32-year-old woman publishes photo diary showing "raw red" skin after ditching steroid creams for eczema

A woman published a graphic photo diary of her "raw red" setback after giving up steroid creams for her eczema.

Larissa Carey, 32, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, has been using this powerful medicine religiously since her diagnosis at the age of nine months.

After finding that the creams were ineffective during her adult life, where stress worsened her skin considerably, Miss Carey abandoned them in January 2018.

It is thought that she has developed a topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), a painful skin reaction that occurs in reaction to a reduction in steroid-based creams.

She was left "in bed with pain," which led to her prescribing immunosuppressive drugs and antibodies, which greatly helped.

Miss Carey, a boating teacher, had just moved in with her partner, Robbie Taylor, 26, when his skin got worse because of TSW.

She said, "When I stopped using the creams, Robbie and I had just bought our first home together.

"It should have been that wonderful moment, but instead, I was in bed with the pain. I'm only 30, but I felt 100 years old.

"I knew how important it was to push me out to see people or do things, but I just wanted to hide.

"I was so worried that people are watching, and when it's something like skin that you can not even cover, it's even more destructive of the soul."

The doctors hoped that Miss Carey, who had been fighting eczema for most of her life, would eventually get out of it.

One in five British children have eczema at some point. But 60 to 70% will get rid of this disease in adolescence.

Miss Carey intermittently used small doses of steroid creams prescribed throughout her childhood.

"I would find that the sun and sea water were a great help," said Miss Carey. "I remember that my eczema was particularly painful for my joints and that I was blamed for scratching in clbad.

"But, now that I think back, it's far from being as serious as dealing with TSW."

Instead of calming down, Miss Carey's eczema became more severe in adulthood, although stress was the only trigger she was able to identify.

She said, "I'm looking back now and I'm trying to determine the trends, to review what was happening in my life at times and to try to understand why that would improve or worsen the things.

"The main trigger that I found was stress. I've tried my best to minimize it in my life, but sometimes it's out of our control.

"There is a lot of pressure in life now. People are so busy and want to do everything as quickly as possible. There are also things like social media and how it allows us to compare ourselves to others.

"They look like small micro-stress, but they can all add up without you realizing it."

As the condition of her skin worsened, the use of steroid cream by Miss Carey increased.

By 2015, she was applying it every few hours, after being asked to use it as much as she needed it.

But it turned out that the more she used the less she became effective.

Miss Carey said, "You see this word steroid and you know that it's not something you want to use every day.

"In the end, the creams did not bring me any relief.

"I always had to bandage my wrists and arms every night to minimize scratches while sleeping, and I had to be very careful about the products or materials I put on my skin.

"Before, I loved cosmetics and I had all that beautiful makeup I could not use. I could only apply a moisturizer on my face or use the prescribed shower gel. & # 39;

At the end of January 2018, Miss Carey decided to definitively abandon steroid creams.

Miss Carey was absolutely not prepared for the stern reaction to come.

In March, her skin – especially on her face – was tight, red and raw, as if she had been burned.

After posting photos to some online support groups for an opinion on eczema, another victim mentioned TSW for the first time and, after reading this information, Miss Carey became convinced of it. .

Many have described the "condition" as "fad". This badociation has been recognized by the National Eczema Association since 2013.

Miss Carey said, "I contacted friends who work in the field of medicine and they sent me studies to read. The condition is so unknown, especially since controlled studies are virtually impossible, because they would mean that eczema treatment is denied to someone who really needs it.

"But the only change I could have imagined about it had been triggered, it was to get out of the cream."

Things continued to deteriorate and Miss Carey's entire body was affected.

"I was getting to the point where even the shower was leaving me in tears, so it was painful and my skin was so raw that I could not even wear underwear," she said. .

Miss Carey had no choice but to begin treatment with cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant, which had been proposed by a dermatologist in April.

She also consulted with a naturopath to discuss alternative therapies, as well as a hypnotherapist and a cognitive-behavioral therapist to deal with emotional disorders.

Miss Carey said, "People do not understand and think it's ridiculous to say that about a skin condition, but there were really times when I wondered how I was doing it. would go through, if the rest of my life was going to happen. to be like that.

"Everyday things that you take for granted were so difficult, like undressing for a shower. Not only was it painful, but I did not want to have to look at myself either.

"Fortunately, I feel much stronger, although not knowing why this has happened, and living with something so unpredictable is always very difficult."

Miss Carey has now stopped taking cyclosporine and is starting treatment with an antibody called a duplimab, but she is still having flares.

She urges doctors to treat eczema patients globally, as she does, rather than just prescribe steroid-based creams.

In 2015, general practitioners in England wrote about 27 million prescriptions of topical agents used in the treatment of atopic dermatitis (eczema) at a cost of about £ 169 million, according to Allergy UK.

Miss Carey said, "There is a time and place for steroid treatments. Everyone is different and can help some people, but we also need to look at triggers such as stress and diet.

"Every trip is different and people have to do what they can to help themselves."

"In my mind, there is a clear link between mental health and skin problems. Stress is a huge trigger, and you are forced to feel depressed when there is no end in sight and all you are doing is making a huge decision as to whether this will make your skin better or worse.

"We are starting to talk better about mental health, but we still need to change our approach and see things as a whole."