By Angela Hartlin Along with the rest of the world, Canadians have been experiencing the devastations caused by the COVID-19 crisis. With access to effective treatments for trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling), excoriation disorder (skin picking disorder), and other body-focused...
Many of us want to share our body-focused repetitive behaviour stories on large platforms such as news sites and take the plunge, only to be subject to the stories being exploited as sensationalistic clickbait. We’ve seen the heartbreak of...
One of the things I hate doing is going for dental visits. It’s not because I don’t take care of my teeth and gums or because I don’t want to be told I have a cavity (well, that is...
It’s becoming more and more evident to me that there’s a stark divide between two different philosophies when it comes to body-focused repetitive behaviours. One the one side of things, we have community members who strive to be behaviour-free....
All of us in the BFRB community seem to consider making that monumental Facebook post. It seems to feel like our tell-all novel of our BFRB(s) in post form, where we say I have trichotillomania, dermatillomania, onychophagia, dermatophagia, trichotemnomania...
My first memory of my BFRB was back in the fourth grade when I was about nine or ten and had just lost my cousin to a car accident and had just begun to suffer from intrusive thoughts as...
Many of us with BFRBs know what it is to struggle through hot days. Summer comes along and while most everyone else is wearing shorts and t-shirts and styling their hair to fight the heat, BFRBers find themselves covering...
Dear parents, I’ve seen your online posts and have heard stories from your children. I get it. You’re frustrated because you don’t quite understand and because you want the best for your child. You want your child to be...
One of the most common questions among the community is how do we tell our loved ones about these disorders, and those posts are always met with many responses of advice. But what about when we have told someone...
I’m Coming Out Dermatillomania and dermatophagia sounds like bad words, and those closest to me know I rarely curse. Many people pick at their skin. It is not out of the ordinary to remove a hang nail, bite nails,...