Woman Reveals Adult Thumb-Sucking Habit
A 33-year-old tech entrepreneur has taken to Facebook to reveal that she still sucks her thumb, seeking suggestions on how to stop the habit. In her post, she explained that her dentist recommended braces for her teeth, but she has refused because braces would obstruct her thumb-sucking, which she says scattered her teeth in the first place.
Thumb as a Pacifier
She wrote: "My dentist don call me tire, I kinda told him that he will not understand the role my thumb sucking is playing in my life. It’s my own pacifier. Like when I am sad, it calms me down and I will rather manage my scattered teeth than learning how to cope with my Thumb."
According to her father, Papa Ekwy, the habit started at birth. She recounted: "He said that immediately I was born and the nurse handed me to him, the first thing he heard was the clicking of my lips and tong sucking and while he was still trying to understand what I was doing, I pushed my thumb into my tiny mouth."
Previous Attempts to Stop
The woman mentioned that people suggested applying bitter leaves to her thumb, but she noted that as a child, she would wake up suckling bitter leaves. The longest she stayed without sucking her thumb was when she had a wound on it that prevented her from doing so until it healed. "Before it healed, I was happy telling everyone that I have stopped until …"
She added: "Truth is, I have gotten just so good at controlling how and where I suck my thumb but in terms of stopping, that will be hard. Me sef don try. The outcome of me sucking it outweighs the consequences. I hardly get upset because once I starts sucking my thumb, you and what you did doesn’t exist in my world anymore. It put me to sleep too."
Public Reactions
Her story has elicited reactions from others who also sucked their thumb into adulthood, with many sharing their own experiences and advice on how to stop.
