Over the next two or three years, I was on a vicious cycle, picking horrendously for a few days, and then feeling so bad that I wouldn’t dare touch my scalp for the next, and then almost “rewarding” myself for not picking by picking…I felt horrible. But the summer after fifth grade, I managed to go free of the desire for the entirety of middle school…but that summer before I started high school, it was all for nothing..

I started again, with my fully re-grown set of beautiful, thick hair, from where I was almost completely bald before. My friends have never asked, but I can see the stares, the looks of…concern...on their faces. My teachers, too. Next year, I’ll be a sophomore, and continue to pull on my hair, and have a bald spot almost the diameter of a tennis ball on my scalp and across the back of my head.

It’s been hard because my parents have no clue about this...what it’s called; they just think I’m a freak for it, truly. My mom asks why all the time, and I really have no answer…and she’ll never research it, only threaten me with various things. It’s horrid, what she says to me. My dad, too. I know they’re concerned, but there’s only so much, telling me that I pick…how large the spot’s getting. They tell me like I don’t know. They don’t have to live with the people, the stares, the comments that are just barely out of hearing range…and I don’t have the courage to tell them, or anyone. I feel like I’m living with this alone. And hopefully, I can overcome that before it breaks me. I’ve been on no medication, but will begin trying out your low-glucose diet and see what works…you guys might really do wonders for lots of people…Thanks for being there when so many aren’t.

><>Kati<><