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This reminds me of something that happened with our child. She started pulling her hair out at night as she fell asleep. Large clumps were pulled out over a mon

by hogger 8y ago

This reminds me of something that happened with our child. She started pulling her hair out at night as she fell asleep. Large clumps were pulled out over a month or two and every night there would be small amounts of hair removed. There was a lot of pressure to go to a psychologist from her GP and medication was suggested too. We were talking about it a lot and her hair was getting thin. One night we gave her a new stuff toy, and suggested to her that if she needed to pull hair or was thinking about it, put the dolls hair. It was a toy penguin. Plucking penguin has many bald patches now and the hair pulling stopped that night.

exolymph 8y ago
You might enjoy this similar anecdote from an SSC post. > The Hair Dryer Incident was probably the biggest dispute I’ve seen in the mental hospital where I work. Most of the time all the psychiatrists get along and have pretty much the same opinion about important things, but people were at each other’s throats about the Hair Dryer Incident. > Basically, this one obsessive compulsive woman would drive to work every morning and worry she had left the hair dryer on and it was going to burn down her house. So she’d drive back home to check that the hair dryer was off, then drive back to work, then worry that maybe she hadn’t really checked well enough, then drive back, and so on ten or twenty times a day. > It’s a pretty typical case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it was really interfering with her life. She worked some high-powered job – I think a lawyer – and she was constantly late to everything because of this driving back and forth, to the point where her career was in a downspin and she thought she would have to quit and go on disability. She wasn’t able to go out with friends, she wasn’t even able to go to restaurants because she would keep fretting she left the hair dryer on at home and have to rush back. She’d seen countless psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors, she’d done all sorts of therapy, she’d taken every medication in the book, and none of them had helped. > So she came to my hospital and was seen by a colleague of mine, who told her “Hey, have you thought about just bringing the hair dryer with you?” > And it worked. > She would be driving to work in the morning, and she’d start worrying she’d left the hair dryer on and it was going to burn down her house, and so she’d look at the seat next to her, and there would be the hair dryer, right there. And she only had the one hair dryer, which was now accounted for. So she would let out a sigh of relief and keep driving to work. It's a great essay overall. Link: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-made-for-man-not-man-for-the-categories/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-ma...
- ddalex 8y ago
  Somebody should dig out the SCP file about that damned hair dryer.
- Jolter 8y ago
  That's a much simpler fix than the one that sprung to my mind: Advise her to get rid of the hair dryer and only wash her hair in the evenings instead. The techie's fix would be to install a 10-minute timer on the outlet so she can be sure it doesn't keep running.
- chasingthewind 8y ago
  This is a great solution! Now I just have to figure out how to disconnect my gas range and put it in my car every day :)
  - howard941 8y ago
    Point an IR-sensitive webcam at the range. Now I just have to figure out how to remember that I locked the front door when I forget to do the verbal "door locked, check" drill
    - pergadad 8y ago
      Do something new each day. A song, a gesture, a phrase. That makes then memory unique. Or just get a lock that closes itself...

by hogger 8y ago

exolymph 8y ago

You might enjoy this similar anecdote from an SSC post. > The Hair Dryer Incident was probably the biggest dispute I’ve seen in the mental hospital where I work. Most of the time all the psychiatrists get along and have pretty much the same opinion about important things, but people were at each other’s throats about the Hair Dryer Incident. > Basically, this one obsessive compulsive woman would drive to work every morning and worry she had left the hair dryer on and it was going to burn down her house. So she’d drive back home to check that the hair dryer was off, then drive back to work, then worry that maybe she hadn’t really checked well enough, then drive back, and so on ten or twenty times a day. > It’s a pretty typical case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it was really interfering with her life. She worked some high-powered job – I think a lawyer – and she was constantly late to everything because of this driving back and forth, to the point where her career was in a downspin and she thought she would have to quit and go on disability. She wasn’t able to go out with friends, she wasn’t even able to go to restaurants because she would keep fretting she left the hair dryer on at home and have to rush back. She’d seen countless psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors, she’d done all sorts of therapy, she’d taken every medication in the book, and none of them had helped. > So she came to my hospital and was seen by a colleague of mine, who told her “Hey, have you thought about just bringing the hair dryer with you?” > And it worked. > She would be driving to work in the morning, and she’d start worrying she’d left the hair dryer on and it was going to burn down her house, and so she’d look at the seat next to her, and there would be the hair dryer, right there. And she only had the one hair dryer, which was now accounted for. So she would let out a sigh of relief and keep driving to work. It's a great essay overall. Link: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-made-for-man-not-man-for-the-categories/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-ma...

ddalex 8y ago
Somebody should dig out the SCP file about that damned hair dryer.
Jolter 8y ago
That's a much simpler fix than the one that sprung to my mind: Advise her to get rid of the hair dryer and only wash her hair in the evenings instead. The techie's fix would be to install a 10-minute timer on the outlet so she can be sure it doesn't keep running.
chasingthewind 8y ago
This is a great solution! Now I just have to figure out how to disconnect my gas range and put it in my car every day :)
- howard941 8y ago
  Point an IR-sensitive webcam at the range. Now I just have to figure out how to remember that I locked the front door when I forget to do the verbal "door locked, check" drill
  - pergadad 8y ago
    Do something new each day. A song, a gesture, a phrase. That makes then memory unique. Or just get a lock that closes itself...