CBSN partners with The Mighty
Something that I’ve been working on behind the scenes for the past week or so is getting in touch with The Mighty and seeing about us partnering with them. And guess what? It’s happened! I’m thrilled to share with...
BFRBs and Suicidal Thoughts
I was thinking the other day how strange it is that despite the body-focused repetitive behaviour community being part of the larger mental health community, there are still some topics that don’t get discussed. It’s especially strange considering how...
Picking Me: Bringing Awareness to Dermatillomania
“I used to cringe when I would hear the word ‘pick.’ It could be pick a colour, it could be pick a direction, pick a college, it didn’t really matter.” Lauren McKeaney’s story with skin picking started out like...
Stop Thinking You’re The Only One
I hope this blog, the first after a long period of silence, doesn’t come across too awfully, but there’s something that bugs me about the community. It’s a bit of a rant, I guess you could say. “Am I...
Tips for Making THE Facebook Post
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...
Living with Dermatillomania and Dermatophagia
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...
Attitudes Towards Our Scars
Scars are strange things. Not necessarily in how they biologically exist, but more so in how they’re treated. I, for instance, have a few different kinds of scars. Dermatillomania scars, of course, but I also have a dog bite...
One Size Does Not Fit All: Dealing With Multiple Disorders
I’ve come to believe it’s important to separate our disorders from one another. No, I don’t mean the segregation of trich from derm, or dissolving the BFRB umbrella term. What I mean is separating our disorders so that we...
Dealing With Summer Heat
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: On Relapse
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...
The Different Facets of Recovery
When most of us think of recovery, we probably first think of it in terms of abstinence. Shows like Intervention and many different talk shows that feature people who are in recovery talk about an absence of substance use....
#BFRBcon 2015: the messages we heard
“BFRBs are not the enemy, they are the messenger.” -Dr. Renae Reinardy The above is just one of several quotations that had an impact on me at the Trichotillomania Learning Center’s annual conference. For the first time ever, CBSN...
Guest Blog: The Most Important Thing You Can Do Is…
Guest Blog written by Emma Bowers: Most of us who struggle with Trichotillomania and other BFRBs just want to know – WHY? Why me? Why can’t I just stop? Will I ever get better, or will I be this...
BFRB’s Make Calgary Headlines
Our Peer Support Coordinator, Danielle Roberts, shared her story of living with dermatillomania (skin-picking disorder) which was published in her local newspaper, the Calgary Herald. Read the article here! A huge thank you to Danielle for her ongoing support...
Holding on to Hope
By Samantha Wake Body focused repetitive disorders such as Dermatillomania are extremely over looked. Throughout the past year I have been trying to change that. Dermatillomania is an impulse control disorder characterised by the repeated urge to pick at...