Why Do I Have Superstitions About My Nose Itching?

Superstitions can be harmless—and are pretty common. You might know someone who has to wear the same shirt every time their favorite sports team plays because their team won the first time they wore it. You may even have your own superstitions, such as knocking on wood for good luck or not opening your umbrella indoors.

However, there are instances where superstitious beliefs and actions could cause concern. For example, many people believe that when your nose itches, it indicates something happening in the future—whether good or bad. When thoughts like a superstition about your nose itching are detached from self-awareness, or when they feel like something you can’t control and bring a sense of fear, it can cross the line into something more serious, like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), says NOCD therapist Amalia Sirica, LCSW.

Here’s a deeper look into the nose-itching superstition, its connection to OCD, and how you can seek help if needed. 

What does it mean when your nose itches?

Superstitions are beliefs or behaviors that aren’t entirely based on facts or reality but are heavily rooted in many cultural traditions or individual experiences. Many people believe in superstitions because it gives them a sense of control over their lives and can relieve anxiety about the unknown. So, what exactly does the nose-itching superstition entail? There are a number of interpretations, including:

• Someone wants to see you.
• You’ll have an unexpected visitor.
• You’re going to become angry.
• You will be kissed.
• Someone is thinking about you.

Superstitions aside, an itchy nose likely indicates health-related issues like seasonal allergies, a cold, or dry skin. 

Is it a superstition about my nose itching something I should seek help for?

Let’s be clear—for the most part, there’s nothing wrong with being a little superstitious. “There’s a lot of cultures where superstitions are a very common experience and practice,” says Patrick McGrath, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer at NOCD. 

However, things can become concerning if a superstition is debilitating and brings a lot of distress into your life. “If you don’t have any wood to knock on, is your day ruined until you can find some, or would you be able to move on?” asks Dr. McGrath. If you feel that you have to perform a certain behavior or action to prevent something bad from happening, then your superstitious beliefs can “cross the line into OCD,” he says.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a highly treatable mental health condition characterized by obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are intrusive thoughts, images, urges, and feelings that can cause a lot of fear and anxiety. Compulsions are physical or mental actions performed to relieve the distress caused by obsessions or to prevent something awful from happening.

What’s the difference between OCD and being superstitious?

On the surface, superstitiousness and OCD have a lot in common. For one, both commonly include the carrying out of rituals. They also are not often based on logical reasoning or fact. 

More importantly, both tend to contain an element of magical thinking. Magical thinking refers to a cognitive distortion—a fancy way to say “an error in thinking”—where you feel like your thoughts will cause an external outcome. “There’s a sense that your inner world creates your outer world,” explains Sirica.

A large body of research has corroborated the link between OCD and magical thinking. Because of their similarities, some research has even looked into superstitiousness and OCD as being part of a continuum or two points on a spectrum. 

Despite similarities between OCD and superstitiousness, Sirica notes a major difference. When superstitiousness comes from a place of spirituality or communal ritual, “there’s usually some sense of enjoyment there,” she says. “With OCD, there’s no enjoyment—just a lot of distress.”

Magical thinking OCD

If you’re experiencing distress around a nose itching superstition, you could have an OCD subtype or theme known as magical thinking OCD. 

According to Dr. McGrath, this OCD subtype revolves around the belief that your thoughts have the power to make things happen. People with magical thinking OCD might think along the lines of “‘I will be responsible if something happens because of a thought about it, so I have to neutralize it within a certain time frame, or else I am a really bad person because I didn’t make something go away,’” explains Dr. McGrath.

Your “superstitions” could actually be an obsession—for example, you may think that every time your nose itches, it “means something.” This might take shape as many “what if?” questions: “What if something bad is about to happen because my nose is itching? The last time my nose itched, I got a stressful phone call from my boss—what if I’m going to be fired?”

If you have magical thinking OCD, you may also engage in superstitious behaviors or rituals. Perhaps you scratch your nose in exactly the “right” way every time to prevent that “bad thing” from happening, or you try to “neutralize” the superstitious thoughts or fears by replacing them with “good” thoughts.

Other common compulsions of magical thinking OCD include:

• Rumination. This is the act of severe overthinking. You turn the same thought, worry, question, or image over and over in your head, hoping to “think your way out” of or “solve” a particular fear. You may, for example, ruminate on your nose-itching superstition. 
• Reassurance-seeking. Those with OCD often seek reassurance from others, from themselves, and/or from the internet. This can look like asking a friend, “Do you think everything is going to be okay?” Or you may repeat to yourself, “Of course, everything is going to be okay.” It can also look like endlessly googling information about your superstitions. 
• Avoidance. When done compulsively, this is the act of avoiding the triggers that set off your intrusive thoughts—such as places, situations, people, or topics of conversation. There’s a sense that as long as you avoid these triggers, you can ward off intrusive thoughts indefinitely. 
• Distraction. You may distract yourself from triggers and uncomfortable feelings by watching TV, going on social media, thought-stopping, or constantly needing to be around others. 

The trick of compulsions is that they provide short-term relief while worsening OCD in the long run. They reinforce your belief that intrusive thoughts are a threat that needs to be given attention and “solved.” 

Treating magical thinking OCD

Magical thinking OCD—in addition to all subtypes of OCD—is treatable with exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. ERP is a specialized therapy clinically proven to be highly effective, with 80% of people seeing a significant improvement in their OCD symptoms. 

Here’s how it works: a trained therapist specializing in ERP will take the time to understand your nose itching superstition and create a custom therapy plan for you. You’ll then begin confronting the situations that trigger your worries and other symptoms through intentional exposures. From there, you’ll actively learn to resist the urge to engage in compulsions for a sense of relief—which are exercises known as response prevention techniques.

For magical thinking OCD, your therapist might simply show you a photo of something that symbolizes your superstitious fears. The fearful thoughts—like the idea that something terrible will happen—will likely come up, but instead of responding with a compulsion, you’ll learn to tolerate the discomfort, allowing it to subside over time.

As your therapy progresses, you’ll tackle triggers that elicit a bit more distress to conquer bigger fears. With a specialty-trained therapist guiding you, you’ll practice confronting your fears in your everyday life, too, instead of just in the controlled setting of therapy, so you learn to handle them on your own.

Bottom line

Many people are superstitious for various reasons, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Superstitions like nose-itching can become an issue if you’re constantly obsessing over them to a point where they interfere with your day-to-day responsibilities and mental well-being. If you suspect you have magical thinking OCD, please consider reaching out to an ERP therapist for help.