Olivia Munn Reveals Hair-Pulling Disorder Started While Dating ‘Star Trek’ Star

Olivia Munn is one of the rare celebrities who has consistently been incredibly honest and forthcoming about the struggles she has faced in her life, whether it’s been her breast cancer diagnosis or her use of hypnotherapy to deal with her OCD-related disorder, trichotillomania.

Trichotillomania is in the “obsessive-compulsive and related disorders” section of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” It’s characterized by hair-pulling, affecting areas such as the head, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc. For Munn, it was ripping out her eyelashes.

On the June 30th podcast episode of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” Munn explains that an incident while dating Chris Pine was the trigger for her trichotillomania.

She Admits She Began Pulling Out Her Eyelashes Over Critical Comments

“There’s a sensation of, like, for me, is… ‘Oh, this eyelash feels like it’s going to come out, or, even though it’s not, and then when you pull it, there was a quick second of pain,” Munn told Shepard about her experience with trichotillomania. “And then there’s a satisfaction, and then immediate regret.”

She recalled the first time it happened. “So there was a paparazzi shot of he [Chris Pine] and I, and it was the first time I was, like, in the tabloids,” she said.

“So I’d left Chris’s apartment,” she continued. “And there were paparazzi outside his house, cuz he had been in ‘Star Trek’ and all this, and I didn’t recognize it.”

After the photos went public, she started reading the comments, which she immediately regretted.”This is back in the day, so like, you don’t even know at the time, you don’t know that it’s bad,” she admitted. “And they were like, ‘I think she set this up. Look, who’s carrying a clutch during the day?'”

“That began my trichotillomania,” she added.

Olivia Munn Has Shared Where Her OCD Comes From

“The Newsroom” actress has talked in the past about her experience with OCD and anxiety, and has been an advocate to help people understand the difference between OCD and being a neat freak.

“My OCD comes from a place of needing to feel safe,” she previously told Self (via USA Today). “I had it growing up, having had a little bit of a tumultuous upbringing, moving around a lot with a mixed family with five kids.”

Munn and Pine are still friendly and chat when they see each other. “He is amazing,” Munn gushed. “We were recently at, like, the ‘SNL50,’ and we were in the airport lounge together. And it was so great to catch up, and he’s just the best.”