Someone is crawling on the body: the causes of discomfort

2023 Author: Alfred Shackley | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 13:14

The feeling that someone is crawling over the body is familiar to many and can cause a lot of unpleasant emotions. Moreover, recently, among its causes, they have named: the invasion of parasitic insects, nervous and mental disorders, the terrible pathology of the Morgellons.

In fact, these reasons can be very different: from self-hypnosis to serious diseases. In this article, you will learn about the common factors that cause these unpleasant sensations.

Causes of discomfort

There are many reasons for discomfort on the body.

All of them can be divided into several categories:

• insects and parasites;
• allergic reactions and skin pathologies;
• nervous and mental disorders;
• poorly understood diseases (Morgellon disease).

Infection with blood-sucking insects and parasites

One of the main reasons for the unpleasant sensations that insects are crawling over your body are the insects themselves and other organisms parasitizing on humans. Parasites are cutaneous (lice, fleas, bedbugs) and subcutaneous (helminths, ticks).

All of them are very small, but they can cause not only extremely unpleasant sensations, but also serious and even fatal diseases.

Head lice

Pediculosis, the so-called lice infestation, affects people of different nations in every corner of the world. However, more often they get sick where basic hygiene standards are not observed. Pediculosis is dangerous because the most serious diseases can be transmitted with it: typhus, various types of fever.

Lice settle on the scalp, crawl from place to place, feeding on human blood and multiplying by laying eggs (nits).

The infection spreads very quickly, especially among children who are constantly in contact with each other. Pediculosis is treated with the help of special preparations and mechanical combing of parasites.

Guinea worm

The helminth Dracunculus medinensis living under the human skin causes the most dangerous disease dracunculiasis. It is found in countries in Africa and South Asia. The source of infection can be reservoirs with stagnant stagnant water.

Helminths that infect the human body are at first very small, but then their female can reach gigantic proportions. The disease is very difficult. It begins with the fact that there is a nagging sensation that someone is crawling and moving all the time along the body and under the skin. Soon this sensation becomes unbearable.

Despite the severe course of the disease, it is treatable with specialized drugs. Untreated dracunculiasis can cause blood poisoning, gangrene, and death.

Demodex

One of the most common mites that parasitize humans and animals. It is very small, but it can cause severe itching and irritation, as well as hair loss and facial skin damage. Demodex is also dangerous in that it can carry a large number of various harmful bacteria and cause outbreaks of various infectious diseases.

If a person is infected with this mite for a long time, then such inevitable consequences as weakening and loss of immunity, deterioration of health, irritability and nervousness, hair and eyelash loss may occur. The manifestations of the disease at first can be quite weak: as if it were just ticklish, but then develop into unbearable itching, which intensifies at night. Treatment of this disease is carried out with special medications under the supervision of a physician.

As mentioned above, there are a lot of parasites that cause itching and discomfort. Infection with them is characterized by a variety of symptoms.

However, there are general signs of a person's defeat by them:

• lingering crawling sensation;
• severe itching, worse at night;
• redness and lesions at the site of bites or penetration into the skin.

Allergies and skin diseases

Unfortunately, allergies have become one of the most common occurrences in the 21st century. Currently, there is a reaction to a variety of substances: food, household chemicals, cosmetics, animal hair, drugs and much more. Including cold and sunlight.

Allergy has many symptoms and manifestations. Among them are the skin, which constantly itches, and the persistent feeling that someone is crawling over the body.

This pathology is accompanied by diseases such as skin dermatitis, urticaria, and dyshidrosis. All of them only aggravate the patient's condition and disappear with a complete cure of the allergy.

Skin diseases that cause a feeling of crawling insects on the body include:

• scabies;
• psoriasis;
• dermatomycosis;
• lichen and others.

Signs typical for allergic and skin diseases:

• various rashes and skin lesions;
• deterioration of health;
• often the presence of a known allergen.

It must be emphasized that there are no purely skin diseases. The causes of these diseases can be hidden in the disruption of the work of internal organs, weakening of the immune system, the emergence of new types of allergens in the environment.

Nervous and mental disorders

Crawling and swarming insects on the body, constant itching and anxiety - these symptoms are often found in nervous disorders and mental illness.

This phenomenon is called psychogenic itching and can be a consequence of mental illness, serious illness and injury. The feeling that insects are crawling over the body is a pronounced hallucination. Patients talk about how they feel worms or ants moving, biting, tickling on the skin. In this case, the sensation arises with a clear consciousness: the patient is aware of where he is and what is happening to him.

Mental disorder is more likely to affect women over the age of 40. Along with hallucinations, they have a feeling of fear, hopelessness and anxiety. They jump up, examine their bodies, brush away non-existent insects.

The characteristic signs of psychogenic itching are:

• Absence of obvious manifestations of diseases and skin lesions;
• the intensity of the manifestations of itching is associated with the psychoemotional state of a person: stress, depression, depression;
• exaggeration of complaints and the presence of self-harm.

Treatment should be carried out under the supervision of a specialist, in severe cases in a specialized clinic.

Little-known diseases: Morgellonian disease.

Recently, more and more reports began to appear about the mysterious and terrible disease of the Morgellons, which was named after the family name in which the child first underwent an unknown pathology. Until now, the disease has not been sufficiently studied by medical scientists in order to give a clear official description of it. There are many versions regarding its causative agent.

In all cases, similar symptoms are described. A person suddenly begins to feel that insects are crawling over his body or a blade of grass tickles him. Not attaching importance to this, he waits for the unpleasant feeling to pass by itself. But the itching only gets worse. Over time, it becomes unbearable. Patients drive themselves to a frenzy, trying to get rid of itching and burning. Cases are described when they open the affected areas, from which something similar to compacted threads comes out.

Among the versions of the onset of the disease, scientists call two the most real.

1. The causative agent of Morgellonian disease is a poorly studied fungus that lives under the human skin, which constantly mutates and takes the form of living fibers. In addition to skin lesions, patients have nervous disorders, loss of appetite, convulsions;
2. the result of eating genetically modified foods. In the process of eating meat, milk, vegetables and other products containing mutant genes, changes occur in the human body, which manifest themselves in the form of this terrible disease.

Currently, one can safely say one thing - the disease is not widespread and, unfortunately, little studied.

Among other versions of her origin:

• Mutation of pathogens of known skin diseases: scabies, shingles, and so on;
• mass media-induced psychosis;
• biological weapons test.

Be that as it may, if you feel that you are haunted by the sensation of insects crawling over your body or you are tormented by persistent itching, see your doctor. With the help of laboratory tests, he will establish the exact cause of the problem and show the way to solve it. Be healthy!