who are already healing. Take the chance. After all, How to Heal Your BFRB is more affordable than (or about as affordable as) one high-quality skin or hair care product, only it’s much more beneficial than even the best beauty product you can buy. This Ebook Is for You If… • You have dermatillomania (skin picking), trichotillomania (hair pulling), onychophagia (nail biting or chewing), dermatophagia (skin biting or chewing), or any other disorder in the long list of compulsive BFRBs. • You target blemishes (zits, pimples, blackheads, whiteheads, milia), ingrowns, and the like. • Or you target hairs (on head, lashes, brows, beard); nails, fingers, cheeks, feet, scalp, nose, eyes; or something else. • You’ve tried over and over to stop, to no avail. • You’ve covered mirrors, used gloves, downloaded apps, or marked a calendar, among many other things. • You’re unsure why you do it. • Or you have an idea why you pick, pull, or chew, but you still haven't been able to heal to a meaningful extent. While How to Heal Your BFRB is intended to be followed by teens and adults who have a BFRB, if your family member (child, partner, parent) or friend has a BFRB, you are welcome to download and read it. The more you know about how people are overcoming these behaviors, the more you can help and support them. Even if you have made progress on your own, or encountered treatments for how to stop picking or pulling already, let How to Heal Your BFRB give you new insights and further healing, as well as encouragement. How to Heal Your BFRB is not about anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), addiction to substances or alcohol, or any of the other mental health conditions related to body-focused repetitive behaviors, but it’s understood that you may have one or more of these disorders too. To make recovery easier, you're highly encouraged to address any of these alongside reading the book, and thereafter. That said, all are welcome! *** “Wow, I know a book can only do so much, but yours exceeded my expectations. A lot! I came away with: · Confidence that I can be in control of my BFRB health (and other areas of my health) · More acceptance of myself · Tools and guidance to help me take better care of myself · The desire and motivation to experience the 3 items above "It was about more than healing a BFRB. There were several points where I was moved by the caring messages you conveyed. You were talking to and caring about ME.”—Teresa G., Vermont

This resource includes individual chapters on the phenomenology, pathogenesis, pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy of OCD and other related disorders, and features fully updated content and research, as well as a resources chapter, and an appendix with summaries of the major rating scales used to assess patients with OCD.