Anyone get severe itchy feeling?

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Hi,

I'm posting this for my son, but I'm putting it here instead of the parents' forum because I'd like to hear directly from people who have experienced this.

My son, who is 8, occasionally gets little itches-- usually on his upper back area, back of neck-- when he's feeling anxious, especially if he's facing a task he doesn't want to do or is nervous about. Usually it's not that big of a deal because he can either distract himself, or take a break from the trigger activity until it passes.

This morning, however, he started to feel extremely itchy all over his back and rather than being a "nuisance" to him it was causing him extreme distress... to the point that he was running around screaming, as though trying to run away from the sensation, and screaming and crying and saying he wanted to die. His back is not actually red (other than where he's trying to itch it or rub it against something) so it doesn't seem to be any sort of allergic reaction or sunburn or anything like that. I think this is like his anxiety response, only amplified greatly. He got very little sleep last night so I think he is very overtired right now and that always seems to exacerbate negative feelings for him, so that may be part of the reason.

I *do* think it's a sensory and/or psychosomatic thing, but I have no doubt that he is really uncomfortable and upset by the feeling and will try whatever I can to give him some relief. He has never really shown signs of this type of extreme sensory discomfort before (he and I both prefer to cut tags out of our clothes, but he doesn't have an extreme response if I don't.)

My question is, has anyone experienced this sort of feeling, and if so, was there anything you learned to do that could help you feel better until the sensation receded? I have been rubbing copious amounts of lotion on him in the hope that it will be a sort of placebo, and am trying to distract him with cartoons, which seems to work temporarily, but the itchy feeling keeps coming back.

Thanks

Sometimes I start feeling itchy whenever I'm anxious, frustrated, or otherwise under stress. I think it has to do with the release of histamine, associated with an increase in blood pressure. Antihistamines, which are commonly used to treat allergic reactions that include itching, lower your blood pressure, so based on this, I theorize that higher blood pressure could result in itchyness.

I'm not a doctor though, so don't quote me on it.

Hmm I suppose it's possible it's a stress thing but I don't experience that myself. Have you spoken to a Dr about it? Excessive itching could be a sign of a medical condition even if the skin doesn't look red or irritated. I'm sure then they might find the cause and everything will be okay

Yeah, I think it's stress and / or anxiety----I get the exact same thing. If he isn't on any other medication, I recommend giving him Benadryl----if you live in the U.S.----if you don't, just any anti-histamine, that's good. (If he's on other medication, just check with the pharmacist----even though it's an OTC med, they're usually glad to help. Also, because he's not an adult, make sure to check the label, for his specific age.)

I know you said it doesn't seem to be an allergy; but, as has already been stated, anti-histamines calm a person down----like, for instance, I always recommend it to people who have to fly, and are afraid of flying. I have a prescription anti-histamine (Hydroxyzine), that I use on an "as needed" (PRN) basis, for this very reason.

Keep the med handy for when you know there's going to be a stressful event, for him----you can give it to him, say, an hour beforehand, and he should be in good shape, by the time he has to deal with "whatever".

Yep, had this ever since I can remember. Usually if I'm anxious or stressed. Sometimes just because the temperature in the room makes me uncomfortable. As odd as it sounds, I've found that putting something cool (not real cold) on the area makes it basically stop itching, at least temporarily....otherwise, I'll scratch until it bleeds, which only makes me more anxious and the itching gets worse.

Thanks everyone... I picked up some children's Benadryl and will see if that helps. It makes sense if it's a histamine response to frustration.... he was running on very little sleep and he was trying to do something with a texture-editor app for Minecraft, but it kept crashing and he was going ballistic. And that's when the extreme itching started. He's been having flare-ups every few hours but they seem to be spacing farther apart now.

I think it will also help him feel better of I tell him I talked to some people who also have this response. When he gets itchy at school, they think he is faking to get out of work.

Oh, good----let us know how it works-out.....

I've had trouble with itching since I was a child. It used to just be on my back mostly, and wasn't all that severe for a long time. After a few years it stopped being a problem, but it started again about 10 years ago, and this time it's not been limited to my back, it can strike anywhere, and it's been much worse than it used to be. It's never been as intense as it is for your son, and hasn't often been a big problem in the daytime, just very annoying and distracting, except at night, when I guess the intensity is no greater but the lack of other stimuli makes it more noticeable, and of course scratching forces me to move, which stops me getting to sleep. In the daytime I tend not to notice it so much as long as I have other things to focus on.

I'm sure it's not an infection. There are no visible signs unless I scratch excessively. It's often started by the light movement of clothing against my skin, so it probably helps to wear snug-fitting clothes, and soft materials are better. Sometimes scratching works, other times it doesn't. I haven't noticed it being stress-related, but when I'm stressed I'm usually very preoccupied with the cause of the stress, so it's possible that it distracts me from noticing any itching. I've noticed it's more of a problem in winter, probably because of the reduced indoor air humidity which dries the skin. Paradoxically, it's often worse when I'm feeling too hot.

I've found that it helps a lot to take a hot bath and scrub my skin firmly all over with a reasonably stiff brush. Sometimes just the calves of my legs get very itchy, and if I go and scrub those, it eases it a lot. I look upon scrubbing as a clean, controlled form of scratching. It's better than fingernails because it's cleaner and you can achieve a good, hard scratch without making the skin sore. Moisturising cream seems to ease it too. If none of these work, I apply Deep Heat cream, which creates a strong (but not unpleasant) burning sensation that seems to mask the itching, and then I guess the salicylate in it damps it down. Works very well for me, though not everybody likes the smell of eucalyptus.

Mostly I think it's physical, Aspies tend to feel everything very intensely and to have difficulty in screening out minor discomfort. But even if the cause isn't psychosomatic, I think a placebo could still be effective. The worst thing to do is to focus on it (apart from identifying the problem), that just seems to make it worse.

Hope this helps.

I suffer from extremely itchy skin and it drives me crazy, but in my own case I strongly suspect that mine is not so much stress related as much as having a physical cause. One piece of advice I found online concerned simple dehydration, and the woman said that when she paid more attention to her water intake, her skin stopped feeling so itchy, as the problem was that she was literally drying out from chronic mild dehydration.

I also think I'm running the heating too high -- it's winter and cold right now and every winter my skin gets worse. So that, plus not drinking enough fluids. Finally, I think that my favorite laundry detergent or fabric softener may be irritating my skin -- not seriously enough to break out in a true allergic reaction, but just enough to make my skin itch.

In summer the itching virtually disappears, and interestingly summer is also the time when I'm drinking more fluids, not having the heating running, and also wearing fewer clothes that are in all-over contact with my skin the way you wrap up warm for winter.

None of these might be behind your son's case of itchy skin -- or maybe one or more of them might. But just saying that, for me, I think mine have causes and I'm not getting around to addressing them properly right now.

Yes, I have that itching.

I get "winter itch"--which might extend into June.

It's because I'm getting older!