If you want to cause permanent damage to your eyes, then go ahead and keep rubbing them whenever they feel itchy or irritated.
But if you’d like to prevent that from happening, you might be interested in what Dr. Imane Tarib (@dreyetarib) has to say about the practice. The ophthalmologist is begging people to stop this subconscious act.
She posted a viral clip on how folks should go about alleviating their itchy eyes: avoid direct contact with your knuckles and fingers directly on the eye and instead, use the soft tip of a finger to itch around your eyeball, she demonstrates in the video.
Her original video amassed a staggering 19.8 million views, and her follow-up video contained numerous replies from other users on the app who said that they either made pre-existing eye problems worse or induced new conditions due to their eye socket touching. Other healthcare professionals agree with Dr. Tarib, stating that rubbing your eyes is not good.
“You’ll be shocked if you knew the number of patients that tell me this every single day and they’re like, ‘Why did nobody tell me about this before? Why is this not common knowledge?'” Dr. Tarib says. “Eye rubbing is such a mundane thing, how is it causing such damage that now I can’t see well. Well, I’m telling you…”
In another video, Dr. Tarib responds to a commenter who seconded her advice: “Listen to her guys, I used to rub my eyes with all my strength I have keratoconus now.”
Dr. Tarib reinforces her warning to stay away from eye rubbing at all costs with another overlay that reads: “Do not rub your eyes.”
Judging from the comments left by other users on the application, it seems like several folks partake in the ole ocular pat down quite frequently.
“I go to TOWN on my eyes,” one user penned.
Someone else said, “I have eyelids eczema and now I have keratoconus.”
Another asked, “But why does it feel so good?”
The need to rub one’s eyes is a chicken-or-the-egg scenario for some people. Eye conditions influence folks to commit acts of optical touching, which only further exacerbates their issues. As one commenter wrote, “My brother and cousin have this eye condition, they both had bad eczema as children which caused the eye rubbing.”
Another TikToker shared the way they were able to ultimately solve their eye condition. “I use to be bad at this, but got eye lash extensions and stopped, my dark circles and bags DRAMATICALLY got better. Best decision,” they said.
For someone else, it was all about the medicine their doctor prescribed for them: “I used to rub my eyes so much & I had these hard sharp crusties in the corners in the morning. I mentioned it to the optician during a test & he put Me on these eye drops they’re fire I have like four on the go they’re everywhere I even got my mum hooked too.”
Dr. Tarib isn’t alone in the healthcare field who is urging patients to stop touching their eyeballs, Coastal Eye Surgeons echoed a lot of the concerns expressed by several commenters who responded to Tarib’s clip, listing a litany of awful side effects that could occur from rubbing one’s eyes.
First off, rubbing your eyes excessively can turn you into a raccoon and accelerate the aging process. “Broken tiny blood vessels can result in bloodshot eyes, dark under-eye circles, and/or wrinkles,” the site states.
@dreyetarib Replying to @cindyksha #ophthalmology #cornea #keratoconus #ophthalmologistoftiktok #keratoconusawareness #noeyerubbing ♬ original sound – Dr. Imane Tarib, MD 🇲🇦🇺🇸
The eye surgeon site also notes that rubbing your eyes gathers bacteria and germs in and around your eyes.
Sometimes, tiny pieces of shrapnel can get stuck to your finger without you even realizing it. If you’ve already got an eye condition, such as myopia, constantly rubbing your eyes could only make that condition worse—not to mention you’ll be increasing “eye pressure [and] disrupt[ing] blood flow” which could ultimately “result in nerve damage in those with glaucoma.”
Coastal Eye Surgeons also says that, yes, keratoconus, which is the “thinning of the cornea” can be caused by eye rubbing, along with an increasing risk of retinal tears. And if you’ve got allergies, your symptoms will only become more extreme since rubbing eyes ultimately releases more histamine.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Dr. Tarib via email for further comment.