MishaSo… what is eczema really?
Eczema by definition is a chronic (not contagious) inflammatory skin condition that causes dry, scaly and itchy skin, but it is so much more than that. It is just the beginning of a lifestyle you didn’t ask for. It might start of as a small flare, something to brush off but slowly and surely it continues and spread more and more and before you know it, you look like your’re rotting from the outside in. Really and truly, it is from the inside out because whatever is going on interally comes through externally.
Think of it as as a tub – no pun intended. This time around its a tub to contain our waste or better yet, our tolerance to waste. Fill it up with water to a steady level but all of a sudden different things are being thrown in, a bag of rubbish, boxes of stuff, hair dye. Now it looks like a brown bubbling tub filled with waste and suddenly its literally over flowing.
Think of the water as our blood and the waste bags at different potential poisons to you such as pollen, perfumes stress, foods intolerances, hormonal fluctuations that cleaning product you didn’t know was flaring you up. Normally, these things wouldn’t be an issue, however, when our body has hit capacity, our tub overflows. That’s when it spills over into our skin. The skin is our largest organ and largest dumping ground. When something is not wrong on the inside, it will show on the outside. Problem is we can’t exactly see what is going on inside of us can we?
How eczema affected my daily life
This is not to distinguish any hopes of overcoming this. It’s to say this is journey. Not the one I chose, but one I had to accept. I had no idea just how much this condition held me back. Or should I say, how much I let it. The eczema primarily being on my hands stopped my from doing basic tasks like bathing, dishes and creating anything. I even went through a period of not being able to wash my own hair because the burning was unbearable and even when I wore gloves my fingers would still bend and bleed at almost every crevice.
Even when the inflammation would go down I was so used to covering up and limiting my styles and hiding as much of my skin as possible I couldn’t mentally register I wasn’t so bad anymore. I was simply exhausted. You should never underestimate the toll flare ups take on your immunity let alone your mental health. It is a literal reaction happening internally and sometimes you don’t know it is even happening until you see the immergence of the rash or the worsening of your existing flare. It is a horrible experience I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
If this wasn’t annoying enough, I have had to figure these things out through trial and era. As an woman born with eczema and always promised by gps that its a childhood issue, it will clear up by the time you’re 10. Then when I was 10 it was 13. Then when I was 13 it was 16. I remember waking upon my 16th birthday thinking that this was the special age when it would just go away right? Wrong. Spoiler alert, I am now 25 and with all the stress I have been under, I am still overcoming one of the worst flare ups in my life.
I decided to share my recovery story on my private story and although people were supportive of me, one comment that a guy made, or should I say an idiot stuck with me. He reacted asking what the hell happened and said my hands looked like burnt sausages. I did laugh at first because it was accurate and I didn’t think of it like that. But later I cried because it took a lot for me to share and that was my PRIVATE story for heavens sake!
I kid you not, I have tried 9/10 of the things I know that is available to me. I tried different diets, blood type diet, a liquid diet I even went vegan for a year and my skin didn’t budge. I always wanted to one day come out with the miracle product that got rid of my eczema but that didn’t happen… yet. I have had many miracle products, but the key issue with my eczema is once it works, it never works in the same way again. Hence the many miracle products. It always eventually came back and this is why I decided to look at eczema from a holistic point of view.
Secrets stress has in store for you!
We arguable have about 10-11 major body systems. I have hyper fixated on the digestive and lymphatic system and now I have my eyes set on the nervous system, here is why.
After going under expensive tests on my food intolerances, bodily functions and my literal waste I decided to switch it up. Don’t get me wrong, all of these are very important and worth doing but I realised something. When I was younger, I was stressed but I had a lot of hope for the future as I was just a teen. I used to have multiple chocolate bars in a day, gluten, even fizzy drinks until I was 16. My flare ups were very present, a direct correlation from my very poor diet. Yet still, these flare ups did not compare to the magnitude of what I have seen my body go through as an adult, especially after university. I ate my healthiest, I worked out and guess what? My skin was the worst it had ever been. What was the difference between when I ate crap and flared up less to when I was healthier and flared up daily? The stress!
Everyone underestimates the power of stress. I most definingly have. What I have learned is that stress isn’t just about what you can see you’re going through, it is very much the unconscious mind taking control and if you’re anything like me, you have no idea. The subconscious mind accounts for 95% of our brain activity, remember our brain literally runs the show called our body. Whatever intense desires, dreams, ideas to manifest from a soul’s calling perspective that you didn’t go through with? Your body keeps store.
I know it might sound ridiculous, but I wanted to highlight that our body perceives many things as stress. Not just the obvious like our commute, work, kids the daily hustle and bustle. It really can be the “little” or “childish” things we overlook. In my case, it was a whole range of things. Abandoning my dreams of Journalism, content creation, not having that beauty service side hustles because my reliable intense flare ups. Killing my social life – completely, not looking at my body properly for months. The list goes on, trust me. To summaries it, especially with my quarter life crisis, it is a matter of being not even close to where I thought I would be.
What you need to figure out
As I stated before, I am not trying to kill any hope. I’m just venting and hoping you can’t relate. But if you do, I really hope you feel seen. Things are and will get better. Start asking yourself the questions. Start tracking what you do.
What is it that might be stressing me out? Are there any home skin care or cleaning products I feel sensitivities to? What am I eating that my body doesn’t agree with – SPOILER – it is probably what you’re addicted to, that is, if you know you’re addicted. This personally broke my heart but long story short, I found out my beloved chocolate was killing my softly. Indulgent short term comfort in exchange for a viscous flare up showing up about 25-36 hours later. I kid you not it was the difference between my skin being wrinkly that a 100 year old and just having a normal flare it is CRAZY!
I could bang on about eczema and if you’re wondering what to do now, check out my next post here for a some of the most effective routines and products I use and recommendations . Drastically reduce flare ups and clear up that annoying hyperpigmentation scarring. Your GP lied again, it doesn’t have to take years to do away! I’m no longer waiting until I am fully healed to share my story or live my life and I hope you do the same.
If have eczema and experience flare ups, its important to know it is indeed not the end of the world like it convinces you it is. Check out the Eczema awareness page to learn more about it over here.
