I grew up with a normal childhood. I had friends and good grades and I was happy with my life. Though this wasn't always the case when I turned five. At the age of five came along something that has definitely left scars, both physically and mentally. My life was infected by OCD and Trichotillomania.

My OCD is the first disorder I dealt with. OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is where a person has repetitive thoughts or behaviors due to stress. I relate to OCD because of the thoughts I have. I usually have terrible thoughts like someone or myself dying, breaking bones or even embarrassment. Another thing I fear is a form of radiation in the air or something that involves germs and because of that, it causes me to have repetitive behaviors like scratching the right side of my nose and pulling my hair out on my head.

All of these behaviors have caused me a lot of stress. Due to the stress, my other disorder called Trichotillomania was formed. Trichotillomania is a big factor in my OCD. Though now that it has gotten more repetitive it has formed into its own issue more than just an OCD side effect. It’s now its own disorder.

About Trichotillomania, it is a hair-pulling disorder. It has other side effects like nail-biting or scab picking but in my case, it’s just hair pulling. When I say hair pulling people tend to think it's painful, but really it’s not. When I pull my head hair it feels good and for me is a way of relieving stress. The feeling of the hair coming out of my head is satisfying so it makes me want to keep pulling.

After so much pulling I got a bald spot. The bald spot makes me very uncomfortable and it just makes me stress even more. So because of this, I recently had to inform my parents about it. Just so you're aware most of my friends and family know about the disorders I'm not really afraid to tell them. Though when I told them my disorders got better.

My parents said they would help me find ways to help me stop pulling hair so it can regrow. They also said they would help me find methods to help my OCD die down some. It's now been a day since I told them. During that day I didn't pull my hair once! Also confronting my parents about my thoughts and behaviors I have not had a bad thought for over 24 hours now which is ten times better than before.

So now I realize that all I need to change is to confront my issues. Whenever I get stressed, I just need to talk about my issue. Whenever I want to pull hair I will stop and ask myself, why am I doing this? From this point on I do see great improvements in my future. For everyone who also might deal with relatable issues, I hope this might have been helpful advice!