When you’ve got an itch , you probably want to scratch it. But whether it’s from a mosquito bite , chickenpox , or chronic skin issue like eczema , any relief from scratching will be short-lived. And too much scratching can make the problem much worse.

Science of Scratching

Your muscles, joints, and organs can hurt. But your skin is the only part of your body that can feel both pain and itch.

An itch can be triggered by something outside your body, such as poison ivy, or by something happening on the inside, such as psoriasis or allergies.

Though it feels good, scratching actually triggers mild pain in your skin. Nerve cells tell your brain something hurts, and that distracts it from the itch. It can make you feel better in that moment, but 1 in 5 people say scratching makes them itch somewhere else on their body.

Sometimes the pain from scratching makes your body release the pain-fighting chemical serotonin. It can make the itch feel even itchier.

That’s why the more you scratch, the more you itch. The more you itch, the more you scratch. This cycle can be tough to break, especially if your itch is really bad.