Olivia Munn’s character in HBO’s new show “Newsroom” readily admits that she isn’t the best when it comes to social skills and is better equipped at handling economics than setting up co-workers on a date.
In real life, Munn suffers from social anxiety and has trouble meeting new people. That anxiety also leads her to pluck her eyelashes out, which is a disorder known as trichotillomania, according to the New York Daily News.
“I don’t bite my nails, but I rip out my eyelashes,” she recently told the publication. “It doesn’t hurt, but it’s really annoying. Every time I run out of the house, I have to stop and pick up a whole set of fake eyelashes.”
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, trichotillomania is hair loss that comes from urges to pull or twist hair until it breaks off. Those that suffer from the disorder may also pluck eyebrows and body hair. It effects only 4 percent of the population.
The condition is four times more common in woman and it usually begins before 17 years old.
“They may spend hours in front of a mirror in these very odd postures trying to locate that one hair that they know is there that they feel doesn’t belong,” Dr. Nancy Keuthen told ABC News.
Munn is now becoming a household name because of her work in “Newsroom,” and is starring in a new movie, “The Babymakers,” which is slated to hit theaters Aug. 3.
She was also in the hit male stripper movie, “Magic Mike.”
