The Secret Life of Alopecia

    All my life I have had unruly thick curly hair . As I have gotten older it has thinned a little but nothing most people would notice and it actually was kind of nice because it has made my hair a little less out of control. Nothing of course could have prepared me for the oh so not fun symptoms of alopecia areata.
     Not long after my brother passed away I noticed a quarter sized bald spot on the left side of my scalp. I know that I have a lot of hair to cover it up but that did  not make it any less upsetting. For a few weeks I used the anti inflammatory medication my dermatologist suggested to no avail . Even worse the bald spot spread. Unless you have experienced this you can't imagine how awful it is.
     Alopecia areata is often brought on by extreme stress. It is an autoimmune disease that tells your cells to attack your hair follicles and make you lose patches of hair. The sudden loss of my brother brought it on. One's hair grows back after alopecia areata but it can take awhile. Some people lose all of their hair from it and often there is more than one bald spot. In my case I have one large spot and two other smaller spots. The hair is now SLOWLY growing back but only due to the VERY painful injections  from my dermatologist.
        I have friends who laugh at me because my hair covers my bald spots. They  don't realize how unsettling alopecia is . Nothing like the fear of alopecia totalis to keep a person up at night . The worst part is that because stress can cause alopecia , worrying about it really does not help.
       I never felt too excited about covering my hair after marriage but in the condition I am in now it does not sound so bad !
       Men reading this probably don't feel bad for me but it really is worse for a woman to suffer hair loss than for a man just as being a short  woman is not as bad as being a height deficient male.
        I realize that this is not the worst ailment to suffer from. When a good friend's dad passed away she got shingles. Nonetheless, alopecia areata is no picnic.
       
     

Relief

     When one finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel its amazing. It almost seems unreal. There is a shroud of uncertainty thinking of what life afterward  will be like without this thorn,  but I know that it will definitely be better. There is no way it can't be. People say that change can happen in the blink of an eye and then nothing is ever the same again. In this case this change has taken many years to arrive. Relief is finally on the way. I feel better already.

      

Knitting Club to Lower Stress for Kids in Sderot - Defense/Security - News - Israel National News

    I love knitting and crocheting. It is said that knitting and crocheting decreases  stress levels and is good for one's memory. I guess this is why it is good for older people to knit.  In Sderot , Israel there is a knitting club for 12 year old girls which a  bat mitzvah girl from  (and her parents)  from the united states sponsored .  Now young girls can enjoy the joys of knitting while dealing with the stress of the rocket attacks ,Knitting Club to Lower Stress for Kids in Sderot - Defense/Security - News - Israel National News  I find this incredible.

when it comes down to it

when life get stressful  i make a point not to deal with stupid or annoying people because i am just too bogged down. often i wish that i was able to ignore these annoyances when i am not as stressed . perhaps avoiding these annoyances would prevent me from becoming too stressed in the first place. food for action.

melt down

sometimes i feel like my life is running on high speed and i cant seem to slow it down. i get up, rush to get ready for work. go to work. work is a high paced environment. i scramble to do errands after work. i rush to get together with friends. on days off im overbooked with social commitments. before i know it monday rolls around and i havent had more than five hours of sleep each night. when does it end? is it just the life of a new yorker or is this life in general? the economy is what it is , but i feel like im experiencing merry-go-round meltdown. need some change fast before its too late!

stREssEd

like most people i occasionally get insomnia. i know alot of people who are on ambien and sometimes its necessary, but i prefer to cure my insomnia another way. i have a few relaxation tapes that i find helpful. andrew weil has a few that are really good. he has one cd with breathing exercises. the idea is that when one is stressed , one doesnt always breath. also , if you can control your breathing and do different breathing exercises you can relieve stress. if i follow this cd before bed it helps me wind down and be able to sleep. this concept helps with migraines as well.when i get a migraine at work i go straight to the alleve bottle, but if im at home i try to do some breathing exercises and it goes away. andrew weil also has a sleep cd which is helpful as well. a woman named bellaruth naparstak also has some relaxation cds for sleep and stress reduction that are really good. i usually fall asleep before the cd ends. if i dont, at the very least i feel more relaxed.