What is eye mucus fishing?
Mucus fishing syndrome is condition in which you repeatedly fish or pull strands of mucus from your eye.
We don't hear it talked about as much in the BFRB community, but it can serve the same self-soothing purpose, and deserves acknowledgement AND support!
Sometimes caused by eye irritation
Eye mucus fishing syndrome often presents itself AFTER another condition develops that causes the eye over-producing mucus. To alleviate the irritation, the individual tries to clear the mucus from their eye.
Eye mucus fishing is a cycle.
Every time you go inside the eye to remove mucus, your finger or a cotton swab further irritates the eye and causes it to make even more mucus and you end up with a self-propelling cycle. Just like other body-focused repetitive behaviors, it's a very difficult cycle to break.
Keen2 Can Help
Much like Trichotillomania and Dermatillomania, mucus fishing can cause the individual to enter a trance-like state doing a repetitive behavior.
Since you can train Keen2 with your custom gesture, Keen2 can be trained for mucus fishing and help build awareness and retrain the behavior.
Learn With Our eCourse
Our BFRB Primer eCourse goes through the basics of the purpose that body-focused repetitive behaviors serve and how to use that purpose to relearn new behaviors. The content is completely applicable to eye mucus fishing.
Peer Coach Insights
Our Peer Coaches are ready to talk about and give insights on any body-focused repetitive behavior. If you'd like to talk to someone who has experience with a BFRB, and has lots of wisdom to share, book a 1:1 session.
Grow in Community
The best way to learn, make change, and develop self-love is with a community who has your back, knows your struggles, and is there to encourage YOU and for you to encourage THEM. Join our online community to meet other people with BFRBs and get new perspectives.
The tears that coats and hydrates the surface of your eyes have both a liquid and a mucous layer to them. It is normal to have a small amount of mucus in your tear film. But that mucus can significantly increase when the eye gets irritated.
Here are some of the most common causes of irritation that can make the eye overproduce mucus:
- Conjunctivitis, which could be caused by an allergy, bacteria, or virus
- Blepharitis, which is an inflammation of the eyelids
- Dry Eye Syndrome
If you have gone through treatment for the original problem but still find yourself pulling mucus out of your eye, you may need your doctor to try a steroid drop in order to decrease the production. Utilize one of HabitAware's behavior change resources to help reduce the amount you're mucus fishing.