Anyone else get this "brain itch?"
October 13, 2017 12:37 PM   Subscribe

My 11 year old says he sometimes (about 6 times a week) gets a feeling in his brain, usually on the left side of his head, that’s something like an itch and the way to relieve this “itch” is to scratch a specific spot that is not on his body but on some nearby object or person. (Not the same spot every time.) He says he’s had this for as long as he can remember. Have you ever experienced anything like this or is he the only one in the world?

He wanted me to post this question here and he’ll be interested in the answers, so unless you’re a doctor, maybe hold back on the “sounds like [concerning medical condition], better see a doctor” answers and stick to “Yes, I experience something similar” or “No, that sounds really weird.”
posted by Redstart to Health & Fitness (16 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Minor case of phantom limb? Last time I took shrooms I felt like the plush carpet around me was an extension of my body..
posted by fritillary at 12:53 PM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]


Yes I experience something like this, on the back of my head inside the skull. It makes me want to touch things, I wouldn't say scratch but usually I need to touch something very cool and smooth but also totally dry - a frictionless glide like very dry glass, or the back of a spoon. If there's nothing around that's the right texture I touch my thumbnail to get that smoothness but it's not really right to get rid of that itch - usually way too warm.

As a kid it was much more intense, and what I needed was to rub the smooth thing on my lips, or the itch inside my skull would turn into heebie jeebies that made me twitch all over. I got teased as a thumb sucker up through junior high but was really rubbing my thumbnail on my lips.

Now I keep a small highly polished stone with me all the time, often I wear a pendant. And if I need to rub it on my lip I try to be sure no one is watching.
posted by buildmyworld at 12:58 PM on October 13, 2017 [9 favorites]


You know, until I was around your son's age, actually, I had a thing where if one of my hands accidentally brushed against something -- doesn't matter what --- I had to try to recreate that feeling with the other hand because it felt too weird. This extended to legs, feet, sides of my face, etc.

It just kinda ceased being a thing eventually. I didn't actively seek to avoid doing it. It never interfered with my life in any meaningful way, etc. I haven't even thought about it for a long time until I saw this question. I wonder if what your son is experiencing is similar and if eventually it'll go away on its own.
posted by zizzle at 12:59 PM on October 13, 2017 [10 favorites]


Some sort of synesthesia, perhaps?
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 1:00 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


You know, until I was around your son's age, actually, I had a thing where if one of my hands accidentally brushed against something -- doesn't matter what --- I had to try to recreate that feeling with the other hand because it felt too weird. This extended to legs, feet, sides of my face, etc.

That can actually be a manifestation of OCD. It's called "evening up".
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 1:05 PM on October 13, 2017 [29 favorites]


I'd recommend the book Phantoms in the Brain by VS Ramachandran, it's all about phantom limbs and general neurological quirks and may help your son to just feel fascinated by the sensation he's experiencing.
posted by matthew.alexander at 1:23 PM on October 13, 2017 [5 favorites]


I get something sometimes where I have an itch in an unspecified place, and I have to scratch all over my body to "relieve" it.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:25 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


I've had a similar experience of "evening up" that zizzle describes and Serene Empress Dork refers to. I might have to blink extra hard on one side or touch my fingers together s certain way on one hand. It definitely doesn't happen as much as it used to.

Sometimes I feel compelled to look at this very specific thing: the outline of my finger, usually the bent middle knuckle of my pointer finger, against a light background. Usually the background is a piece of white paper or the light gray interior of my car. I only need to look at it when I notice it. If I can't look for some reason (I'm driving and the light had changed) then I get kinda frustrated. When it happens, I need to look for a few seconds, maybe more than once.

Neither of these have been disruptive or problem-causing.
posted by meemzi at 1:34 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


I can't think of a time I spent a specific, localized itch, but I've definitely gotten urges to touch things or manipulate them and been totally unable to resist. The only time this was awkward was when I was handling an archaeological object, and I realized I was obsessively moving it in my hands, over and over. (Lots of handling, not great!) Just to make it worse, it was the handle of a bollock dagger, so the visual was...a thing that happened.

No one got hurt or anything, it was just not particularly professional.
posted by kalimac at 1:38 PM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]


Seconding Phantoms In The Brain. It's a fascinating book and you could totally read it with a curious, scientific kid.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 2:02 PM on October 13, 2017


I'll third Phantoms in the Brain. It (and a prof in college) turned me into a neuroscientist (ish).

This is really common. For my similar compulsion (which doesn't always imply pathology; I just think of it like a weird quirky brain miswiring) I like the "worry stone" side of my fidget cube.
posted by supercres at 2:11 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


I have this thing where I can't stand the sensation of the surface of my palms or the fleshy side of my fingers on one side touching the corresponding parts of the other hand. The sensation, which I tentatively characterize as "electric nails on chalkboard" is unpleasant in a vague sort of way and even the idea of putting my hands or fingers together invokes a shudder. I mean, I can do it anyway, but I really hate to do so for no reason that I can articulate beyond just having to avoid something unpleasant. Same thing with the bottoms of my feet. Goes way back to early childhood so I think I've always been this way. And interestingly, one way to "erase" the sensation (or the idea of the sensation) is to scratch those areas with my fingernails, or rub them against the sharpish edges of random objects, to "clear it away". If I'd heard someone else describing this, I'd think maybe OCD, but it doesn't feel like OCD to me.
posted by christopherious at 2:28 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


I get something sometimes where I have an itch in an unspecified place, and I have to scratch all over my body to "relieve" it.

Me too! It's super weird.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 2:34 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Nothing quite like an itch the way he's describing it, but ever since I could remember I've had a "thing" about... I guess touching things the correct way? I'll run my hand along a fence or a row of bushes as I walk by, and sometimes go back and do part of it again or just mess with a certain section because I missed a spot or didn't get a good feel of one particular spot. It's nothing I feel compelled to do, but I find it mildly distracting for a minute or so. Same thing at home - feeling the sheets/blankets/bumpy section of wall/whatever.
posted by Urban Winter at 3:58 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


also wondering if it's related to some kind of touch-related synaesthesia.

(says someone with an unrelated form of synaesthesia).

Ramachandran (author of Phantoms In The Brain) has a lot to say about synaethesia in general. It's my impression that the quality of research on the phenomena is not very good yet, so no one book is 'the last word' on all the forms it takes.
posted by girl Mark at 7:50 PM on October 13, 2017


I get exactly what Urban Winter and christopherious describe, as well as the evening-up impulse -- I'm amazed that there's a word for this thing I always thought was just me being weird. One example: there's a particular spot on my palm (both hands) that sometimes I need to touch against, say, the point of a decorative fencepost or another hard, sharp-ish object.

Possibly related stuff: I have sound/colour and grapheme/colour synaesthesia, and the photic sneeze reflex. I'm deeply averse to some textures (microfibre or suede? aaaargh!). I have that thing where my hands ache when I cry; no one seems to know what causes that, but there are lots of results for a Google search about it!

I figure that my brain's just a bit weird in a fun way. :)
posted by daisyk at 10:44 AM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


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