Many of us unconsciously touch our faces with our hands dozens of times a day. Dermatologists recommend learning self-control and getting rid of this habit, and you should only touch your face with your hands when washing your face. And there are several reasons for this.

Ingress of germs

Millions of bacteria accumulate on our hands, many of which can harm our body. Once on the face through touch, they can cause rashes, herpes, allergic reactions and other dermatological problems. Due to dirt getting into the pores, they become clogged. As a result, pimples and redness appear on the skin.

Deterioration of skin condition

Those with problem skin should especially be careful about touching their face with their hands. Dermatologists say that the condition of facial skin worsens with constant touching. One of the reasons for the appearance of blackheads is acne bacteria, which easily get on the face from the hands. In addition, such a habit can lead to scars subsequently appearing at the site of the acne.

Formation of wrinkles

Cosmetologists also do not recommend propping up your face with your hands: this position causes folds to form on the skin, which over time turn into deep wrinkles. In addition, this is fraught with sagging cheeks. Also, you should not wipe your face too vigorously with a towel; it is better to gently blot it. This way you will protect your skin from injury.

Eye infection

In addition to your face, you should not touch your eyes with your hands. However, after scratching your face, you can also rub your eyes unnoticed. Infections easily spread from dirty hands to the organs of vision, settling on the lower and upper eyelids. Those who wear contact lenses should be especially careful, because these people have to touch their eyes every day. We also have to do this intentionally in other cases, for example, to remove a speck of dust or an eyelash. Washing your hands thoroughly with soap is the minimum that should be done before such a procedure. It is better to clean the eye completely with a napkin or cotton swab.

How to get rid of the habit?

Stopping constantly touching your face with your hands will require self-control. In order not to forget, you should constantly occupy your hands with something: knitting, squeezing an expander. You should keep your hands in your pockets while walking. At work, you can put a sticker on the wall or monitor reminding you not to touch your face, or ask your colleagues to reprimand you every time you involuntarily reach for your face.

A more radical method is to wear gloves on your hands. It's simply uncomfortable to touch your face in them. It will also help to stick strips of plaster on your fingers or wrap them with a bandage.

What else causes bacteria to get on your face?

In addition to your hands, various household items are sources of bacteria that get on your face. First of all, these are mobile phones, pillowcases, and makeup brushes. Therefore, hygiene involves not only frequent hand washing, but also changing bed linen once a week, washing brushes and sponges after use, and periodically wiping the phone with an alcohol wipe.

9 proven methods

1. Take a close-up photo of your face just after you've thoroughly squashed your pimples. The more terrible the photo, the better. Now print this photo and hang it directly on the mirror. Before your husband comes home from work, the photo can be removed so as not to traumatize his fragile male psyche. Now, when you go to the mirror and suddenly decide to suppress your pimples, take a closer look at the photo. Surely you won’t want to spoil your face like that again.

2. Read various horror stories about how a small squeezed pimple led to huge inflammation. The scarier the stories you find, the better. You just need to open the Internet and enter the desired query. Don't forget to also look at photos of people who have already brought their faces to a terrible state. Look at all this “beauty” for a long time, and then imagine that any pimple you try to squeeze is potentially dangerous and could easily lead to such horror. Are you scared? Great! So you are already on the way to quitting your bad habit.

3. Trim all your fingernails as short as possible. Well, now you don’t have anything to squeeze out pimples with. While you are weaning yourself from this bad habit, trim your nails regularly to keep them very short. And at the same time, hide away all kinds of files and other objects that you can use instead of nails in order to squeeze out the hated pimple. It is better to sacrifice the beauty of your manicure in order to get rid of the mania for squeezing pimples.

4. Put away all small pocket mirrors, and try to avoid wall mirrors altogether. The less you look in the mirror now, the better, because after looking in it, you can again discover something that needs to be “urgently squeezed out.” It’s better not to look in the mirror at all without urgent need and don’t tempt yourself.

5. Make it so you don't feel pressured. No matter how trivial it may sound, in order to stop squeezing pimples, you just need to get rid of them completely. When you don’t have skin problems, there will automatically be no need to look for some kind of flaw on your face and try to eliminate it. Start paying great attention to cleansing your facial skin, buy the necessary cosmetics. One of the most effective home remedies is washing with oatmeal. The procedure is simple: pour a tablespoon of oatmeal flakes with a small amount of water so that the flakes soften a little and use this mixture instead of a scrub. However, keep in mind that in the first week of using this product, acne may become even larger as the oatmeal draws out all the dirt from the pores. But if you endure this period, you will then be rewarded with beautiful, clean and matte skin.

6. Pay attention to your nervous system. How strange it may seem, but the habit of squeezing pimples usually appears in those who have problems with the nervous system. You've probably noticed that when you're very nervous, sometimes you have an unbearable desire to squeeze something out. If you notice this in yourself, then be careful, because you are on the way to real nervousness. Try to avoid stress and become calmer. You can drink motherwort or valerian tincture for 10 days. And when you feel that you are starting to get nervous, do something with your hands. For example, you can buy a special hand-held exercise machine for stress relief in the form of a small rubber ball that you need to constantly squeeze.

7. Have someone keep an eye on you. If you cannot control yourself, then ask someone to watch you. As soon as your hands reach to your face for the next pimple that has popped up, let a loved one pull you back.

8. Organize a system of fines for not restraining yourself and starting to squeeze pimples. Moreover, it is not necessary that these be monetary fines, or rather, it is even completely undesirable. The fact is that you can easily get used to the fact that you have been “fined” again and have to put a small amount into the “fine” piggy bank. Soon you will stop being afraid of these fines, because in fact, the money still remains with you; you are fining yourself. We enjoyed squeezing out pimples, threw the fine into the piggy bank, “bought off” ourselves and forgot until next time. There is a very simple and effective way out of this situation: perform some action or exercise as a fine. For example, make it a rule that for every pimple you pop, you must do 10 push-ups. When the next morning all your muscles in your body hurt from training, you probably won’t want to repeat this experience again. The main thing here is not to give yourself any concessions.

9. Photo of the ideal. Find and print a photo of a beautiful girl with perfect skin, only it is very important that the photo has not been processed in Photoshop and that the girl does not have several layers of foundation on her. The skin should be perfect on its own. Otherwise, if the model is heavily “plastered”, you will simply say: “Just think, I can do that too! Now I’m just going to become a tombstone and I’ll become even better!” But looking at natural, healthy and smooth skin, you will already want to live up to this ideal, and for this you will have to stop squeezing your pimples and start taking care of your face.

You can stop squeezing pimples if you want. In fact, it is not at all as difficult as it might seem at first glance. You just need to gather all your willpower into a fist and promise yourself to get rid of this bad habit, which greatly spoils your skin and harms your beauty.

Hello. My name is Victoria, I'm 25 years old, I'm married. I have a good job and a loving family. I have been suffering from “my own hands” for three years now. When I have nothing to do or when I’m very nervous because of a quarrel with my husband or conflicts at work, while I’m at home alone and waiting for my husband to get home from work, or when there’s no one in my office at work, I start looking at my face in the mirror and looking for flaws. As a result, I find small black dots or small bumps and crush them, and I go all over my face until it turns into one huge wound, then I stop, my hands are shaking and then the realization comes that I am a terrible person and that I am doing something terrible to myself. Next comes the process of healing the wounds, during this period I apply thick foundation and avoid glances, I am ashamed to look into people’s eyes, ashamed in front of my parents and husband... It’s difficult for me to communicate, I become angry and withdrawn. Then everything repeats itself. This continues for three years. I tried to figure out my problem on my own, I thought that maybe this was a way to relieve tension, I wanted to replace it with something else, for example, drawing or knitting, but only this helps me relieve tension and at the same time emotionally kill myself... It’s a pity that I can’t stop , just tell yourself “stop”. Well, I squeezed out one or two and that’s it, no, I have to plow my whole face and destroy it. I also thought maybe it was like a bad habit... At school I bit my nails, and then I was terribly ashamed, because... The girls at school looked at my biting in bewilderment... At some point I realized that I wanted beautiful nails and stopped biting. But here I can’t and that’s it. From a small bump on the skin, which is not visible at all, I can make a wound with a diameter of 1-2 cm and after that there will still be a hole on the skin... What scares me in this situation is not so much the appearance of my face after three years of intense self-destruction (although this is also scary), how much my emotional state and the absolute lack of willpower to somehow cope with it scares me. Moral and volitional attitudes no longer help. I don't know what to do. I want to go to a psychologist, but I don’t know how to find a good specialist. And the problem is very delicate... And my husband also knows that I pick, I told him, he always scolds me, but it doesn’t help... Tell me what to do?

Answers from psychologists

Hello, Vika!

The condition you described is very reminiscent of obsessive behavior. Typically, such actions are needed in order to cope with a feeling of strong tension or anxiety due to a serious internal conflict in a person’s soul.

In your case, the mechanism at work for reducing anxiety is through the obsessive action of squeezing out pimples. In fact, anxiety accompanies our entire lives. And a person learns to overcome it, even in childhood. There are constructive ways to overcome this. And there are less successful ones. Some smoke, some drink alcohol. The baby may suck his thumb, reducing anxiety through pleasure and a symbolic return to the safety of infancy. Some people bite their nails or pull out their hair. This is overcoming anxiety through auto-aggression.

Your pimple squeezing belongs precisely to this category of obsessive actions and with aggression directed not externally, but towards oneself. It is difficult to cope with obsessions on your own, since the reasons lie deep in the unconscious.

Your habit of “picking your face” has a specific function: it reduces the level of negative emotions through auto-aggressive actions. Trying to fight this habit, you increase your level of anxiety, and, therefore, since the habit itself arose precisely to reduce this anxiety, the need for obsessive actions intensifies. A vicious circle.

What should I do? It is necessary to understand the unconscious motives of your behavior in order to resolve the conflict and find another, healthier way to relieve anxiety. This can be achieved through psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Best regards, Oksana.

Matashkova Oksana Valerievna, psychologist Almaty

Good answer 5 Bad answer 4

Hello, Vika. What is happening is absolutely self-destructive behavior aimed at knowing that you are not interesting, boring, not full-fledged, bad, no one needs, not beautiful. These beliefs, apparently, have been deeply embedded in you since childhood. Moreover, you accumulate hidden tension, dissatisfaction with others, which, perhaps, even because of how old you are, you consider habitual and do not notice. And it is strictly forbidden to accumulate tension and irritability in yourself. From this, people even begin to get sick. Both of these areas are necessary research and work through with a psychologist. Nothing will change on its own. As soon as you learn to boldly say the word No, and also feel valuable and interesting within yourself, all symptoms will disappear, any irritation will be spoken out and you will find harmony in life. And your face will stop bothering you. Because that you have accepted yourself as attractive and feminine. Contact me, I am also at your service.

Karataev Vladimir Ivanovich, psychologist Volgograd

Good answer 8 Bad answer 2

Hello Vika.

It seems that your case is associated with a very high degree of anxiety, tension and the inability to manage all this. As far as I understood correctly, amplification occurs when something goes wrong or situations occur without preparation. Isn't it?

Vic's neurotic state may be associated with childhood, when there may have been moments associated with strong fear of a significant person or severe fright. This needs to be investigated and only then removed.

Vika seems to have a vulnerable part inside you that is scared and worried; a part that is ashamed and a part that then gets angry at it all.

In face-to-face work, you can always contact each part if the client wishes. Ask what she needs, what is missing, what she wants to tell us about...

This is joint therapeutic work using methods acceptable to a particular person: sand therapy, process work, constellation work with figures. What suits...

Vika, I also heard that you write about self-destruction and anxiety about your emotional state, and if we were working in person, I would ask the question:

"What could happen to you? What are you so afraid of?" - think about it and maybe some answers will come for you.

Vic's condition is a bit protracted, but that doesn't mean it can't be resolved. Everything can be resolved if the person wishes. You just need to really want to help yourself and, if possible, take the “bold” first step towards healing. You should at least see a therapist. Only then can something be done for you.

I wish you Vika integrity and peace of mind!

With respect to you, Tatyana Kushnirenko

Good answer 2 Bad answer 0

Dear girls and men, if you suffer from facial skin problems, then most likely for this reason you are reading this article. Today’s article is a motivator and the first step towards learning how to get rid of acne, pimples, post-acne, redness and other skin problems once and for all.

Notice where your hands are now?

It’s not surprising if it’s on your face: you might be resting your chin on your hand, scratching your forehead or neck, or maybe picking your ears.

All you need to remember is that Don't touch your face with your hands!

Why? You ask.

In fact, scientists have long proven (just think about it!) we touch our face more than 27 times an hour! And for an 8-hour working day?! It's scary to imagine, but not difficult to calculate. Unfortunately, we often do this unconsciously.

Many of those who read our article about, write to us and admit that they suffer from this illness. We really do sometimes lose track of time when we sit in front of the mirror and look at our faces, looking for something to pick at or pluck.

It is a pity that such a simple rule is not taught at school. But it is teenagers who are most susceptible to this habit.

What does frequent touching of our face lead to?

• Infection. Herpes. Dermatitis. We can easily carry all these unpleasant things in our arms. At lunch, in a cafe, we counted out the money without giving it to the cashier and now we are reaching for the face. After walking the dog and returning home, we rush to update our news feed on social networks and, of course, hang out there for an hour. Where are our hands? They pick at my forehead again. And we keep our phone on public transport, at school, at work, and while rocking a child. It’s unlikely that anyone wipes it with antibacterial wipes.
• The appearance of even more blackheads and pimples.
• Long recession. Or rather, long-term healing of old wounds. After all, we often don’t let the wounds heal and start picking at them again. What about eyebrows? There is no need to wait for the slightest appearance of them and pick at the bloody skin in order to quickly remove the hair. Be patient, get into the habit of checking the condition of your eyebrows 2 times a week.
• Infection in the eyes. This is the most offensive thing when we also rub our eyes with dirty hands. Not only our skin suffers from this, but also our vision. Many people wonder where blisters on their eyelids come from. Dirty hands are one of the causes of infection, which accumulates and then appears on the lower and upper eyelids.

You can only touch your eyes to remove lenses or remove specks. In other cases, there is a high risk of developing conjunctivitis and other sores.

• Skin sags. Frequent manipulation of the skin or intensive rubbing with a towel, as well as propping up the cheeks, leads to the early formation of wrinkles, sagging cheeks, etc.

In the first stages of getting rid of this bad habit, in order to avoid infection on your face, learn to monitor the condition of your nails. Clean and trim them often.

Giving up the habit of touching your face with your hands will relieve you of skin problems such as acne, rashes, blackheads, and wrinkles by 40%.

Situations when we touch our face unconsciously

Why do you need to know this? It’s simple, you just have to think about these situations, observe yourself and
set a goal to reduce or even eliminate the moments when we inadvertently touch our face with dirty hands or objects.

• Selfie. Cosmetologists have already noticed that those who are keen will discover facial wrinkles and the first signs of skin aging earlier than others. In addition, frequent touching of the face is an easy way to spread infection.
• Reading a book.
• In a minibus or metro.
• Play with the neighbor's dog or cat.
• Taking notes or listening to a lecture, or while attending a meeting or business meeting. These are situations when we are thoughtful or bored, we tend to lean on our hand, thereby harming the skin: firstly, by stretching it, and secondly, by polluting it.
• Opening the door of a car, public place (school, hospital, office, cafe), apartment or room (even if you live alone).
• Answering a phone call: a phone that has been everywhere touches your face.
• While at the computer, working or just browsing the news feed.
• Picking my nose. Yes, yes, a huge amount of germs, dust and other unpleasant things accumulate in the nose.
• Driving a car.
• While in line. Especially in a hospital, by the time you get to the doctor's office, you pass through the front door, the reception desk, and maybe even the restroom. Just imagine how much infection there is!
• The professional characteristics of some people require especially careful care of their hands and facial skin. For example: a violinist (leans the violin to his face), a motorcycle racer (wears a helmet), etc.

How to break the habit

1. Have patience and time. This is not an easy matter. It takes time to develop a new habit!! Not a day or two.
2. Train yourself to wash your hands as often as possible. Wash your hands for at least 30 seconds.
3. People suffering from dermatillomania (skin picking) wear gloves to help break the habit. This is a really effective way. And in order not to sit in rubber gloves, buy soft, cotton gloves and smear your hands with cream, this way you will kill 2 birds with one stone: you will not be able to touch your face, pick it (because this is simply inconvenient to do with gloves) and moisturize dry skin hands
4. If gloves don't suit you, you can bandage the pads of your fingers so you won't be able to touch your face either.
5. Wash your makeup brushes often.
6. Hang a “Don’t touch your face” sticker on your mirror.
7. Place an antibacterial agent in front of your computer and on your desk.
8. Buy expensive liquid soap with a pleasant aroma for the bathroom so that you don’t forget to wash your hands. Agree, when there is laundry soap on the sink, you don’t really want to wash your hands often and smell that unpleasant smell. Although it’s completely in vain, 70% laundry soap is the best antiseptic.
9. Close friends and relatives can also help you fight this habit. Ask them to prompt you when they notice you holding your hands to your face.
10. Keep your hands in your pocket.
11. If you are waiting for someone, then generally sit on your hands so as not to be tempted to lean against your face.
12. Take care of your peace of mind. After all, sometimes the desire to scratch or pick something is caused by a stressful situation. Therefore, be especially careful at an interview, meeting, business meeting, exam and other stressful situations. Control your hands!

The ability to get rid of such petty habits is the first path to self-improvement and work on yourself. If you can master this habit, then you can handle more complex tasks. Go for it! Forward! Let's get rid of one bad habit at least once a month and by the end of the year you will become a new person.

Incredible facts

Most of the actions we take are intentional or purposeful. But stressful circumstances change our attention and engagement in strange ways.

When we are stressed or anxious, our habits take over and our unconscious behavior tries to bring calm to our emotional chaos.

Nervous habits such as nail biting are not only unsightly but also harmful to our health.

What are the most common nervous habits and how can you get rid of them?

Hair twisting and pulling

Curling your hair in certain social situations is a flirting gesture. However, in those people who experience obsessive hair curling, this activity becomes calming character when a person is nervous or under stress, and stimulating if you get bored.

Because constantly twirling and pulling hair can be seen as unprofessional behavior, many people who find it difficult to control the habit have learned to do it when no one is around.

Usually, a person can pull out a fairly large amount of hair. Other nervous individuals feel the need to rip the hair out of their heads. At the same time, a person feels emotional satisfaction and calm.

The habit of pulling out hair can lead to bald spots over time, and hair follicles may be damaged. Since this compulsive habit is rooted in feelings of shame and guilt, the best way to deal with it is to cognitive or behavioral therapy.

Smoking

If you continue to smoke because you think it will calm you down, think twice. Nicotine, an addictive substance found in cigarettes, can cause this false feeling.

Nicotine is an aphrodisiac that makes you even more nervous, states Benjamin Toll(Benjamin Toll), clinical psychologist in Yale School of Medicine, where he is an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry. Nicotine binds to certain places in the brain, which increases levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter and the hormone that makes you feel good. In other words, you feel the need to smoke at certain intervals to maintain enough addictive nicotine to keep you high. dopamine, which is associated with pleasure.

Nicotine has another trick up its sleeve. The only way to keep your nicotine levels high is to take smoking breaks, which is often a relaxing remedy in stressful situations. Over time, the smoker begins to associate moments of calm with a smoke break and, accordingly, smoking.

A huge number of studies link smoking to lung cancer, respiratory diseases and a number of other diseases. Recent research shows that the use of nicotine products such as nicotine patch, and counseling are quite effective. Smoking is addictive and the habit should be treated, just like drug addiction.

Grinding and clenching of teeth

Although our teeth are strong enough to chew stringy and fibrous foods, they are often unable to withstand grinding. Teeth grinding or bruxism is uncontrolled tooth movements, says Dr. Hoopingarner(Hoopingarner), dentist and associate professor at the Department of Therapeutic Dentistry in University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Teeth grinding in sleep typically occurs when we move from a deeper level to a more superficial level of sleep. During this transition, almost all people tend to grind their teeth.

Typically, nighttime bruxism lasts only a few seconds. But some people can grind for up to half an hour, which is usually stress related. Nighttime bruxism is harmful to teeth because while we sleep, we lose the protective reflexes that prevent excessive damage, and teeth wear down over time. To prevent tooth wear, it is recommended to wear special protective devices which are worn while sleeping.

During the day, instead of grinding, people tend clench your teeth, which can also cause problems such as weakening of the periodontal ligament that holds the teeth.

Clenching can also strain muscles including the masseter, temporalis, and internal pterygoids, which are involved in closing the mouth. Massage this area can help relieve tension. Also worth a try behavior change techniques. For example, you can constantly check to see if you are clenching your teeth after frequently performing activities. During the day, the upper and lower teeth should be kept a short distance apart.

Habit of biting nails

For many people, well-groomed nails are a source of pride. However, some people cannot leave their nails alone because they see some imperfections in them. The habit of constantly adjusting your nails by biting them or removing cuticles to correct a problem often begins in childhood. It's no surprise that the more uneven your nails look, the more you'll want to touch them up. When a person develops the habit of biting their nails around the nail plate, it is may lead to infection. Since cuticles are designed to protect your nails from bacteria and fungi, any damage can lead to negative consequences, such as paronychia.

Over time, nail biting can weaken and damage your nails. Many people who have a habit of biting their nails find it difficult to stop. Experts recommend keep your hands clean and cover your nails with substances that taste bad.

Crossing legs

Some people, when anxious or stressed, obsessively cross their legs, straighten their legs, and swing their legs. These movements rarely cause a problem, but it depends on how the person sits, states Yogi Matharu(Yogi Matharu), Physiotherapist at University of Southern California.

When you sit cross-legged, your body weight shifts to one side of your buttocks instead of being distributed evenly across your sit bones. At the same time, the pelvis rolls back, the upper back rounds, and the shoulders bend forward and down. In this position, your neck needs to be stretched so that you can look in front of you. And although this may make you feel relaxed, it can be harmful to your health.

Sitting in this position can pinch the sciatic nerve, which runs from the spine through the buttocks down to the legs, which can cause decreased blood flow, pain, numbness and tingling in the legs. It can also lead to nerve irritation, a condition that may require several weeks of recovery. Long-term effects may include back and neck pain, headaches and other chronic problems.

Experts recommend periodically checking your body position throughout the day. If the condition has become chronic, it is worth doing stretching exercises, use chiropractic therapy, or use an ergonomic keyboard.

Habit of cracking your knuckles

When clicking joints, a crunching sound is heard, although in fact it is associated with the release of gases, says the doctor Stephen Beldner(Dr. Steven Beldner), orthopedic surgeon from New York. For many people, this activity relieves stress and is as satisfying as a short, sweet stretch.

The joint capsule, which covers the joint, contains synovial fluid that lubricates and nourishes the joint. This liquid contains dissolved gases, including oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

When you apply pressure to a joint in a certain way, the pressure inside the joint capsule is released and this causes a clicking sound that occurs when soluble gases are released.

As a rule, clicking joints causes irritation among people around. Those who make it a habit can crack their joints up to 200 times a day. However, research shows that such actions do not cause harm. Children, as a rule, outgrow this habit, and for adults for whom their habit causes trouble from others, experts advise turning to behavior therapist.

Hand sucking

The mouth is one of the main transfer points for microbes, states Philip M. Tierno Jr. (Philip M. Tierno Jr.), Director of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at NYU Langone Medical Center. With a nervous habit of sucking pencils, pens and other objects, germs easily pass into your mouth.

Tierno counted about 600,000 types of microbes, of which only 1-2 percent are pathogenic and can cause harm. Most of the pathogens live on the handle, possibly contaminated by your colleagues or family members who touched the keyboard, door handles and phone. This can cause various diseases, including acute gastroenteritis.

Experts recommend wash your hands more often, so as not to transfer pathogenic microbes from contaminated objects that you have touched: door handles, keyboards or tables. If you find it difficult to break the pen-sucking habit, try replace it with another activity such as drinking tea.

Habit of touching and rubbing your face

Unless you wash your face, for hygienic purposes it is best not to touch your face at all. But for many, especially teenagers with a restless and nervous character, it is difficult to resist this habit.

People whose hands inevitably start touching their faces often feel a tickling sensation, which makes them have a strong desire to touch it. Others experience an itch that actually is a nervous sensation. Some even sleep with their face in their hands.

This habit can cause clogged pores and acne. However, those who develop rashes on their face tend to squeeze them, which causes bleeding and can lead to scarring and infection.

Despite the fact that dermatologists are quite quick to identify this problem, it is quite difficult to convince young girls to visit a therapist, since few people see this as a problem. If you're having trouble breaking this habit, try cut your nails short to avoid scratching your face and reduce the risk of infection.