Scratching doesn't cause eczema

Scratching doesn't cause eczema

Scratching doesn't cause eczema

I have read here that people say that if you stop scratching then eczema would go away. Or that eczema is 'the itch that causes rashes' or that their eczema is somehow caused by habitual scratching and not some other process and I thought I would offer a counter argument. Now everyone has different forms of eczema and I get the feeling that eczema is a multitude of diseases, not just one so the above might apply to some people, Just not me. 

I think that eczema is caused by inflammation, and not scratching as even stated by many people here. Example 1 = dupixent causes inflammation to drop even people who have had it for many years. You would think these people would be habitual scratchers but by removing the inflammation the need to scratch goes. Example 2 - normal skin can withstand a lot of scratching - I notice that when my skin is inflamed I only need knock it against a cardboard box and the skin tears. Long story short, you can resist scratching all you want, until the inflammation goes, you will tear your skin. Example 3 _ I am fairly inflexible and can't reach my back to scratch.

Yet I get eczema rash there on flares and it does not go until the overall flare stops. Not scratching makes no difference. Example 4 - if inflammation is present skin simply refuses to heal. During my no steroid cream phase, a flare would cause the skin to open up for weeks until the next flare. All the no scratch would make no difference. Steroid cream brought down the inflammation in 48 hours and then the lesions healed in 24 hours. All the no scratch in the world does not help. Just to rant that eczema is not caused by scratching for me at least. Sure it tears the skin and makes you vulnerable to infection but until the inflammation is addressed no scratch is a blind alley.