Wear a mask, sit on your hands, and keep track of how many times you touch it. That’s about it.
One of the best ways to catch COVID-19 is to have someone who is infected cough on you. You also have a good chance of contracting the coronavirus if you touch something with the virus on it, like a door knob, and then you scratch your face, spreading the virus near your main entryways: your mouth, nose and eyes.
How can you stay healthy? Well, just don’t touch your face. This, however, is easier said than done. A study done at the University of North South Wales in Sydney, Australia, found that students, at least, touch their face about 23 times every hour. That’s a lot of face time!
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Why do we put our hands to our face so often? Some say it is simply a “fundamental part of human behavior”. Skin-to-skin contact releases the hormone oxytocin, which creates calm and reduces stress. Some psychologists say by touching your face you mark starting and ending points in your social interactions, you flirt, and you control your attention span as well as your emotions. Touching your face is an unconscious practice that is simply part of being human, experts say.
Because of this, it is actually really, really difficult to stop doing it. Some say that wearing a mask can help. Others say that wearing a mask can make you want to touch your face more because you can end up adjusting the mask endlessly. Those who say it reduces finger-to-face contact however, have a good point. Your face mask covers your nose and mouth, and so even if you do fiddle with it, you are not touching these two entry points directly.
What else can you do? Sit on your hands. Yes, it seems like an old-school solution but there you have it. Experts like Michael Hallsworth, a behavioral scientist at Columbia University who spoke to BBC.com, advises that you sit on your hands, if you feel like you cannot control your face-touching temptations. It can also help to have your own fidget spinner, or another gadget to keep your hands busy, Hallsworth notes. You would have to remember to sanitize this too, of course, but it can help keep your paws occupied.
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Steven Hayes, a psychologist writing for Psychology Today.com has another solution. Simply count how many times you touch your face. Get a piece of graph paper or something like a golf counter and keep track of how often you touch your face. Even if you are not accurate with keeping score, the presence of the device acts as a reminder of what not to do.
No one can go around all day marking down each time they scratch their nose, or rub their forehead, of course. But you could do it for a bit each day, and see if it makes any difference, a bit like doing sit-ups. And you can also ask your friends and colleagues to remind you every time they see you. “Hey buddy- don’t touch your face”. It’s time we keep each other in check.
photo credits: AndriiKoval/Shutterstock.com
