So, I’ve never actually told anyone about this, but reading this thread makes me feel better. I’ve known this has a name for a while now, but everything seems to focus on head/face/pubic plucking…
I started about 9-10 years ago, just before high school. Initially I was pulling hair off my head and I ended up with a nice bald patch through most of grade nine as a result. I was so ashamed. I told people that my cat had bit the hair off. Yeah, I know how stupid that excuse sounds. I knew I had to stop though. I kept my hair in a tight pony tail for months.
Then, one day after shaving, I was plucking my eyebrows and noticed some errant leg hairs…
It’s worse than my head in some ways. I can hide it. No one needs to know. It looks AWFUL. I’ve got all these cuts and dents and bumps and argh. And my legs sting from that all the time, which only makes me want to pluck more. I’ll be curled up plucking for hours at a time until my legs go to sleep and my back pops and I still can’t stop. I’ve thrown out so many tweezers. I won’t keep them in the house. I’ve got a full on unibrown as a result and people make comments about it.
I’ve tried putting the tweezers away, no luck. I’ve stolen them from other people when I don’t have them. I’ve heard that you should put them in a block of ice and only let them melt when you want to do your eyebrows, but I don’t want to explain to my room mates who I barely know why I have tweezers in ice in the freezer. Without tweezers I use nail clippers.
I don’t even know, I haven’t told anyone about this in ten years and it just seems so - and the worst part is that, while I’m doing it, I don’t want to stop because it feels so good. I’ve managed to control it for months at a time but it always comes back. I also pick my face and zits and have horrible scarring from that. And bite my nails. And crack my joints. Urgh. I’m just a big ugly mess.