Wow! All Join Hands week and our screening in San Francisco is coming up fast. We our got posters from TLC the other week, but we still need to figure our when to go out and put them up around town. But today I worked on a draft of the email I'm going to send out to friends and family. I wanted to post it here, just in case it might be help to others writing similar invitations.

Hey there,

The first week in October is National Trichotillomania Awareness Week. I know this because I have trichotillomania myself, which means that I compulsively pull out my hair from my scalp and beard in times of anxiety, or when I'm relaxing, or sometimes for no reason that I'm aware of.

While many other people develop trich at a much earlier age, trich can be triggered for people at any age, and I began pulling out my hair about 10 years ago. Like most people I assumed I was the only person with this disorder and was very ashamed and secretive about it. A few year back, when I was still pulling for hours at a time, feeling powerless to stop but all the time denying in my own mind that it was a problem, I lived in a fairly constant state of anxiety that people would notice the largish bald patches on my head. Finally, after struggling and trying to fight the urges for years, I came to the realization that there MUST be some sort of information on the Internet about this strange habit of mine. I found out it had a name, Trichotillomania, and that it was fairly common, affect about 2-4% of the population. I also learned about the Trichotillomania Learnig Center and found out there was a support group for other trich suffers right here in San Francisco. Going to that first meeting was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it absolutely changed my life. With the support of these beautiful people, and nurturing my own Buddhist meditation practice, I've been able to make remarkable progress along the road to recovery and go for longer periods being virtually pull free.

Part of my recovery has been braking down the shame I associated with my trich and talking to more openly about this issue. Maybe I've shared with you about the my trich already, maybe this is the first time I'm bringing it to your attention. Either way, even though it's had a severe impact on my life and the lives of many, trichotillomania remains a largely unknown and little researched phenomenon. So to help ourselves and other trichsters, the members of TLC decide to organize the first ever National Awareness Week this year. Across the nation, TLC members will be spreading the world about trich and the serious impact it has on people's lives.

Here in San Francisco, my support group will be hosting a screening of the documentary on trich, Bad Hair Life, on Saturday October 7th at the San Francisco Buddhist Center in the Mission. This amazing and emotional movie follows the filmmaker's own journey in learning more about her own hair pulling and the lives of all sorts of people affected by trich. If you can make it, I'd love to see you there. And if can't come and you're curious about this documentary, I'm more then happy to lend out my copy. Also, the TLC website http://www.trich.org is an amazing resource.

Bad Hair Life screening followed by a social hour
Saturday October 7th, 2006, 4-6pm
The San Francisco Buddhist Center
37 Bartlett Street
San Francisco, CA
Suggested donation $5 - $15 per person - donations go to the Trichotillomania Learning Center