My leg started itching the other day. Left leg, outside calf, halfway down. My immediate thought was, "great, another ant or mosquito bite." But, when I looked down I saw nothing and it wasn't itchy in any one specific spot. Hmmm. Dry skin maybe. That's the problem. I need to either start drinking 6 gallons a day or apply more lotion to my old man legs. (And where did all that hair that used to furnish my legs disappear to, by the way?) Of course, I scratched the itchy spot on my leg. And if scratching is wrong, I don't want to be right. But, table that remark for a bit.
Scratching the itch. That term represents more than one thing. One version is the one I just described. We have a physical sensation of itch and we scratch it. The other is more metaphoric.... the idiom- "scratch the itch." The itch can, among other things, represent a craving, desire, or long-held need. The "scratch" is our effort to fulfill it. Some itches are good things we are willing to share in polite conversation.
Some... not so much.
I did a little research on the first, literal meaning because it is important for you to understand this. "You've got a lot of nerve Mike Toomey!" Yes, that's exactly what's going on. Nerves. First, in order to justify the exorbitant expense of nursing and medical school, they make sure that words that we regular people use every day have scientific sounding alternatives for those in the medical community. No, not itchis maximus. That's made up. "Pruritus" is the medical term for itch. (Am I the only one having difficulty making the "prur" sound?) I wanted to know exactly what occurs when we experience the itch sensation and why scratching it feels good. Confess. You've wondered about this too.
There are specific nerve fibers in our skin that detect something in/on our skin we will perceive as itch. The nerve fibers send a signal through our spinal cord to our brain. These signals run on specific train tracks (my non-medical term) called c fibers. C fibers are not the largest nor fastest trains on the lines. Our instinct is to relieve the itch sensation. So we scratch. For much of my life I've wondered why scratching an itch feels good. Because a scratch doesn't always feel good. My boyhood was filled with non-itch related scratch moments. I don't recall them feeling so good. So, why does scratching an itch feel good? (It's all about distraction.)
Think about what is actually going on. If you could zoom in on your fingernails scraping against your skin or scalp you could see that you are mildly traumatizing the skin (also known as epidermis by the people still paying off their med school loans.) Our fingernails are causing tiny grooves and micro-tears and abrasions in the skin surface. Well, that damage activates some more nerve endings and it introduces something different. It introduces pain signals. So this mild pain signal hops on the A-beta fiber train (and the A-delta sharp pain train if we scratch it with a brass bristle grill cleaning brush.) This pain signal inhibits the itch signals that ride the much slower c-fiber train. (Some pain signals also ride the c fiber trains.) We can replace the itch sensation by introducing mild pain in that same skin area. Strangely, this provides our brain with a rush of relief and even pleasure. Serotonin, come on down!
There is a term called "Gate Control Theory." One aspect of this helps explain why scratching relieves an itch. A couple of really smart guys proposed back in 1965 that there is a "gate" mechanism in our spinal cord that decides when to allow signals through and when not. When the itch signal arrives at the gate on the c fibers, the gate opens allowing the signal to continue on to the brain. Our brain registers itch. But, mild scratching activates mild pain signals from the larger and faster A-beta fibers. These signals can "close the gate" to the slower, smaller itchy c fiber signals. We now have a reduced perception of itch. This is an example of where self-injury (albeit mild) can be masked as satisfaction. Hurts so good.
Let's talk metaphorically. Back to the idiom of "scratching the itch." Your itch may be to travel (one of my itches.) So you book vacations and trips to scratch the itch. Maybe for years you've been wanting a specific vehicle and you finally break down and purchase that Jeep Wrangler. These itches can be harmless (although they could be expensive to scratch!)
But, what if your metaphoric itch is not vacations or Jeeps but rather, it's the itch of serious emotional pain or the burden of years-old trauma? I think what we sometimes see happen is similar to the skin example. We see people do things in an attempt to replace or mask the itch with something else. But often the "scratch" of temporary relief inflicts serious damage and often it's ultimately more lasting damage than what the "itch" was doing. And, like the skin's vicious itch-scratch-more itch-more scratch-even more itch-even more scratch cycle that can lead to serious infection, our attempts at scratching can produce a similar but much more serious cycle of un-wellness or sickness. We see drug and alcohol abuse attempting to scratch the itch of emotional hurt or mental health torment. We see dangerous or unhealthy behaviors trying to scratch the itch of childhood trauma or rejection. You can certainly imagine so many other examples.
Sometimes, scratching, while providing some perceived immediate (but only temporary) relief, is not the right relief for the itch. Sometimes our itch needs attention that we are not going to be able to provide by our efforts alone.
The truth is that the source of the itch is what needs the attention.
Like my grandmother used to tell me, "if you keep scratching it, you're just going to make it worse."
Don't scratch the unhealthy, metaphorical itch. Get some help with what's underlying the itch in the first place. You can't scratch it away.
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