What Is The Proper Pronunciation of Trichotillomania?
Don’t laugh.
When I first went to Google and searched my hair pulling disorder for the first time, I saw the word “Trichotillomania” and I had no clue how to pronounce it!
Our English here in America would almost make it look as though it says something totally different than how it’s actually said.
How Do You Say Trichotillomania?
It’s pronounced [trik-o-til´o-ma´ne-ah]. If you read English, it’s said, “trick” not “trike”.
Not a trike (tricycle) that a toddler would ride, but a trick that someone would play on Halloween. Make sense? Here’s a video to show you how to pronounce the word Trichotillomania. Now you can practice it before you say it to others.
If you’re having trouble with the pronunciation of Trichotillomania, you might try saying “hair pulling” instead? 👌
I had trouble with it at first only because the “Mania” at the end made it sound kind of scary to me before I knew anything about it.
What Does Trichotillomania Mean?
- Trich- is the hair portion of the word.
- Tillo – is to pull “habitual pulling”
- Mania – is rage, fury, insanity
Put them together and you get the word Trichotillomania. (nose picking has a similar ring to it)
The word trichotillomania looks a lot harder to say than it really is. That’s why I made the video.
Related Article: When Does Trichotillomania Occur?
“Mania” In Trichotillomania Does NOT Mean You’re Insane!
You are not insane.
Don’t label yourself crazy just because of the tail end of the word.
Medical terms always sound crazy to me anyway.
A lot of them derive from Greek words and there’s a lot more depth and meaning behind the language so it comes off sounding like “you’re nuts!” but you’re not!
When I first saw the “mania” there was no way I wanted to tell anyone about that.
But as I started blogging on this blog and getting to know others in the trichotillomania support groups online, it really wasn’t that scary.
I was simply happy that this hair pulling thing I did had a name and that there were other people who could relate to me.
I created my own group last year because I was looking for like-minded folks to be around who also had trichotillomania.
Once you know how to say the word trichotillomania, don’t be afraid of it, come out and join the rest of us and get support!
Support is a huge key in overcoming hair pulling!
