I have had itching on my upper arms for years now. My doctor is no longer taking me seriously because I'm otherwise healthy. How can I convince him that the itching is driving me crazy?

Chronic itching can be a severe problem. Sometimes the itch can be tracked down, other times it can't. However, even if the cause is found, it isn't always treatable.

In order to help your doctor understand how your chronic itch is affecting your life, you might want to keep a log or diary in which you record when you are itching, what you were doing when it began, and what you did to deal with it.

This type of log serves a few purposes. First, it will show your doctor how often you are experiencing the itching. When a patient tells a doctor that something is happening often or a lot, there is room for interpretation. If you have a log that shows that the itching occurred X number of times in the week and that it lasted X number of hours, that is something more concrete.

Second, the log may help you identify something that you hadn't noticed before by showing you a pattern. Finally, the log can show your doctor how the itching is affecting your life. For example, if the itching is waking you up at night or preventing you from sleeping, this can cause other problems in your life, including health issues.

See if the two of you can work together as a team to figure out how best to help you.