What's Wrong with My Head, Dude?

**Tele** · 10-19-2018 01:04 AM

Hey, all! New here. Trying to keep a little bit of optimism.

About two years ago, I began struggling with a crippling anxiety disorder, which manifested in panic attacks and OCD-like obsessions about my health. This began after a very traumatic near-death experience. Anyway, over the last two years, I've slowly returned to being a person I recognize, and, in the last month and a half, I've really begun to enjoy my life again. I'm having fun in the last quarter of being twenty-three, and for the first time in two years, I feel young again. Up until about four months ago, I was vegetarian. I had been for about a year. The decision to do this was born out of an inordinate focus on my heart health. (I was pretty ****ed up, always worried about dropping dead of a heart attack. Yes, I do realize I am far too young to be worried about that. I can't even explain what my brain was doing to me back then.) I definitely wasn't eating a balanced diet or even eating well many days out of that year. On top of it, because of aforementioned anxiety, I was dealing with a chronic acid reflux issue that I had to take daily Omeprazole for, a medication that I've read can interfere with your nutrient absorption, especially vitamin B12. I stopped with the meds and started eating meat at virtually the same time four months ago.

Around five months ago, however, in the shower, I noticed that my hair was COMING OUT. I could get five hairs in one pull. My OCD brain quickly went into overdrive, as losing my hair was something I had worried about before. It was a fear of mine. For the next few months, I obsessed over my hair shedding almost daily, which was undeniably excessive, certainly over 100 a day. I wasn't (and still am not) losing a lot of short, vellus-like hairs, nearly all my shed hair is of normal terminal length. I noticed also that I had overwhelming flaking and itching on my head, the worst I've ever had, verging on full-blown scalp psoriasis. Circa two months ago, with my condition not yet improving, I went to see a derm, who told me she saw absolutely no evidence of miniaturization on my head. She diagnosed me with seborrheic dermatitis, gave me a shampoo, insisted that the seborrhea was the culprit (which raised an eyebrow) and sent me on my way with aplomb and confidence.

Well, two months later, I still have not seen any improvement at all. Hair still coming out at an alarming rate. It is now getting visibly thinner on sides, top, crown, and even back. I'm wondering if I might have developed TE a few months back, given the constant anxiety, poor diet, and reflux issues/medication. I do not have hairline recession, but my temple points, where my dandruff was worst, have thinned considerably! Many of the hairs coming out have little flakes of that plaque-like shit I had on my head, even though I've been shampooing with T-gel faithfully and the rash appears to be gone.

I feel like this is not MPB, but maybe it is. My objectivity is out the window here as, thanks to my anxiety, I can find myself ruminating on the prospective causes of this problem for hours, googling information I've already read for the millionth time. My paternal grandfather, who recently passed away, died with a full head of beautiful hair, at 94! My father had a well-settled mature hairline way into his fifties, but after he started testosterone replacement therapy, his hair finally left him. My maternal grandfather didn't get a bald spot until he was in this thirties, and my mother HAS experienced Telogen Effluvium after her first pregnancy, which she recovered from well.

All this said, losing this much hair has been disconcerting, and it's beginning to become visible, which makes my neurotic personality that much more neurotic. Any thoughts? All photos are with flash and when my hair is a little greasy. It gets greasy incredibly fast.

**Diffuse33** · 10-23-2018 06:17 AM

Hello, based on what you have said, as well as viewing your pictures it is possible that you have mild TE. I would not rule MPB out all together as although you say you are genetically in a good position NOT to have early MPB it is always a possibility as long as you are male. I would book an appointment with a hair specialist and get them to check your hair for signs of miniaturisation. A good specialist will be able to tell you if it's miniaturisation or TE. All the best.