This post contains discussion of mental health issues.
You probably didn’t know this, but Olivia Munn lives with a condition called trichotillomania. The Mayo Clinic defines it as a “mental health condition” that “involves frequent, repeated and irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body.”
During a recent appearance on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Olivia revealed that her trichotillomania presents itself as a compulsion to pull out her own eyelashes. “There’s a sensation,” she said. “It’s probably not even real, but I’ll feel like, ‘Oh, this eyelash feels like it’s gonna come out,’ even though it’s not. And then when you pull it, there was a quick second of pain. And then there’s a satisfaction and then immediate regret.”
Olivia then revealed that the condition first presented itself after seeing a photo of herself in the tabloids with actor Chris Pine, who she briefly dated in 2009-2010.
“So there was a paparazzi shot of he and I, and it was the first time I was in the tabloids,” she said, explaining that, before the pic was taken, she’d been wearing “the ugliest dress” that the costume team at The Daily Show could provide for an event that she was attending.
“They found this blue old prom dress with big pom poms on the side,” she recalled. And I was like, ‘Oh, wonder if I can make it into the worst best dressed list?’ And then I did! I couldn’t believe it worked. The fact that I was like, they know who I am to even put me on this list. It was very exciting.”
While wearing the outfit, Olivia said that she left Chris Pine’s apartment, which is when the photo in question was taken. “There were paparazzi outside his house because he had been in Star Trek and all this,” she said. “And they caught photos of me. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And when it got out, one of my friends was like, ‘Hey, you’re dating Chris Pine.’”
Since the photo was taken in the internet age, Olivia had the option of doing the “horrible thing” of reading comments under the photo — which is exactly what she did. “They were like, ‘I think she set this up. Who’s carrying a clutch during the day?'” she said. “That began my trichotillomania.”
You can listen to the entire interview here.
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