# Eye rubbing pleasure and pain

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-rubbing-pleasure-and-pain/395625>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-rubbing-pleasure-and-pain/395625 "2007-03-12T16:51:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gromehown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@gromehown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gromehown)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-rubbing-pleasure-and-pain/395625/1 "2007-03-12T16:51:07Z")

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Sometimes my eyes get itchy, and I rub them. It starts off feeling great, almost like I’m on the path to an orgasm, and then it abruptly starts feeling like I’m rubbing them with steel wool. If I stop and resume rubbing (because they still itch), more steel wool. What’s the deal here? And a related question - can I damage my eyes by rubbing them? Can they pop?

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**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eye-rubbing-pleasure-and-pain/395625/2 "2007-03-12T19:18:05Z")

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IIRC, the conversation that I had with my optometrist went something like this:

> [@](#):
>
> Don’t rub your eyes. You could scratch your cornea. Don’t rub your eyes.

My WAG is that when you start rubbing, you have sufficient lubrication from your natural tears that it feels good. Once you’ve rubbed them a little bit, the lubrication is gone and it starts to scratch.

Don’t rub your eyes. (Yeah, right)