Stop scratching!

If you have atopic dermatitis, the above sentence is one you're probably used to hearing. Love it or hate it, I doubt that you can stay indifferent to it.

Let's start at the beginning. As I've mentioned before on this blog, it truly is unhealthy to scratch, as it aggravates the skin and worsens your condition. Those are the bare facts.

However, the flip side of the coin is that it's extremely hard to avoid scratching altogether. First of all you might be doing so unconciously, and even if you're aware of it - well, it friggin' itches, doesn't it?

So how the heck are you supposed not to scratch?

It's an open question. There's no real solution, with stupid ones including parents tying their kids' hands (was that an urban legend or the real deal? hmm) through things I've mentioned before like meditation and self-hypnosis, and hand-occupying hobbies to take your mind off scratching.

But let me tell you one very personal thing. I, for one, absolutely cannot stand it when people tell me to stop scratching. So "here's a plea, from my heart to you" - don't tell me to stop. I'll stop when I'm good and ready to.

There and back again

It's been nearly a year since I posted last, my apologies.

I had focused most of my atopic-facing energies on opening a group for atopic dermatitis in Israel. We had some measured success with two face-to-face meetings of adult patients of atopic. But then we ran into a brick wall... nothing specific just got stuck. The organization we were working with got shut down and that took the wind out of our sails.

Anyway, I'm back to the blog and we'll see where it takes me. Thanks for listening.