For
our next guest, it all started at the age of 6. It
becomes a new painful, secret addiction that many times
can go un-noticed for years. Listeners to our show
should now know what the word Trichotillomania is. Our
guest today knows about the hair pulling’s allure, shame
and isolation as he suffered from it for 45 years. We
have given you a teen’s point of view as well as a
woman’ point of view. Today, author Gary Hennerberg will
give us the male perspective of living with the
condition and talk about his book “Urges:
Hope and inspiration for people with trichotillomania
and other mysterious compulsive disorders”
Gary
began a lifetime of
hair pulling
at the age of six while growing up on farms along the
Nebraska and Kansas border. Gary has written the story
of his life, and how three primary approaches have
helped him cope with this mysterious compulsive disorder
in his book titled Urges.
The
Foreword to his book has been written by Christina
Pearson, Founding Director of the Trichotillomania
Learning Center.
You may
read the first chapter of his book on this website. In
this chapter, Gary describes his reflections about what
happened the day he began pulling hair. He has also
included a chapter outline of the 25 chapters of his
book.
His
lifelong passion is writing and singing. Gary is an
experienced writer, whose advertising copy appears in
millions of households every year via the mail, the web
and in print in some of America’s most prominent
magazines.
He is
also a singer and has performed in major concert halls
throughout the United States, Canada, England and
Scotland with his choral group. He sings bass, and his
regular rehearsals keep his distinctive voice in great
shape to be the narrator of Doses of Comfort.
There is
no known cure for trichotillomania. But he now realizes
that by writing and recording messages of comfort, he
can blend his writing talents and voice talents to
fulfill a larger mission and purpose.
Doses of
Comfort is appropriate for
teenagers
and will be of inspiration to loved ones and
parents
of children with trich.
