I've been told it is a psychotic coping mechanism - got really bad - more obsessive after my fiancé was injured in Iraq 8 years. I don't pull it from the roots - I break the hair and split the split ends. I've also been told it could be symbolic of a need to "break away" from something or someone. I will do it for hours and basically seem to dissociate - my thoughts are not usually whole - very strange. I've also been told I have complex PTSD with dissociation and something else that I don't remember that it could be related to. I have half the hair I used to and, obviously, I can't grow it out. Once I start, it seems impossible to stop, even when I'm consciously telling myself to or it starts to cause anxiety - I don't have many other sympton of OCD, but I don't if it could be that, but for some reason, I feel like I can't stop.