Knit Off!

[catherinem]

I had another session with my Habit Reversal Training therapist yesterday and although I cannot say that I’m pull-free (not pulling out hair) but I’m better, I’m better at identifying when I’m likely to start pulling out my hair (trichotillomania) and I’ve been trying my best to distract my wandering hands. I have about three different distraction techniques depending on what I’m doing.

1. Knitting – I have been picking up some knitting when ever I have the urge to pull whilst watching TV, so far since I last saw my HRT therapist I’ve knitted, 1 blanket, 1 scarf, 1 teddy bear for a charity that send bears overseas to children, and 3 legwarmers for a housebound neighbour. Soon I will run out of wool and things to knit so before I start knitting strange items like the uterus in the picture, please give me some ideas.

2. Fiddling with my strange squidggy thing, I have 2 of them a small pink one with long tentacles and googly eyes that unfortunately I’ve squeezed to death and is now somewhat deflated and a large black ball-like creature with large painted on eyes and short green spikes all over, unfortunately his eyes are now peeling off – again too much squeezing and pulling.

3. Squashing Playdoh. I have a pot of bright pink Playdoh on my desk ready for when I feel the urge to pull my hair whilst at my desk, it’s beginning to go a bit dry and flaky and is loosing it’s soft elasticity that it once had. I love the smell of Playdoh; it’s one of those comforting childhood kinds of smells.

I’ve been given a chart to fill in by my therapist to fill in when I start pulling out my hair where I fill in columns stating when I did it, how long it went on for, how many hairs pulled out, how strong the urge was and what I was doing at the time and how I felt.

This is going to be fairly tough over the next couple of weeks as it’s time for me as an unemployed person to undertake my “mandatory work-related activity” which I’m beginning to get quite stressed about, it’s probably nothing but I have recently become quite a bit of a stress bunny. Hopefully this worry will iron it’s self out when I know what I’ll be actually doing and where I’ll be doing it, I’m certainly not looking forward to working in a big open plan office where there’s lots going on making it very difficult for me to concentrate and where my tics will drive my co-workers batty. I have been trying to set up my own business and I have always worked best undisturbed (when I’ve finished procrastinating) in my own peaceful study with just Sasha (my cat) for company. I’m looking forward to meeting new people and doing something new but I am feeling just a tad stressed out about this whole “sharing an office” scenario.

[Bootgates]

Hi Cath, Glad you're being positive & trying different things to stop pulling your hair, which sounds very painful I must say. you made me laugh when I read the thing you had knitted you referred to as a uterus. It reminded me when I was pregnant of my ante-natal classes and one of the hospital staff was talking about pelvic floors & making sure we emptied our bladders in pregnancy & afterwards and to stress the point she brought out an actual knitted uterus which she referred to as her 'woolly womb'! it did make us laugh. she then told us that this was actually her second one as someone had actually stolen her first one! So I suppose you could make a few of those for different hospital ante-natal classes. However they are larger than the one you made so would need more wool.

Knitting bears for charirty is also a good idea. kntting baby clothes & shawls for charity too. Re the plasticine drying out etc. Instead of plasticine you could by those 'stress' toy thingys where you can stretch it & squeeze it to your hearts content & it won't dry out which i imagine would be better when you're actually working. you could make scoobys (or scubis-not sure of spelling)(those plaited plastic thingys you can turn into different things ie keyrings which you could sell. divide the cost between what it cost to make & some for charity then it becomes self funding. you could make pizza dough & when you've finished stretching & pulling it,it should be ready to cook & be extra tasty to eat for dinner.this would only work at home though! good luck girly & keep it up! let us know how you get on & what works for you!xxx

[catherinem]

Sorry to disapoint you, but I didn't knit the uterus, I found the picture on the internet, but thanks for letting me know what it would be used for, lol. Pots of playdoh are pretty cheap anyway (99p in my local Tescos) and have have a couple of squashy, rubbery toys.

[Bootgates]

Lol! Actually looking at the knitted squishy thing again made me think of some other things you could knit. Tea cosies,egg cosies & willy warmers too. I suppose the last one was because it kind of reminded of one a bit lol!

I suppose you could knit lots of spaghetti type 'strings' & sew them on a hat & (only for indoors mind) & then it would be like hair if you were finding it hard with the other reversal gadgets. (i know it sounds silly but it just might work).Worth a try maybe? X