Hair Loss And Anxiety
Hair Loss And Anxiety can be a complex internal battle. Do you live in constant fear of losing your hair? Are you worried that you will become bald or your hair will start thinning out? There is a complex relationship between hair loss and anxiety. In some cases, anxiety can cause hair loss and in other cases, due to anxiety it might be difficult to control anxiety.
Regardless of the cause of your hair loss, you still need to see a doctor or hair specialist in order to control it appropriately. However, anxiety can cause some conditions with symptoms such as hair loss. Even worse, it can make living with hair loss exhausting. Therefore, you need to reduce your anxiety considerably in order to stop hair loss and its effects on your life.
How Does Anxiety Cause Hair Loss?
You need to understand that hair loss isn’t the only symptom of anxiety. Also, it’s very rare that anxiety can lead to hair loss unless you’re suffering from severe anxiety. Stress is actually the issue linking anxiety and hair loss. Simply put, anxiety is another form of persistent long-term stress. However, it’s important to put a clear distinction between both anxiety and stress.
On its own, long term stress can lead to lots of symptoms. However, anyone dealing with anxiety is constantly under lots of stress. Some of the stress related conditions that can result in hair loss include the following.
- Alopecia Areata which has symptoms such as loss of huge clumps of hair around the scalp.
- Telogen Effluvium is yet another hair loss condition where hair starts falling out in more than normal chunks.
- Trichotillomania is a condition where a person pulls out their hair without any idea mostly because of stress or anxiety.
Most people suffering from anxiety related hair loss are usually suffering from telogen effluvium or weak hair caused by stress. However, the former 2 affect a smaller percentage of people suffering from anxiety and are a rather lesser concern. Telogen effluvium occurs when your body starts producing less amount of hair. Hair usually has a growth cycle of 2 years before it stops and starts falling out 2 months later. Therefore, if your hair doesn’t grow normally during the growth cycle, you will have less hair and lesser when it eventually starts falling out.
Hair Loss Triggers
However, it’s important to distinguish that not all hair loss is caused by anxiety regardless of whether the 2 situations occur at the same time. Most people suffer from stress situations, aging and many more health conditions that contribute to hair loss. For instance, if you’re stressed both at home and at work, you’re likely to suffer from hair loss. There are a few people who start suffering from anxiety because they are currently going through hair loss.
Basically put, hair loss triggers their anxiety whose levels might increase as the hair continues falling out. Finally, there are a few people who are too anxious about hair loss that they see themselves losing more volumes of hair when it’s actually not. If you’re aging naturally, you should have more hair falling out with each age. However, because of your paranoia, you might force more fall out than the normal amount. In simple words, your anxiety might be playing tricks on you.
In summary, anxiety can be the reason why your hair is falling out but it’s not always the culprit behind it. Sometimes there is an underlying problem but because of your anxiety is playing tricks on you, eventually your hair starts falling out in larger chunks than what actually is.
Can Reducing Your Anxiety Levels Stop The Hair Loss Issues?
Finally some good news! Not all hair loss caused by anxiety is permanent. If your hair loss has been caused primarily by stress or anxiety, you can find ways to reduce your stress or anxiety levels and restore hair growth. However, it might not be as simple as you imagine.
Before trying this out, make sure that there is actually no other underlying condition causing your hair loss. That’s because eventually, you will reduce your stress and anxiety levels expecting your hair to stop falling out. However, when that doesn’t happen, you will be completely disappointed.
In conclusion, before deducing that anxiety or stress are the reasons behind your hair loss, you should eliminate all the other possible reasons for hair loss.
If you have issues with hair loss, why not discuss them with Skalp – we should be able to help you on the track to a better, more confident you.
Skalp® have clinics around the world. We have clinics in New York, Los Angeles, London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dublin, Marbella, Milan and Amsterdam.
Book an appointment for a complimentary consultation today
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