I honestly had never heard about Alopecia and would never have expected this would happen to me. I am hoping that by putting some of this into words it might help me a little to deal with it. I am married and have 2 children and a great support system but of course no one knows what this is like and although they try it has been very hard for me. I am a strong person, always have been the rock in my family. I tend to hold things in and I know thats not good for me but its something I have done my whole life and is a hard habit to break. Maybe putting it into writing will help me get it off my shoulders and out of my mind. It all started on Sunday 9/26, my scalp felt really really itchy, although this has never happened to me before I have had excema, dry skin, psoriasis issues for a few years so, I really did not think too too much about it, I live in New England...its fall and usually I begin to have issues in the fall so thats what I thought it was. Monday my scalp was still very itchy so I had my husband check it out for me, he didn't see anything abnormal and thought maybe I was freaking myself out. Tuesday night still itchy so I thought I would do a home scalp moisturizing treatment and this is when I noticed a half dollar sized patch of hair missing on the right side of my head. My hair is long, I do lose some hair but did not notice any unusual amount like this. I care about my appearance, I am a professional and take pride in my looks. I spend 20+ minutes doing my hair before work every morning how could I have missed this ? Obviously I was freaked out and called my Dr's office for an appointment on 9/29 and went to the lab for some bloodwork. I have under active Thyroid so I was thinking my medication dosage might be off and that was what was causing this even though it has never happened before. Well my bloodwork came back ok so that ruled that out as the cause and my Dr referred me to a dermatologist, she did offer that it was possibly Alopecia or Psoriasis and set me up with my appointment. Of course I googled both and pretty much knew before the derm appointment that this was not Psoriasis but waited for confirmation. Before I made it to the derm appt on 10/6 two more bald spots showed up and my hair keeps falling out at a rapid pace. Finally the appointment day arrives and the derm confirms that it is Alopecia, he asked a lot of questions about stress to which I feel like and had no more than any other normal person until this started happening, I mean nothing significant has happened in my life other than normal day to day stressors. At this point am I stressed well yes every day I am losing little pieces of myself, my hair is everywhere but on my head and I am really freaked out. I know this is not life or death and I keep telling myself that but its still upsetting. He tells me not to worry, that everything will be ok (although I don't see how) gives me cream to put on and sends me on my way. I am trying at this point to remain positive that this will help but every day more and more hair falls out, I now have several bald spots on my head and it doesnt appear to be slowing down at all. I went to my hairdresser last Saturday and had a complete meltdown, I really felt bad for her that she had to deal with me in that condition but I guess that was a breaking point for me. I had her cut my hair (for what might be the last time for a while....if ever) and walked out of there feeling pretty down. I hate the way my hair looks but I'm thinking maybe less stress on my hair will help, couldn't hurt right ? Well its now been 5 days since then and I am still losing my hair at a rapid rate, I have so many bare spots at this point I'm not even sure what to. Fortunately for now I have been performing a Donald Trump act with whats left to cover up as much as I can but see that this is not going to be a possibility soon. I mean what is best ? Wait it out ? Be done with it and shave it all off ? Its sooo depressing and I don't know how to get over this. I made an appointment today with a Wig specialist, maybe this will help, I just don't know. I am feeling pretty down. I work in a large call center managing 20 sales associates and have been having a really hard time performing my daily functions with this constantly on my mind and I don't want them to see me like this. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, words of wisdom please feel free to share as I am open to anything at this point.