The reason for the habit of touching the face that needs to be reduced

One of the recommended ways to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission is to reduce the habit of touching the face. However, this habit turns out to be difficult to stop and even reduce because it is often done unconsciously.

So, why do so many people “itchy” want to touch the face and how do you deal with it?

Why should you reduce the habit of touching your face?

Awareness to wash hands in the right way continues to be raised so as not to be exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In fact, this has also been followed by an increase in the purchase of hand sanitizers, which has depleted the stock of most supermarkets.

In fact, efforts to prevent transmission of viral infections are not just clean hands, but also reduce the habit of touching the face.

You see, after grabbing a handle on public transport you may unknowingly touch your own face. Whether it's because someone is itchy or just resting your hand on your cheek.

In fact, no one knows that the handle or the object touched contains dangerous bacteria or viruses.

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According to the APCI (Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology) the habit of touching the face needs to be reduced.

This is because a face that is touched by dirty hands can make germs stick to the mucous membrane. As a result, the risk of respiratory infections increases.

For example, a respiratory infection such as pneumonia or the flu can be spread by splashing water from other people when they cough, sneeze, or talk near you. In addition, the splash of water that contains viruses and bacteria can also stick to surfaces that you may unknowingly touch.

You probably wash your hands thoroughly. However, the real challenge is that your hands will not always be clean because you have to handle something that might be dirty.

In order to reduce the risk of transmitting viral and bacterial infections, reducing the habit of touching the face is very necessary.

Why is the habit of touching your face hard to break?

Did you know that it is estimated that the average person is used to holding their face 23 times an hour?

The large number in one hour indicates that this habit will be difficult to break because it is considered a very natural and humane thing.

When you touch your face without realizing it, it indicates that you are aware of the presence of other people around you.

Generally, people examine other people's faces by touching their own, which is a sign that you are sensitive to their own expressions and faces.

In addition, most people think that often holding their face is not harmful to health and rarely associate it with bacterial and viral infections such as COVID-19.

Therefore, the habit of touching the face may be difficult to break, especially with dirty hands.

Tips for reducing the habit of holding your face

After knowing the dangers of accustomed to holding your face with dirty hands, of course you want to reduce this habit, right?

In fact, trying to tell yourself that you need to cut back on touching your face might not be the right move. This is probably because when you are banned you get bigger and bigger to hold your own face.

So being hard on yourself, then, probably doesn't help at all, because stressful thoughts just don't work to curb your behavior.

Here are some ways to reduce this habit in a more flexible and simple way.

1. Keep hands busy

One way to reduce the habit of touching your face with dirty hands is to keep them busy.

That is, you can fight the urge to hold your face with help from stress ball so that the hands do not have a chance to land on the eyes, nose and mouth.