a suggestion for u....
do ur hrs of brushing a day on only the non male pattern baldness part, the sides and the back, but not on the front and vertex. that way u fulfill ur strange Trichotillomania
but u dont rip out hairs.
but on the other hand, usually brushing although it does make some hairs fall out, these r hairs that have already detached from the root in the normal cycle, or the miniturization cycle, and would have fallen out anyway.
the same can be said for shampooing, the hairs that all seem to fall out at once, r detached and would fall out one by one if u didnt shampoo and pull them out all at once.
if u shampoo only once a week, then u will have 7 days worth of detached hairs sitting in the follicle, waiting to fall out. shampooing or brushing just makes them fall out at once, instead of one by one.
there is a point however when u brish or shampoo too much and ur pulling out perfectly attached hairs. this is when to worry. however they too will regrow in the normal cycle within 2 yrs.