Overcoming Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors

“The definitive guide for those who pick or pull.” —Reid Wilson, PhD, author Stopping the Noise in Your Head A comprehensive treatment plan grounded in evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you overcome body-focused repetitive behaviors for good! If you have body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRB) such as hair pulling (trichotillomania) or skin picking (dermatillomania), you may feel embarrassed about seeking help. But there are proven-effective strategies you can use to overcome these behaviors and improve your overall quality of life—this book will show you how. In this evidence-based resource, three renowned experts and clinicians offer powerful CBT skills to help you move past BFRB. You’ll learn why you engage in these behaviors, and how to identify your own sensory “triggers”—places, things, or experiences that cause your behavior to become worse. Finally, you’ll learn strategies to use when faced with these triggers, and develop your own customized “plan of action” for moving beyond BFRB for good. With time, practice, and solid skills for managing stress, anxiety, urges, and other triggers, this book will help you break free from BFRB and feel more in control of your life.

Trichotillomania, Skin Picking, and Other Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors provides clinicians, researchers, family members, and individuals with the cutting-edge, comprehensive resource they need to understand and address the problem.

Maybe you’ve encountered tips on how to stop in the past. While they probably helped, they never took you all the way. How to Heal Your BFRB teaches you why you weren't healing before and, more important, how to start healing now. Almost no time will be spent on what a body-focused repetitive behavior is, or who tends to have one. You know what a BFRB is, you have one or a few, and you just want to stop. While you may even have come to believe healing isn’t possible, it’s absolutely possible for you to overcome your BFRB. For seventeen years, author Lauren I. Ruiz Bloise compulsively skin-picked before developing these four steps, which she later learned correlate with proven body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) treatments. That said, this guide is simple, not medical or academic. Despite the complicated names for these disorders (excoriation, dermatillomania, trichotillomania, onychophagy, dermatophagia), How to Heal Your BFRB is a reader-friendly guide that walks you through concrete steps so you can feel in control rather than desperate, confident rather than ashamed—so your hair, skin, or nails can be nicer, clearer, and fuller. Join others who are already healing. Take the chance. After all, How to Heal Your BFRB is more affordable than (or about as affordable as) one high-quality skin or hair care product, only it’s much more beneficial than even the best beauty product you can buy. This Ebook Is for You If… • You have dermatillomania (skin picking), trichotillomania (hair pulling), onychophagia (nail biting or chewing), dermatophagia (skin biting or chewing), or any other disorder in the long list of compulsive BFRBs. • You target blemishes (zits, pimples, blackheads, whiteheads, milia), ingrowns, and the like. • Or you target hairs (on head, lashes, brows, beard); nails, fingers, cheeks, feet, scalp, nose, eyes; or something else. • You’ve tried over and over to stop, to no avail. • You’ve covered mirrors, used gloves, downloaded apps, or marked a calendar, among many other things. • You’re unsure why you do it. • Or you have an idea why you pick, pull, or chew, but you still haven't been able to heal to a meaningful extent. While How to Heal Your BFRB is intended to be followed by teens and adults who have a BFRB, if your family member (child, partner, parent) or friend has a BFRB, you are welcome to download and read it. The more you know about how people are overcoming these behaviors, the more you can help and support them. Even if you have made progress on your own, or encountered treatments for how to stop picking or pulling already, let How to Heal Your BFRB give you new insights and further healing, as well as encouragement. How to Heal Your BFRB is not about anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), addiction to substances or alcohol, or any of the other mental health conditions related to body-focused repetitive behaviors, but it’s understood that you may have one or more of these disorders too. To make recovery easier, you're highly encouraged to address any of these alongside reading the book, and thereafter. That said, all are welcome! *** “Wow, I know a book can only do so much, but yours exceeded my expectations. A lot! I came away with: · Confidence that I can be in control of my BFRB health (and other areas of my health) · More acceptance of myself · Tools and guidance to help me take better care of myself · The desire and motivation to experience the 3 items above "It was about more than healing a BFRB. There were several points where I was moved by the caring messages you conveyed. You were talking to and caring about ME.”—Teresa G., Vermont

Tics, trichotillomania, and habits such as thumb-sucking and nail-biting tend to resist traditional forms of therapy. Their repetitiveness, however, makes these dissimilar disorders particularly receptive to behavioral treatment. Now in soft cover for the first time, this is the most comprehensive guide to behavioral treatment for these common yet understudied disorders. Tic Disorders is geared to researchers but accessible to to patients and their families as well.

There is still scant clinical information on trichotillomania. This book fills the need for a full-length cognitive-behavioral treatment manual. The authors share their considerable expertise in treating body-focused repetitive behavior disorders (not only hair-pulling but skin-picking and nail-biting as well) in an accessible, clinically valid reference. This is the first comprehensive, clinical, and empirically-based volume to address these disorders.

This definitive new self-help guide offers help to the millions of Americans who suffer from trichotillomania, an obsessive-compulsive disorder that leads them to pull out their hair.

Newly Revised and Updated! Are you tormented by extremely distressing thoughts or persistent worries? Compelled to wash your hands repeatedly? Driven to repeat or check certain numbers, words, or actions? If you or someone you love suffers from these symptoms, you may be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from some form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. Once considered almost untreatable, OCD is now known to be a highly treatable disorder using behavior therapy. In this newly revised edition of Stop Obsessing! Drs. Foa and Wilson, internationally renowned authorities on the treatment of anxiety disorders, share their scientifically based and clinically proven self-help program that has already allowed thousands of men and women with OCD to enjoy a life free from excessive worries and rituals. You will discover: • Step-by-step programs for both mild and severe cases of OCD • The most effective ways to help you let go of your obsessions and gain control over your compulsions • New charts and fill-in guides to track progress and make exercises easier • Questionnaires for self-evaluation and in-depth understanding of your symptoms • Expert guidance for finding the best professional help • The latest information about medications prescribed for OCD

Sexual obsessions are a common symptom of OCD, but addressing them in treatment is uniquely challenging due to feelings of shame, prior misdiagnosis, and the covert nature of ritualizing behaviors. These complicating factors make it difficult for clients to disclose their symptoms and for clinicians to know how to approach treatment. Sexual Obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder provides clinicians with the information and guidance needed to help clients experiencing unwanted and intrusive thoughts of a sexual nature. Opening with background information on sexual obsessions and OCD, including assessment and differential diagnosis, Williams and Wetterneck then offer a complete, step-by-step manual describing treatment using a combination of empirically-supported CBT strategies, such as exposure and response prevention, cognitive therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy, as well as useful mindfulness techniques. Accompanying these practical, step-by-step instructions are educational handouts and diagrams for clients designed to promote learning. The book concludes with a discussion of relationship issues that commonly result from sexually-themed OCD, and how therapists can tackle these problems. Sexual Obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an essential resource for clinicians who treat OCD, as well as students and trainees from across the mental health professions.