How can overthinking leads to hair loss?
Does overthinking cause hair loss?
Imagine going about your daily routine, such as having a shower, using a comb or brush, or even just running your fingertips over your head, and discovering the frightening realization that your hair is thinning. Finding heaps in your shower drain or on the hairbrush might be startling, but it is made worse when you test your hair and it comes out in batches. But it's important to take a step back and consider your current circumstances and how you are handling them before your mind jumps to the worst-case scenario or not handling them. It's possible that a time of extreme stress or anxiety contributed to your hair loss, however, the good news is it is reversible.
Everybody sheds in a "normal" manner. We notice wisps or strands on our clothing, in the drain, or on our pillowcases. The natural shedding of the scalp causes hair loss. There are several causes of hair loss, including friction, ageing, dietary changes, and follicles reaching the end of their life cycles. However, our thoughts turn to the "what ifs" when the hair starts to come out in a volume that is both obvious and disturbing. Although natural shedding is typical, when the hair loss gets more severe, it is frequently linked to stress and anxiety. The body's response to stressful, perilous, or strange events is anxiety. Despite the fact that everyone occasionally feels worried, people with anxiety disorders frequently succumb to the same causes. A person with an anxiety condition may experience such discomfort that it hinders their ability to go about their daily lives.
Anxiety's impacts might show up psychologically and physically. The most typical physical signs can include rashes, sweating, migraines, tension headaches, nausea, and uncontrollable muscular movements. One adverse effect that is not frequently highlighted is anxiety and hair loss. Due to the fact that anxiety is so rarely acknowledged when discussing mental health issues nowadays, most individuals do not link anxiety to hair loss. However, anxiety can impact your hair, and when it does, it can be tremendously upsetting. Accepting the aesthetic as well as the concerns about our fundamental health and wellness are challenging. This increases the pressure and creates a difficult cycle to break. Anxiety is not the cause of hair loss; rather, stress spurred on by everyday problems can worsen over time if left untreated. As is generally known, anxiety and stress have a significant negative impact on many aspects of life and wellbeing.
Stress can have an effect on our physical and mental well-being, sleep patterns, social interactions, and even our biological development. When humans were at their most primitive, they employed stress and those associated feelings to protect oneself. Your body would trigger a "panic response" when it sensed something was amiss as a method to warn you of an imminent threat, whether it came from a person or an animal. Hormones are released by our body when it perceives a threat. It sets off an inflammatory reaction that can affect everything from our immediate emotional state to our long-term emotional, psychological, and physical health. Nowadays, tension is not caused by a wooly mammoth looking you down or the life-threatening nature of food searching. Instead, our priorities may come from the person working next to you in the cubicle, the rude person on the freeway, or even just the enormous to-do list that never gets finished. And arguably one of the worst offenders today? The internet. It is nearly difficult to avoid the incredible sickness of trying to live in a FOMO society, trying to make sense of what is being thrown at us, and how we interpret the complex network of social contacts. It has also been linked, in both adults and kids, to elevated levels of anxiety and depression.
Types of hair fall due to overthinking:
When clumps of hair may be readily brushed out or pulled out and are related to stress and worry, two forms of hair loss are frequently present.
- Areata alopecia Large clumps of hair may abruptly and mysteriously fall out, leaving patches of baldness. In other areas of the body, some people may lose hair. Even while the hair will grow back, ongoing stress and anxiety might cause the hair loss to continue, resulting in various bald patches.
- Telogen Fluorescence (TE). The second most typical type of hair loss is this. In essence, it happens when the number of hair follicles that produce hair changes. Hair loss results from a decrease in the number of hair follicles that are actively growing hair and an increase in dormant hair follicles. When TE is present, the hair on top of the scalp may thin more than the hair on the sides or rear of the scalp.
The lack of essential nutrients needed for hair growth is another way that stress and anxiety may result in hair loss. Muscle tension, skin oil production, and the number of hormones the body processes can all rise as a result of stress and worry. The body may use up less of the resources necessary for hair development as it attempts to deal with these problems. Additionally, sebum can block the pores on the scalp, which would prevent hair development.
The majority of hair loss will occur six to twelve weeks following a traumatic event due to the hair's development cycle. However, if the stressor has an effect on us, it may continue to exist for months after the trigger event or events. It can often be challenging to diagnose it as stress-related for this reason. We occasionally experience those periods without necessarily connecting them to the present.
Takeaway
For individuals in recovery, the subject of anxiety is vital. Our ability to manage stress and anxiety is essential to how we cope on a daily basis. While traditional sources of medication are no longer an option, it's critical to find other methods of stress relief for hair fall control.
