would you call this self harm

[The Batman]

When I get upset I literally pull my hair out to where now its coming out in heaps when i take it down. I've been doing it all my life but when I saw that post by atonement about his other self harm I started to think that this might be self harm for me. What do you think?

[Serenity]

Well let's look at the term: self = doing it to yourself. Check. Harm = hurting yourself voluntarily, usually as some sort of stress reliever. Check.

Yes, it's self harm. Yes, it's bad. No, you're not alone [even though you didn't ask that]. A lot of people just immediately associate 'self harm' with cutting, which is so very misinformed. Self harm is anything you do to intentionally hurt yourself for whatever reason. Any kind of self harm is bad because it indicates problems you cannot deal with without mutilating your body in some way, which shows an extreme unrest in the mind. So even if you're not cutting, you need to take this seriously as it can very, very easily escalate to something much more dangerous and destructive. You need to think not only of the harm you're doing to yourself, but to the reasons behind it and what you can do to alleviate the situation in order to regain any possible peace of mind.

[The Batman]

I don't know why I do it its sorta like when I get real upset my body tenses up and i just start pulling at my hair and it sorta releases all of that tension

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

Well there you go, you do it to release tension. If you're actually losing hair though, it's important to kick this habit as soon as possible. You seem to associate this with physical tension, so maybe go out and buy a stress ball or two, and squeeze that when you get stressed? The physical squeezing might help to calm you down, without causing damage to your hair.

[sophies_justice]

trichotillomania is the official word for pulling your hair. it is a form of self-harm. lots of people do it, so you're definitly not alone like serinity said. you can get help for this, we're here for you definitly. stay strong and good luck!