Rapunzel Syndrome: Trichotillomania, Trichophagia & Trichobezoar

Rapunzel Syndrome, Intestinal Obstruction, Trichotillomania (Hair pulling Disorder), trichophagia (Hair Eating Disorder), trichobezoar
Rapunzel is the long-haired princess from the famous German fairy tale. But this channel is not about fairy tales, but about interesting medical cases. Trust me when I say this is going to be as interesting as a fairy tale. Please allow me to tell the tale of Rapunzel Syndrome, the rare psychiatric disorder which can end up being fatal.
There’s a psychiatric disorder called Trichotillomania or hair-pulling disorder. Patients with this disorder have a compulsion to pull out their hair.
Some of these patients may even swallow the pulled hair. When they do that, they fall into another related psychiatric disorder named trichophagia or hair eating disorder.
Unfortunately for these patients, humans cannot digest hair. The swallowed hair solidifies in the stomach and forms into a hard mass. This hard mass of hair is called the trichobezoar.
Its head is usually situated in the stomach, but the tail may extend into the small intestine
This solidified hair can cause ulcerations in the walls of the stomach or obstruction of the intestines.
When there’s ulceration or intestinal obstruction, bacteria in the gut can translocate into the abdominal cavity and cause an infection called peritonitis. This can lead to a potentially life-threatening condition called septic shock and cause multi-organ failure.
Doctors will perform an upper GI endoscopy to diagnose the Rapunzel syndrome. But to determine the extent of the mass, a CT scan of the abdomen should be performed.
Surgery is the treatment of choice to remove masses of hair. After the surgery, trichophagia or hair eating disorder should be treated with habit reversal training. In this treatment method, patients are trained to resist the impulse to pull or eat hair.
Females are more likely to develop this condition and the mortality rate may extend from 15% to 30%.

Thanks For Watching !. :)
Don`t Forget To SUBSCRIBE!

[TinyMedicine]

I appreciate if you have the time to read this pitch!

Thank you.

[parriskerr]

Would anyone who suffers from this want to start a group chat with me and we can try and work through this together and hold each other accountable for quitting?

[kendrabouchard]

thank you for spreading this awareness to me, i’ve been trying so long to stop and i just can’t i never knew that this was an actual thing i’m so insecure about it. i just hate myself to much i hate looking at my hair i end up isolating myself and it get worse. i think of it and it bothers me but i just can’t stop please help

[arcticwolf]

Hey I have been having Rapunzel syndrome for the last 2 years...I have done tests since then and even with ultrasound no hairball was found in my guts...I'm aware of the gravity of this condition and I'm trying to overcome it

[queenchickens]

Soo I wanted to dye my hair today so I told my mom about it, keep in mind that she knows about my "condition" (trich) then she said that how can you dye your hair when you're bald then I said It's great because this way I could give myself the motivation of self discipline on stopping myself from pulling my hair. She replied with "I've been giving you motivation for months now and you're still like this." I was stunned so I said is the constant comments on me being bald the motivation you're saying? And my mom said yes. I guess it's true what everyone says, people who never had trich will never understand what it feels like, because I WANT to stop. She doesn't know the battles I face everyday because eventho I want to stop, I CAN'T. I don't want to pull my hair out but I'm doing it because I want to, that doesn't make any sense but maybe to some who has trich understands. But whatever, I'm gonna dye my hair anyways who knows I might actually stop for real this time because who doesn't want pretty hair? I sure do.

[jibbs]

I got this when I was 12 and got bullied pretty hard for it (I had a pretty big bald spot) and only realized a year and a half later that I have trichotillomania. I’m 13 now and I can’t wait to go back to school to tell the people who bullied me for having a bald spot that it is disorder and I have a hard time controlling it, usually I need someone to tell me I’m doing it to realize. I’m doing better know but the anxiety of having to return to the stressful conditions of school have me doing it pretty bad again.

[lattecookie]

I've had Trichophagia since Covid started, ad its starting to get hard to cover my hair up, for a year people thought my hair was falling out because of a disease, but I've been pulling it out and can't stop, but recently instead of only pulling it out I've been eating it and telling my self "Stop eating your hair!" but it's hard, I've looked up ways to stop an addiction but none of them helped. And I just found out about this disorder, thank you.

[gracem]

can this still happen due to pulling and eating eyebrow hairs, and eyelashes?

[Prince.of.lichens]

Mine started when I was around 11-12 years old ( I'm 15 rn). It affected mostly my eyebrows and eyelashes, I tried to relocate it to my armpits and it helped a little. Thanks for spreading awareness btw <3

[sunyshin]

i'm 29..i'm suffering this illness since i was a kid.this shit is real.and it's very frustrating but can't help it😪

[dlmhdlmd]

i’m eleven. i started developing trichotillomania around nine or ten, but slowly made myself stop. i’ve now started to chew hair, and it’s horrible. i’m scared of hair balls, and it gets stuck in my teeth leading to me causing my teeth to be sensitive because i can’t get the hair out. i often cry out of fear of the complications this could cause.

[ConnorSentByCyberlif]

I can't remember a time where I haven't had Trichotillomania, though, I didn't know there was a name for it. I just pull out my hair(still dangerous, because hair may not grow back) I don't fall into the category of swallowing my hair that I pull out. It mostly affects my eyebrows and eyelashes, though occasionally I'll notice afterwards that t affects my scalp too, and it mostly happens when I get stressed or anxious.

I didn't know it was called Repunzel Syndrome though, interesting.

[hermioneysabellebuensuceso]

I have trich, but I just bite the ends a little not all the hair.. so do I have it?

[cruleo]

I'm doing research on my condition because I always thought It wasnt a big deal until it began to become more severe and now its effecting my body and my personal life. Growing up, when i was around elementary school age, I would pull out strand after strand of hair and eat it. It was to the point that I was (btw gross warning) shitting out clumps of hair. My condition got better, and it lessened to me just pulling out my eyebrows and eyelashes and eating them. Eventually my home life got a lot better and while i still have ptsd from childhood trauma, its not nearly as bad. However, lately i've been under a lot of stress worrying about school and my condition just came back and its to the point where I cant wear shorts or t shirts around my house. I dont pull on my head hair, but I spend hours out of my days just plucking hair from my arms and legs and occasionally chest. My arms and legs are covered in scabs and are littered with bald spots. I spend so much time during class plucking hairs from my arms and legs that my grades have dropped substantially and im failing nearly every single one of my classes. My knees are the worst part of my body, every square inch of my knees are covered with multiple scabs and even scars from digging into my skin to pull out hairs. Is there any kind of treatment I can get for this without having to inform my parents? They dont trust modern medicine, especially treatments for mental health problems. My mom took me off my lexapro as soon as I ran out of my dosage that I got from my stay at a psych ward and she would always tell me since I was little that pills for mental health are nothing but placibos and that ADHD wasnt a real mental disorder.

[deekshabharadwaj]

Wait trichopagia now? But my hair strands are really small so it'll digest right?

[marleyygobrrr]

I have had this habit for so long, that I chew and eat my hair without even paying attention. And it’s so aggravating. But the most bothersome thing, is that no matter where I look, I can never find something that tells me how to stop. My mom keeps saying “just don’t chew your hair” but it’s not that simple. It’s hard to stop a habit you have been doing for years. Does someone have any tips?

[unprettycortez]

I have this problem since I was 11 and it’s so bad I’m so tired of pulling and eating my hair . I’m 32 at this moment and my psychologist and Psychiatrist just don’t seem to understand

[JMukhi]

Will recommend to my patient . Good job

[sleepy-gacha]

I have severe trichitillomainia. I pull out my eyelashes, I don’t eat them but put them In my eye. I pull it out over and over. I have no eyelashes now. this came from me being bullied and put under so much stress.

[evelynstv]

I accidentally swallowed a strand of hair and was scared I was gonna die so I did research and found myself here