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Does anyone on the spectrum do this too? Or is it just my habit?

When cats or other animals do it,
it's called over-grooming. Can be
physiologically based, or mainly
anxiety.

The grooming activity soothes
the animal.
 
yep. I do this all the time. My boyfriend hated it when I would do it to his packers blanket. he said I was ruining it. or would. its the soft plush ones that are best. It doesn't ruin them really because its just tiny bits at a time.. when I'm anxious and talking to someone my hands want to be moving. picking blankets, rubbing the texture back and forth, ripping tissues into tiny pieces and rolling them into balls and then taking those balls and lining them up. and not realizing I am doing this or that its weird until the person says something about it. I do it was restaurant napkins and straw wrappers.

I don't pull out my dogs fur.. well. unless I am grooming him. not as a stim. if I don't allow myself to do this stuff I get really anxious and cannot concentrate.

People think I'm not paying attention when I do things like that but I am paying a lot more attention than if I were trying to look at them.
 
No one is responding to the info I supplied here? Interested in knowing if anyone has the diagnosis or knew about this. It would seem that several posters have trichotillomania.
 
Okay so I have a extremely bad habit at picking fur off of stuffed animals and my dog (it doesn't hurt him dw he still got plenty of fur on him no bald spots at all double coat). Anyways I am despreatly trying to stop this habit. My fingers start really hurting and the skin around the nail peals a little bit when I do it too much.
I notice I get a satisfication feeling when I pick off fur off of my stuffed animals (especially in the clump type), it's soothing and satisfiying to me But damanging my 303 stuffed animals. I love my stuffed animals, and everytime I do this I feel guilt and horrible cause I don't wanna do it to them. I can't find anything on picking fur off of stuffed animals online, and wondering if anyone else does this and get a satisfiying feel to it or is it just me? I really do not know how to stop this, everytime I feel a little bump in the plush I get anxious and need to pull it. Not sure if this is a Asperger's thing or not, or if it's something else entirely? Or just a bad habit???Like okay I'll be doing it for hours on end.... and then I'll finally realize I am doing it and stop only to resume on a different stuffed animal. I really do not know what to do.

P.S no giving up my plush is not a option I have big attachment to them
i think it may be a bit of both habbit and sensory quirk we all have. i think its the feeling you get actually on your fingernails that is the aspies part and the fact its fur on toys and your dog mite just be the habbit thing. i have sore edges of my nails all the time due to pressing my other nails into the edge and also in bed i rap the bed sheet tight over my nails and use the corner of the bed sheet to scratch around the outer edges of my nails where the skin starts and nail ends. ive torn so many sheets in my life from wearing out the edges on my nails. but the sheet (or the seam of my jeans pocket or hard collar plastic in my good office shirt etc) is just something i use to get the feeling, so i now keep a special peice of material in my pocket and have a small length of string to use as my nail scratcher. so maybe you can simply find a new thing that gives you the same feeling on your fingers and this mite be enough for you to not need to do it to toys of dogs fur. hope this helps
 
No one is responding to the info I supplied here? Interested in knowing if anyone has the diagnosis or knew about this. It would seem that several posters have trichotillomania.

I think it might be difficult to differentiate between aspie stims and classic trichotillomania. If an NT pulled out hair, eyebrows or eyelashes, then most likely the NT has the disorder. However, if an aspie does these things, then the aspie may or may not have the disorder. I knew an NT girl in high school who pulled out her eyebrows and lashes. She also wore a wig so I don't know if she also pulled hair from her scalp but surmise she did so. She clearly had trichotillomania but I wouldn't be so sure about hair pulling by an autistic person because it may be a fairly common autistic stim and unrelated to mental illness.
 
I think it might be difficult to differentiate between aspie stims and classic trichotillomania. If an NT pulled out hair, eyebrows or eyelashes, then most likely the NT has the disorder. However, if an aspie does these things, then the aspie may or may not have the disorder. I knew an NT girl in high school who pulled out her eyebrows and lashes. She also wore a wig so I don't know if she also pulled hair from her scalp but surmise she did so. She clearly had trichotillomania but I wouldn't be so sure about hair pulling by an autistic person because it may be a fairly common autistic stim and unrelated to mental illness.

Hmmm, that is really interesting. You are saying that it might be a neuro problem and therefore treated different, but I do not think Hair pulling would be diagnosed OR treated differently. The behavior is the same- despite the reason for it. I would therefore assume that the behavior of hair pulling be diagnosed, no matter what the source or reason, and treated the same...with CBT. CBT is used with stim behaviors. Medication might also prescribed for extreme stim behaviors regardless of the reason.

The fact that autism is in the DSM makes it cohabitate with other mental illness....OCD, Bi Polar, Schizophrenia, etc. This pulling of hair (or any other self harming or obsessive actions), do not have differentiation in the DSM between stimming, or any mental illness type behavior. It is a “behavior” plain and simple. Many autistics can have dual diagnosis with OCD. OCD would be treated the same for everyone.

I am quite curious as to your pattern of thinking on this though. I have never read about this theory before in my education, mental health trainings, or research. I would love to explore this theory more.
 
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Hmmm, that is really interesting. You are saying that it might be a neuro problem and therefore treated different, but I do not think Hair pulling would be diagnosed OR treated differently. The behavior is the same- despite the reason for it. I would therefore assume that the behavior of hair pulling be diagnosed, no matter what the source or reason, and treated the same...with CBT. CBT is used with stim behaviors. Medication might also prescribed for extreme stim behaviors regardless of the reason.

The fact that autism is in the DSM makes it cohabitate with other mental illness....OCD, Bi Polar, Schizophrenia, etc. This pulling of hair (or any other self harming or obsessive actions), do not have differentiation in the DSM between stimming, or any mental illness type behavior. It is a “behavior” plain and simple. Many autistics can have dual diagnosis with OCD. OCD would be treated the same for everyone.

I am quite curious as to your pattern of thinking on this though. I have never read about this theory before in my education, mental health trainings, or research. I would love to explore this theory more.


The quoted info from the Mayo Clinic website indicates trichotillomania is a disorder, not a mental illness so while some true "mental illnesses" are sometimes diagnosed as co-morbid with ASD, trichotillomania is not so characterized on that website. Maybe the DSM classifies it as a mental illness, differently from the Mayo Clinic?

As you note, the behavior is the same whether it is formally diagnosed as trichotillomania or merely as a severe ASD stim, and it makes sense that the treatment would be the same. However, I'm dubious that some behaviors like nail biting or picking at one's face or lips rise to the level of a mental illness. They seem more akin to a stimming or anxiety-driven behavior than a true mental illness. People with dementia and Parkinsons disease sometimes do what is called "pilling" - they pick at or "pill" their clothes and blankets with their fingertips, and I don't think that is considered a mental illness for them.

But, hey, I'm no expert - I'm just another opinionated NT who is hesitant to label a hair pulling behavior as a mental illness.
 
The quoted info from the Mayo Clinic website indicates trichotillomania is a disorder, not a mental illness so while some true "mental illnesses" are sometimes diagnosed as co-morbid with ASD, trichotillomania is not so characterized on that website. Maybe the DSM classifies it as a mental illness, differently from the Mayo Clinic?

As you note, the behavior is the same whether it is formally diagnosed as trichotillomania or merely as a severe ASD stim, and it makes sense that the treatment would be the same. However, I'm dubious that some behaviors like nail biting or picking at one's face or lips rise to the level of a mental illness. They seem more akin to a stimming or anxiety-driven behavior than a true mental illness. People with dementia and Parkinsons disease sometimes do what is called "pilling" - they pick at or "pill" their clothes and blankets with their fingertips, and I don't think that is considered a mental illness for them.

But, hey, I'm no expert - I'm just another opinionated NT who is hesitant to label a hair pulling behavior as a mental illness.

The umbrella classifications connotate “illness.” Under that are the “disorders.” OCD would be an “illness, while the actions engaged in such as hair pulling, skin picking, or hand washing, would be the “disorders.”
You are right, hair pulling -if autistic -results in ABA treatment. Non-autistic people get CBT treatment. ABA is a derivative of CBT. All of this does not negate the seriousness some of these harmful disorders cause.

I found this link which supports your idea, and also explains why I did not know about it. ABA is used for autism and it is derived from CBT which is used for the rest of the population. I have had no training in autism, only mental illness and addiction. This one explains what you meant - the difference in one disorder between a person WITH autism, and a person WITHOUT autism.

Why is OCD so Common in Children with Autism?
 
The umbrella classifications connotate “illness.” Under that are the “disorders.” OCD would be an “illness, while the actions engaged in such as hair pulling, skin picking, or hand washing, would be the “disorders.”
You are right, hair pulling -if autistic -results in ABA treatment. Non-autistic people get CBT treatment. ABA is a derivative of CBT. All of this does not negate the seriousness some of these harmful disorders cause.

I found this link which supports your idea, and also explains why I did not know about it. ABA is used for autism and it is derived from CBT which is used for the rest of the population. I have had no training in autism, only mental illness and addiction. This one explains what you meant - the difference in one disorder between a person WITH autism, and a person WITHOUT autism.

Why is OCD so Common in Children with Autism?

That's an interesting article and it does express what I was inarticulately trying to say, without my having the benefit of any medical/psychological training. I mainly operate from intuition, observation and experience from working with autistic young adults in the GED classes I teach. The differences in treatments for compulsive disorders - one thing works for ASD, something else is used for NTs, is interesting and instructive, too.

Good discussion of an important question, and thank you for the additional information.
 
That's an interesting article and it does express what I was inarticulately trying to say, without my having the benefit of any medical/psychological training. I mainly operate from intuition, observation and experience from working with autistic young adults in the GED classes I teach. The differences in treatments for compulsive disorders - one thing works for ASD, something else is used for NTs, is interesting and instructive, too.

Good discussion of an important question, and thank you for the additional information.

Thank you, Mary Terry, as I had no idea of these differences!
 
Okay so I have a extremely bad habit at picking fur off of stuffed animals and my dog (it doesn't hurt him dw he still got plenty of fur on him no bald spots at all double coat). Anyways I am despreatly trying to stop this habit. My fingers start really hurting and the skin around the nail peals a little bit when I do it too much.
I notice I get a satisfication feeling when I pick off fur off of my stuffed animals (especially in the clump type), it's soothing and satisfiying to me But damanging my 303 stuffed animals. I love my stuffed animals, and everytime I do this I feel guilt and horrible cause I don't wanna do it to them. I can't find anything on picking fur off of stuffed animals online, and wondering if anyone else does this and get a satisfiying feel to it or is it just me? I really do not know how to stop this, everytime I feel a little bump in the plush I get anxious and need to pull it. Not sure if this is a Asperger's thing or not, or if it's something else entirely? Or just a bad habit???Like okay I'll be doing it for hours on end.... and then I'll finally realize I am doing it and stop only to resume on a different stuffed animal. I really do not know what to do.

P.S no giving up my plush is not a option I have big attachment to them
Have you tried something like a Fidget Spinner or other Sensory object to keep your hands busy? My thing is pillow cases. I can't sit without my pillow, pulling, stroking and twiddling with the soft corner of the pillow case. I've lost count of how many pillow cases I've worn out and wrecked by putting holes in them! Another thing I've always done is with shoel
 
A
Okay so I have a extremely bad habit at picking fur off of stuffed animals and my dog (it doesn't hurt him dw he still got plenty of fur on him no bald spots at all double coat). Anyways I am despreatly trying to stop this habit. My fingers start really hurting and the skin around the nail peals a little bit when I do it too much.
I notice I get a satisfication feeling when I pick off fur off of my stuffed animals (especially in the clump type), it's soothing and satisfiying to me But damanging my 303 stuffed animals. I love my stuffed animals, and everytime I do this I feel guilt and horrible cause I don't wanna do it to them. I can't find anything on picking fur off of stuffed animals online, and wondering if anyone else does this and get a satisfiying feel to it or is it just me? I really do not know how to stop this, everytime I feel a little bump in the plush I get anxious and need to pull it. Not sure if this is a Asperger's thing or not, or if it's something else entirely? Or just a bad habit???Like okay I'll be doing it for hours on end.... and then I'll finally realize I am doing it and stop only to resume on a different stuffed animal. I really do not know what to do.

P.S no giving up my plush is not a option I have big attachment to them
another thing ive always done is with shoelaces. Those plastic things (sorry don't know the proper name for them), I can't have a shoelace without picking it off. I've even got myself in trouble in the past for going into a shoe shop looking for new shoes and picking the plastic pieces off the ends of the shoelaces of new pairs of shoes on the shelves. Seems all us Aspies just have our own thing.
 
I have trich and am an aspie. I was diagnosed with trich before my Aspergers, and it is definitely an anxiety thing, not a stim. I also pull the fluff off of plush toys as well.
 
I have trich and am an aspie. I was diagnosed with trich before my Aspergers, and it is definitely an anxiety thing, not a stim. I also pull the fluff off of plush toys as well.

Can you explain what you mean about the difference between a stim and an “anxiety thing” behavior? I am still learning. I thought a stim was an anti-anxiety thing.
 
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I have a bald teddy bear. I was around two when I started plucking its fur. My mom said I liked to rub the tuft of fur across my upper lip while I sucked my thumb. I'm surprised I managed the dexterity that must have taken.
 

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