I'm a lip balm addict and I don't care who knows

For as long as I can remember I have had a lip balm addiction.  Laugh you may, but for me it is deadly serious.  If I find myself out without my lip balm, I panic.  I reapply it countless times a day.  I have about a dozen tubes scattered around the house and in my handbag.

You know how they have those quiz things where they ask you which beauty item you would take if you were stuck on a desert island? Lip Balm, back- up lip balm and then fall-back lip balm would be my choice.  I simply couldn’t live without it.  I can’t sleep without it.  If I wake up in the night I reapply.   It’s a sickness I know....

Over the years people have told me that it’s all in my head and that it’s not possible to get addicted to balm.  Turns out, not true! 

Perry Romanowski is a cosmetic chemist and has written a book called Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm?  He says that the addiction many people joke about may actually be real!

"You can't get addicted to lip balm in the way you can get addicted to cigarettes, he said. "That's actually a chemical addiction that affects your brain."

But Romanowski said applying (and re-applying) a layer of gloss can certainly be habit-forming.

Romanowski said the lower layers of the skin produce fresh, new skin cells that die and can dry out by the time they reach the top layer.

"When you put the lip balm on the dry skin, what that does is interfere with the signalling mechanism that signals to the lower cells to start producing more," he said.

"Using lip balm, while it makes your lips feel good initially, when it wears off your skin feels dry again and your skin doesn't have time to replenish that." So you apply more lip balm. And when that wears off, you apply more. And more.

And more! "And so in that way you can get 'addicted'; it becomes sort of a psychological habit."

So now I guess the question remaining is, is it too late for me to change?  Could I stand trying to give up?  Is there a Betty Ford Clinic for lip balm addicts?  How much lip balm and I ingesting every year I wonder?  Should I have it written into my will that in the event of me being incapacitated that someone is to be employed to put lip balm on me every two hours?  Anyway, I’ll sign off now. Must reapply.....