Hair loss, MPB, Alopecias alike, are deadl to the psyche

[hairlosskills]

Just thought id contribute a thread telling it like it is.

Im 21 years old.

Balding and some diffuse thinning on the sides and back of head as well.

Ever since I found out, I have social isolated myself from everyone, including my family.

its been 4 years since I found out I was losing hair.

ITS been 3 1/2 years of social isolation and no will to even wipe my own ass.

I live alone, I wake up every morning with no strength to do anything but sit and do the same thin I do everyday...watch youtube videos and play online games.

the sad thing about us young balding victims, is that those who are physchologically struken by the disease are more likely to die a premature death.

I watch ALS ice bucket videos with disgust, why cant we donate to a real killer, ALOPECIA.

WHERE THE ALOPECIA ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE?!?!?!
?!?!?!!!

[DeuceWillis]

Just thought id contribute a thread telling it like it is.

Im 21 years old.

Balding and some diffuse thinning on the sides and back of head as well.

Ever since I found out, I have social isolated myself from everyone, including my family.

its been 4 years since I found out I was losing hair.

ITS been 3 1/2 years of social isolation and no will to even wipe my own ass.

I live alone, I wake up every morning with no strength to do anything but sit and do the same thin I do everyday...watch youtube videos and play online games.

the sad thing about us young balding victims, is that those who are physchologically struken by the disease are more likely to die a premature death.

I watch ALS ice bucket videos with disgust, why cant we donate to a real killer, ALOPECIA.

WHERE THE ALOPECIA ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE?!?!?!
?!?!?!!!

Get off your ass and do something about it man! You've got options... Finasteride, minoxidil, ru, dutasteride, if you want to fight it... Shave or get a decent looking short hair cut if you don't want to fight it. Either way if you lay down at night and wake up in the morning unhappy, it's nobody's fault but your own. You've probably shit in more fresh water today than some people have seen all week. Be thankful, go live.

[awesome1]

The frustrating part for me is how much of my mental space this occupies. I WANT to not care, I WANT to say **** it, I'm fortunate and have good features aside from diffuse thinning, but I don't want to take the plunge and shave it down.

As a result I can't let go of the anxieties associated, the checking of every dudes hairline I see, wondering their age and comparing to my own. Any time I'm in the bathroom snapping pics/videos on my phone, it's frustrating to exert all that mental energy that could be used for other things like advancing creative projects, improving myself, getting my thoughts down or anything other at all than the waste of time I've made for myself. That's what bothers me the most, I need to push myself harder to push it out of my mind.

I'm getting better now, but I do have those relapses where I spend too much time one evening browsing hair loss forums and just staring at my photos every few weeks. As long as I don't let these mental occupations worsen as my hairline does, I'll be fine. But that's a tough thing to ask of myself. I know I'm up for the challenge. I'm not afraid of myself. I try not to hide it. I get self-conscious about wearing hats because I'm worried it'll look like I'm TRYING to hide it. Sometimes I walk at the front of the pack of friends with no fear of exposing my thinning crown, almost on purpose (also I can't stand the indecisiveness so its nice to be upfront and navigating)

It's weird what it does to our psyche, isn't it? I know life will go on, I know I have a strong will. It's nice to get some of these words down though.

[James7]

hairlosskills aha yeah, I was thinking that too about the ice bucket trend phenomenon -

where's the alopecia ice bucket challenge!!

The frustrating part for me is how much of my mental space this occupies. I WANT to not care, I WANT to say **** it, I'm fortunate and have good features aside from diffuse thinning, but I don't want to take the plunge and shave it down.

As a result I can't let go of the anxieties associated, the checking of every dudes hairline I see, wondering their age and comparing to my own. Any time I'm in the bathroom snapping pics/videos on my phone, it's frustrating to exert all that mental energy that could be used for other things like advancing creative projects, improving myself, getting my thoughts down or anything other at all than the waste of time I've made for myself. That's what bothers me the most, I need to push myself harder to push it out of my mind.

awesome1, yeah when something becomes an obsession, and particularly something that is mostly out of your control, such as this, it's probably not healthy and you need to change that.
I know I've done a similar thing, where you are looking at other people's hair, and comparing your own situation.

Well we all know the 'big 3' finasteride, minoxidil, nizoral.
I think really the 'big 3' should be finasteride, hair transplants and hair systems. Because these are the only things that are going to change the situation, when it gets past nw2 or nw3.

So i reckon you just need to make a plan as to what your going to do with these 3 options: finasteride, hair transplants and hair systems. It's a decision you make for yourself, whether you want to try them, and each one of them is not for everyone.

But once you've made your decision about those things, and either tried them or not - then you have done all that you can do.
That is all there really is available.
Once you made your decisions, obsessing any more about it afterwards really isn't helpful to you, like you said. It just wastes your own time.
I'd like to help with the obsessing about hair thing, I think do that too.

Most people do not obsess about hair. Either their own or any one elses. When they talk to people they look at their eyes. Any other physical characteristic you may notice, well that might usually only be a passing thought. I would think also usually soon forgotten.

You've got to remember how it was before hairloss. Before you lost your hair, did you obsess and analyze the hair or any particular feature of the general public? Probably not, most people don't.

So you need to get back to that state of mind, before any hairloss Did you obsess about it then? No. It's really not that interesting to people without hairloss, so why should you care?

[James7]

Hi awesome1,

Sorry I just realised, I don't wanna sound too much like I'm telling you what to do.
I'm really as much telling myself these things as anything.

Though I would like to discuss it, I think we have a similar thing here. Yeah it does help to get these words down.

I think what we both have is a sort of 'hair envy'.

So for example, we might see some old guy with good hair. We know it takes him zero effort, he probably barely thinks about it, but we know, conversely, that we are worrying/obsessing all the time. We might make assumptions about how he doesn't really need it now at his age, and we feel we need it more. Maybe his life is already sorted out, and we are still worried about needing hair to get a date. It's really like a sort of jealousy mixed with a 'why me and not him?' sort of thing.

So yeah it's jealousy. We have envious resentment.

So it occurs to me we have to get back to where we were before all of this, if we can. At least mentally.
I remember before hairloss. I did enjoy my own hair, I was very happy with it. But also I didn't really take that much notice of other peoples hair back then. There were and are much more important things in life.
Also, I'm pretty sure when you try to remember people, the main thing that is remembered in detail is their face. Also the eyes.
Then of course there is their personailty, their actions etc.
All of these things are the big details that are normally remembered or noticed about people, I think.
If you try to recall people you knew before hairloss, it's probably quite hard to say where on the norwood scale every single one of them was, right? We didn't look for that before, so we shouldn't do it now.

So anyway, my idea is generally to get back to this more balanced view, that any person has before hairloss. What do you think?

[hairlosskills]

Idk how much longer i can live through this ld rather be dead