.Being.Us

TW: Dermatillomania, trichotillomania Healing isn’t a binary measure of “already overcome” or “still suffering”. It’s a journey or a spectrum, and I still enjoy my life on that journey. -Ezekiel-Bethany (Zeke) I was 12 years old, smushed between 2 bookshelves at the back of my seventh-grade Advanced English class, the cool metal pressed against my skin. It was social time, and the movement and sounds from the other students were an overwhelming blur. I was autistic, but I didn’t know it yet. I also had trichotillomania. In distress, I grabbed a chunk of my hair and pulled it out, dropping it to the ground. And another. And another. No one paid me any attention, and I assume I stopped once social time ended and the students went to sit quietly at their desks. Trichotillomania is an impulse control disorder. It causes me to pull out the hair on my head and other parts of my body and be unable to stop, even when I want to. My trichotillomania started when I was a pre-teen, and it m