A little trick I’ve picked up.

Hello all! I am new to this sub and this is my first time posting and I thought I’d share something I found that works for me.

When I was in grad school about a year ago, I had to do a research project for one of my classes where I implemented some sort of intervention to see if it improved or worsened problem behaviors. I decided to do the project on my trichotillomania.

My intervention was meant to be the NAC pills but before implementing the pills, I had to get a baseline for how many times I caught myself pulling in a day. To keep track of pulling behaviors, I bought a clicker counter/tally counter (I don’t know if that’s the technical name but whatever) off Amazon.

When I tell you this tally counter worked wonders, I mean it. I think it honestly worked better than the NAC. After my first day of keeping track, I noticed that I caught myself pulling about 43 times in a day and the next day, that number dropped to around 20 times.

While I’m not completely ‘cured’ and I still have episodes of pulling, I just wanted to share how much the tally counter helped me in hopes that it will help someone else. It was almost like a fidget toy in one way or another. I think having a tangible thing that I carried around everyday had me subconsciously remembering not to pull. I tried tally counter apps on my phone but it just wasn’t the same as using the physical counter, I think because it’s sole purpose was to help me track my pulling.

So if you’re looking for something new to help curb your pulling, try using a tally counter. Best of luck to all of you. YITS 💖