Trichotillomania sufferers lose hair, pulling out handfuls of it as a result of an emotionally triggered response to negative feelings of stress, anxiety, fear, anger, and other states of negativity.
However, those who have this condition suffer more than the loss of hair - pulling out hair is a compulsory behavior that is difficult to gain control over, so many have also suffered feelings of self defeat and weakness.
This can actually feed into the self destructive pattern of behavior and make things far worse.
This means of losing hair, pulling out fistfuls of one's own hair, can outwardly seem more than very strange to others, so many sufferers of this condition tend to be very secretive, which can add to the sense of shame that is felt by those with trichotillomania, which again can make the condition worse, feeding more negativity into the whole vicious cycle of it all.
Obviously, this can be torturous, and so these sufferers seek help through whatever means available.
Medications used to treat trichotillomania generally have a very low success rate as a stand alone form of treatment, while behaviorally based therapies report very high success rates of 90% and higher.
This is basically due to the fact that this condition is not a result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, but is actually a learned behavioral pattern.
Ripping out one's hair, pulling out large or small amounts as an outlet for stressful feelings can be successfully eliminated through behavioral therapy such as the well known "habit reversal" type.
This teaches sufferers to monitor their hair pulling, out of a need for self awareness - to more fully understand what triggers this behavior for the individual's case, and then to implement the strategy of replacing this behavior with other habits of a more healthy nature.
This most widely accepted means of therapy has the highest reported success rates above any other.