0
0
Are you wondering if you’re experiencing topical steroid withdrawal symptoms or if its just a regular case of eczema or psoriasis? If so, you’ve come to the right spot.
In today’s post, I will be sharing how you can tell if you’re experiencing topical steroid withdrawal symptoms.
I myself have struggled with TSW and so I am excited to help you today on this topic.
But first you may be wondering what even is topical steroid withdrawal?…
Topical Steroid Withdrawal: a condition where the skin experiences sudden redness, intense itchiness, oozing and burning sensations after stopping the use of steroid cream for treating eczema or psoriasis.
Topical Steroid Withdrawal Symptoms could include:
- extreme redness of skin
- intense itchiness of skin
- oozing of skin
- burning sensation of skin, especially after showering, itching or applying cream
- tiredness/lack of sleep
- inability to shower due to discomfort
- inability to do regular activities such as eat, walk, sleep, study, work, exercise etc… due to discomfort and itchiness
- feeling depressed & stressed
- feeling easily agitated
- feeling less patient
- hair loss
What Does TSW Look Like?
Topical steroid withdrawal can make your skin look like you have a sun burn; a huge burning red mark (can be small as well).
These burning red marks can possibly start to appear on just one place on your body but soon it will start rapidly appearing everywhere else on your body. Typically places you’ve never even had a rash before but now you do.
The red marks are not only appearing a burning red colour but you can also feel a mild-severe burning sensation as well. Especially when you shower, itch the spot and apply any products on them.
In some cases, TSW can further lead to the skin peeling and flaking.
How Do You Know If You Have TSW?
I myself have suffered with TSW back in 2020. At the time it was rare. It was known by a few people on the internet but I feel like as of 2022, a greater population of people are experiencing this.
Which gives me a bigger reason to write about this topic and to share briefly my experience. For today I only want to cover the questions that will help YOU figure out if you do have TSW. However, I will share some things I’ve noticed when I found out I had TSW to help you figure out if you’re experiencing TSW symptoms as well…
To sum it up, I grew up with eczema and it was something that I had struggled with since a baby. It will go away and come back. It was also something that was severe as a kid but when I got into my teens, it was just a mild case. I only would ever experience a small rash on the same exact places, which would be where the skin folds (arms and legs) and sometimes on my upper lip.
For years, I’ve been using topical steroid creams to treat my eczema. I always found it helpful since it would clear my rashes pretty rapidly. I only would ever apply it when needed and if it was needed, I would only apply a small amount.
Until in 2020 I noticed it wasn’t helping me anymore with my rashes. I began using it more and more to see if it would help but it only made things worse. I even asked the doctor for a stronger dose of the cream, again another BIG mistake…
I decided to stop the treatment and try natural remedies after realizing that they weren’t helping but something I didn’t know is that once you stop using the steroid creams after using them so frequently, the skin experiences withdrawal symptoms. Hence why they call it topical steroid withdrawal.
After stopping it so suddenly, my skin got even more itchier. Which I didn’t think was possible. I then noticed a huge red mark across my chest.
The spot was extremely itchy and it felt hot. Whenever I would scratch the spot it would feel moist afterwards, only to find out that my skin was actually oozing.
Soon my big red rash on my chest went away and I was extremely relieved, until I started to see them appear everywhere else on my body.
This is when I knew something was not right. This wasn’t just my regular eczema break outs where I get a small itchy rash on a particular spot on my body. This rash was different in a lot of ways.
The itch was something you couldn’t describe to others, it was like I got a mosquito bite but instead it felt like I had them on my entire body causing my whole body to feel intense itchiness and discomfort.
At this point, it was hard to sleep, shower and do anything normally. I remember it was hard to sit down and relax because as much as I wanted to distract myself from the itch, I couldn’t. I would itch 24/7 and I am not over exaggerating when I say that.
The worse part of it was not finding any relief from any sort of products I used. I tried so many natural remedies that I found on the internet such as oatmeal baths, apple cider vinegar baths, various of types of natural eczema creams, the no moisture treatment and none of them helped my skin.
I went through this for about 8 months. Eight months of discomfort until I found something that worked.
If your experiencing something like this, you may be in fact experiencing TSW, especially if you have suffered with eczema and psoriasis in the past and have used topical steroid creams to treat them.
If you recently just stopped using topical steroid creams and are experiencing the symptoms I’ve mentioned, you could be dealing with topical steroid withdrawal.
What Helps Topical Steroid Withdrawal?
If you’re in fact experiencing the symptoms of extreme itchiness, redness, oozing, burning, peeling and flaking of the skin, it is best to see your dermatologist right away. Especially if you had tried many different products and natural remedies for your skin and they still haven’t worked for you, which is now leading to things getting worse…
I personally avoided seeing the dermatologist for 8 months because of the things I would read online from others about avoiding the dermatologist because they will just give you more steroids…
However, dermatologists are experts when it comes to skin and the more I avoided seeking professional help the more I suffered with my skin leading me to a depressive state of mind.
I only had healed after seeking professional help.
But, it’s important for me to mention that there are ALSO people who were able to heal without help from any doctor or dermatologist and ALSO people that were able to heal by using natural methods of healing (not by using medication suggested by professionals)…
Now, everyone’s body is different and everyone will have a different healing journey. At the end of the day you should follow your own gut and instincts when it comes to what you should do to help yourself. Don’t listen to anyone else, not even me. Listen to yourself and trust yourself.
Just because a method didn’t work for everyone else, that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.
If you feel like you need to see a professional then go see one and see what they have to say. If you want to try your own ways of healing then do that as well.
At the end of the day it’s up to you!
My biggest mistake while I was going through TSW is listening to what helped others and listening to what others on the internet advised me to do instead of listening to my gut (which was telling me to go see a doctor).
If I had listened to my self instead of others from the very beginning, I would have probably healed way before 8 miserable months.
Everyone is going to have their opinion on what you should do but its you who’s going to know whats best and even if it will be the wrong decision, at least you tried and you will learn from your mistakes.
How Long Does TSW Last?
How long TSW will last will depend on the person and what they’re doing to help their symptoms.
There are people I’ve seen online who had experienced TSW for months and there are people who I’ve seen deal with it for a year. There may be even people who deal with it much longer.
There really is no specific timeline, everyone’s journey is very different. It all depends on when you find something that finally works for you.
I’ve seen people who had to switch up their diets and people who had to try something called “no moisture treatment” to speed up their healing process.
No moisture treatment is a method of healing TSW symptoms by simply quitting the use of all sorts of moisture such as lotions and creams. This treatment also requires limiting showers and limiting how much water you drink. This treatment is strict however lots of people have found this treatment to be the only way to treat their TSW.
The goal of the treatment is to allow the skin to help restore it’s own moisture and to train the body to not rely on products to treat the skin but rather rely on the body’s own natural capabilities to heal the skin.
There is so much more to learn about the no moisture treatment. It was something I personally have tried and I have my own story to tell about my experience with that however, it is a huge topic to cover in one post.
But if you would like to learn more about the no moisture treatment there are many facebook groups created that shares people’s experiences with it.
This “no moisture treatment group” was the one I was a part of and it was very helpful when it came to wanting to learn more about NMT and TSW. It especially helped me with finding people that can relate to what I was going through and it was an outlet for finding people to talk to who suffer with TSW.
How I Treated My TSW?
Now, some of you are probably curious as to how I treated my TSW and some of you are probably not.
However, if you are curious as to what helped me treat my TSW and what products work for me, I am more than happy to write about it since it will be a long story. So I will definitely write that in a separate post if people are interested.
In that post I’ll also share my in depth experience with TSW and NMT.
But long story short, I tried many different natural remedies like I previously mentioned earlier but they didn’t work for me. Anything I tried on my skin will cause me to feel even more irritated and itchy.
It was honestly horrible!
I then tried the no moisture treatment for a few months but it didn’t work out for me…
I then resorted to seeking professional help where I was put on a medication called “Dupixent” which is an injection used to treat severe eczema. This was the game changer for me and if it wasn’t for this medication, I wouldn’t be where I am at now which is back to normal.
Dupixent is also a topic I want to write about in a separate post and so if you’re interested about learning more about it and my experience with it then definitely let me know in the comments down below!
And so to conclude today’s post, that is the symptoms of topical steroid withdrawal and how you can tell if you have TSW.
I hope you found this helpful and if you have any questions for me about TSW and NMT, leave a comment down below or send a email to saranelle101@gmail.com!
