Posted on 07/17/2005 5:09:54 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
Addicted To ... Lip Balm? It Happens, Experts Say
Woman Applies Stick Up To 60 Times Per Day
UPDATED: 2:45 pm EDT July 15, 2005
CLEVELAND -- Most people use lip balms once in a while, but for a few people, those little tubes have become an obsession.
If you notice the people around you applying and re-applying lip balm, it may not be a sign of dry lips, but of an addiction, reported WEWS-TV in Cleveland.
There are actually Web sites devoted to the problem.
Carrie, a lip balm user, says she has to have her tube with her all the time -- and she applies it more than just now and then.
"It's almost involuntary, but probably 50 to 60 times a day," she said.
In case you doubt the addictive power of lip balm, it took only minutes in a crowd of people to find those who get pretty worked up about it, especially the flavored stuff, the television station reported.
"Oh yeah, and eat my lips, mmm," Louise Tufts said.
Dr. Kevin Cooper, a dermatologist at University Hospitals in Cleveland, offered a theory about how people get so stuck on their Chapsticks.
"I think it could become repetitive behavior, more like habit, in same sense that some people become fixated orally with smoking, or chewing on pens," Cooper said.
Ingredients like camphor and menthol give lips a tingly rush, another addictive sensation, WEWS reported. The problem is some of the ingredients can create the need for more lip balm.
"The menthol can be drying, can take out moisture and interfere with function of outer layer of skin, so don't have natural barrier anymore, so now need moisturization," Cooper said.
Using more can create the need for more. So how do you battle this addiction?
"The best way is to gradually wean down," Cooper said. "Try to go to a couple times a day, maybe breakfast, lunch, dinner. Then try to cut one out, maybe over three to four weeks to get yourself off."
Cooper recommends the most plain, unflavored wax-type lip balm when you do need one. He said fewer chemicals are better. More serious dermatitis around the lips may need medication.
Thanks for the hot tip!
:: Buys stock in Lip Balm ::
Slow news day....?
Mmmmmm ... Carmex.
I apply it maybe 12-13 times a day. 50-60 seems excessive.
The author seems addicted to drivel.
This story deserves a Drudge siren...
My daughter was a carmex junky.
My favorite lip balm addict also chewed on ice. She'd go through several trays a day. I also had to keep her in Watermelon Bubblicious. Last I heard she'd given all that up and was running triathlons...
hahaha..Nice site...
Chapstick Conspiracy; Just Like the Corner Drug Dealer
I've got a name for the addiction. Embalming.
"Excessive" is in the eye of the beholder. 12-13 times a day seems excessive to me.
Every day?
I don't know if I should laugh, cry or feel sorry for the chapstick junkies.
I'd go with laugh but then again, I'm not a very nice person.
Tingling sphincter bump.
Now I've heard EVERYTHING....................sheesh.
"Buys stock in Lip Balm..."
Maybe you should sell, the class action shysters may get after this later today, or tomorrow AM at the latest!
Thanks for posting this. Someone in my life is a lip-balm fanatic, even to the extent that he pulls the tube out in public, which I just don't understand. I've often thought of lip-balm as being addictive. I mean, what would make a normally-macho guy do something that looks like he's applying lipstick? It MUST be addictive.
For all you male FReepers out there who put on lip-balm in public, please go to the men's room or something. A man publicly applying a substance to his lips from a lipstick-style tube is equivalent to a woman publicly scratching herself as if she has jock itch. It just doesn't look right. LOL!
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