Hey guys! It’s been ages, but welcome back to my blog! I’m coming back on here to write this blog post about body focused repetitive behaviors, aka BRFB’s. Lots of autistics, including myself struggle with BFRB’s, but before I begin, I want to address why I’ve been gone on here for so long. I still want to do autism advocacy, as I’m still doing it, but not as much. When I posted every week on my blog, I was unemployed, so I had lots more time, and energy to write stuff, and post. Work has taken up a lot of my life, as I need to make my own money for my wants and needs, and not mooch off my parents, or disability benefits anymore. I will try to post as much as I can, but please don’t ask me when I’m posting. It stresses me out, and it’s annoying.
Anyone can struggle with BRFB’s, but it’s VERY common in the autistic community, as this can be our ways to stim, (week 31). “Body focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) is a general term for a group of related disorders that includes hair pulling, skin picking, and nail biting, affected at least 5% of the population. These behaviors are not habits or tics; rather, they are complex disorders that cause people to repeatedly touch their hair and body in ways that can result in physical damage”. -bfrb.org This sums it up accurately. Especially for me. I have a few different BFRB’s. I’ve talked about this on social media before, but I have trichotillomania, which is a hair pulling disorder, and ironically, when I was looking up stuff for BFRB’s to put in this post, hair pulling was one of the top ones to come up. I used to be confident in my hair, until my students called me creepy, and whispered, and pointed at my hair. It’s all patchy, and looks ugly most of the time, which is your answer to a burning question on why I always wear a hat. My students ask me about my hats, and I tell them that “it keeps my head warm”, but little do they, or anyone else know that it’s a much more deep rooted issue than that. (No pun intended) BFRB’s are different than self harming behaviors, like cutting. These are rooted from anxiety, boredom, temperament, family stress factors, etc, or don’t have a trigger at all. BFRB’s also don’t have anything to do with OCD. They have some symptoms in common, but they’re different. Most people who engage in BFRB’s do it to “relieve stress” (relieve stress in quotations bc I just get more stressed when I see the damage I did to my hair), the sensation we get from the bfrb is very satisfying to us, as most of our stimming behaviors are. So that’s about it for this post. It’s short, but I hope it gets to the point. Thank you so much for reading, and still supporting me and my blog, even though it isn’t consistent anymore. Click the links below to learn more about BFRB’s and don’t forget to follow @embracingmysuperpower on Instagram! https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/ss/slideshow-understanding-body-focused-repetitive-behavior https://www.bfrb.org/learn-about-bfrbs https://www.bfrb.org/learn-about-bfrbs/treatment/causes-of-bfrbs
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