Constant application, on the other hand, can easily lead to dependency and ruined lips, as InsidersHealth.com states: "The lower layers of our skin produce fresh new skin cells, which then die and can dry out by the time they reach the top layer. If you put ChapStick on the dry skin it can interfere with the signaling mechanism that gets your lower cells to start producing more moisture. So while that balm might feel great when you slather it on, it will wear off and leave your skin feeling dry again."

This is the "vicious cycle" that Crossman quotes Dr. Phillips as referring to. It is also the message that Dr. Perricone speaks of, when he warns that lip balm can be bad for lips.

The Solution

The solution for lip balm abusers is simple, as Crossman illustrates on Lip Balm Anonymous. In the same manner in which Alcoholics Anonymous turns to a Higher Power in its 12-step program towards a better life, LBA offers a program that can help lip balm abusers gain mastery of their addiction -- and the first step is, just like Maria Montessori recognized, self-discipline.

As Mary Conroy and Kitty Williams note, "the best Montessori teachers or facilitators understand that maintaining the delicate balance [between freedom and structure] is one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of their job." This challenge is brought into perspective by Montessori's own definition of discipline: "discipline is 'not…a fact but a way'."

Finding that way -- that little breadth of self-renunciation -- is the first step in life free of lip balm.

Yet, it can take more than a few minutes to master: "Discipline presupposes a certain degree of obedience."

Montessori herself states that "obedience appears in the child as a latent instinct as soon as his personality begins to take form."

Obedience, like discipline, is something like a virtue that the child must acquire -- or, in other words, it is a habit that it must attain. Virtues are, after all, merely habits that are good (just as vices are habits that are bad). And while lip balm may seem like a simple solution to dry lips in the beginning, one must keep in mind the wisdom that is inherent in the words "in all things moderation."

Conclusion

While skeptics are hawkers of lip balm like the Carmex million-dollar mogul may argue that there is nothing addictive about lip balm, there are plenty of individual users and dermatologists who beg to differ. The problem is not necessarily in the lip balm itself -- but rather in man. Just as one can over-use anything, whether it is alcohol, drugs, or ChapStick, one needs to remember the simple philosophy of self-control. A habit of self-discipline may be all the stands between you and the next victim of ChapStick addiction.

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