From the clinic #14: How knitting helped eczema heal

When she came for her third clinic visit Mary was delighted that over the last two weeks using The Combined Approach her scratching frequency was down from a maximum 630 episodes daily at base-line to now an average 55 episodes daily. Her skin was healing fast. She was now sleeping through the night. Her husband was happy too!

We looked at when the scratching was still a problem, and introduced focused habit reversal. Her forehead [above, left] was clearly an area for special attention. In the evening watching television she was in the habit of resting her right arm up behind her head, with her right hand over the top of her head to allow her fingers to pick at her forehead. As a way of dealing with this she resolved to take up knitting when watching TV.

Two weeks later she came to her last clinic visit with a healed forehead [above, right] - and a bag containing the sweater she had knitted while her skin healed.

Specific habit reversal tactics need to be supplemented with general strategies to get the best results!


More about knitting and health here: A bilateral rhythmic psychosocial intervention