Cause, cure and treatment

"The cause of the condition is unknown, as is the cure, which makes it very difficult to treat"

I have often likened hair-pulling to nail-biting. I do both, and the similarities are numerous:

I do them both more when stressed or very bored
if I feel or see long nails or eyelashes/brows I want to get rid of them
I feel a certain sense of relief or release when I do either
both activities have become very habitual for me

Yet, one is completely accepted as a bad habit, and the other is seen as a disease to be 'cured'.

I've never heard of someone taking drugs in the hope it will stop them biting their nails, or even suggesting that there may be, or even needs to be, a 'cure' for nail-biting.

Why shouldn't I bite my nails and pull out my hair?

The only reason I have found is one of totally superficial aesthetics, forced on us by the consensus of our society that beauty is having long luscious hair and nails.

I know that realistically, this is the society we live in and we have to be able to get along in our life, and I know that people have all different views on what hair-pulling is.

The danger of calling it a condition with a possible cure, however, can leave us in a very tricky situation, and if we're wrong, if there is no such cure, then we're left chasing something we can never find.

If you want a 'cure', a real cure, that really exists, then what you're looking for is acceptance, the only real way to escape the nightmare that many hair-pullers experience.

I know this is a tall ask, and it can take many years to find it, but if you decide to search for this, then at least you can be sure that you're searching for something that exists.