trichotillomania and adhd

[litlcntrygrl]

Is there any relation between the two? Are ADHDers more prone to it, or did I just get lucky and get a child with moderate to severe ADHD AND this?

For the past week or two, I've noticed my 9 year old son pulling at his hair. When I would say something about it, he would tell me it felt like there was something in it..."food or something". On more than one occasion I would tell him "Son, I JUST combed your hair, there's nothing in it!" I never noticed he was actually pulling it out until the after school teacher mentioned it today. I've had him in after school care for three weeks now, b/c although I can have him with me at work, I can't give him the attention he needs and he would end up not doing his homework or lying about it. I decided to put him in the after school care program his school offers, and it has really helped him. My husband has been picking him up, since I'm usually at work or on my way to school when it's time for him to get out, but I had to pay them today so I went. She asked me if he had a habit of pulling his hair, and I told her that I had noticed it, but that he had just started it. Then she told me he was actually pulling it out, and showed me a bald spot on the back of his head. She said she hadn't noticed it until today. It's a spot somewhere between the size of a nickel and a quarter.

On top of that, he recently stopped seeing his behavioral specialist because the particular medicaid health plan he's on couldn't work out an agreement with the largest hospital in the area and therefore that hospital is no longer accepting that health plan, except in emergencies. I called his family doctor, who he and his brother have been seeing since they were babies, and they said they would continue to accept it. I talked it over with the behavioral specialist and she said his family doctor could assume the ADHD med prescribing duties, so I decided to stick with him. So when I called to make an appointment they told me that they weren't going to be accepting his insurance plan much longer, because the doctor was having a hard time finding any specialists to refer patients to that weren't affiliated with the hospital. So now I have to call the behavioral specialists, find out what health plans they do take, educate myself on those plans and choose the best one for my children, make an appointment for him to see the behavioral specialist again, THEN find a family doctor or pediatrician that accepts the plan I choose, and I have to do all this before he loses anymore hair!

I'm sorry, I'm probably rambling at this point, but I am so ready to just give up. If his father was any kind of parent I would tell him he was going to have to live with him for a while for the sake of MY mental health. But, alas, his father is a horrible parent and Chris doesn't even want to spend every other weekend over there, much less live with him. I don't know why the hair pulling bothers me so much, but when I saw that bald spot on my baby's head....I just wanted to cry! I still feel like crying. I guess it's just a culmination of everything, I don't know, but I think I'm going to bed and hope that I can be calmer about everything after a good night's sleep.