I am a woman and I realized I had this problem while I was in a relationship. I had decided to stop that annoying lip biting habit. Lo and behold, lip peeling hell. I was trying to get my lips to heal and stop peeling, so I stopped kissing him altogether. He was surprisingly understanding, even though it drove me crazy. I was paranoid about it for months. Once I decided to use my lips normally and exfoliate as needed, I hardly worried about it. It's really not worth the stress. Unless they find that in the long run exfoliating is harmful as it causes cancer or something, I'll keep doing this as long as I need to and not let it have a major effect on my life.

I know exactly what your saying. Every day at work thats all i heard... "you need to find a girl man. When you gonna find a girl?" blah blah blah, and of course got the infamous "are you gay or something?" line a few times, but in all honesty i found it pretty funny, especially that my co-worker was a foreigner so listening to him try and squeeze that one out in english was pretty amusing.

But it sucks man. It sucks more on the fact of being alone then it does what others think of me. And their was one girl i really, really loved. And i mean LOVED, this wasn't no puppy love, she was it man and oddly enough she had a crush on me for years too, and i lost her because of this stupid ailment. And its on subjects like these that i go from sad to completely pissed off.

This is why Derms drive me crazy, you know why because they don't care, don't alow yourself to think any different. Dermatologists don't care about cures, they get payed by the visit, so even if all these stupid steroids and other things don't work we have to pay for them anyway. Derms care only about the $. They basically pull patients in and say "Well we will try this, and then we will try this, then this, then this, and this, and that and if none of those work...well your screwed... but its okay i got payed for it." They don't even try to find the route cause of exactly whats going on, they just keep trying meds without any intelligent reasons for doing so. Its the derms fault there is no cure, not ours. We need doctors man. With all the medical technology we have today theres no reason we should have to live this way. Theres no reason we should dread going to work or school, or hate being in the public eye, or absolutely loath the idea of going out to eat with our friends with fears of how our lips will react, or avoid going under water while swimming, or avoid going skiing or snowboarding in the winter, and we damn well shouldn't have to be alone through all this. I've learned to deal with this problem as best as i can and i try my best to put it out of my head, that doesn't mean i'm able to ever enjoy these simple activities listed above as well as many others. When ever i'm asked to do something by friend or family i must figure wether my lips can pull through the night before saying "yes." Its pathetic.