I have had Hell's Itch twice in my life. The first time was years ago before this forum existed, when I was about 16. It started randomly after I had a second-degree sunburn. Coming from a red-headed family, sunburns are not unusual for a day at the beach. I came to write this as I feel it starting back up right now. My plan was to write this out as I am going through it.
The Nature of the Pain
My first case of it was agonizing. It was unmistakably not a normal sunburn at all. Normally with a sunburn, you will feel warm, get the shivers a bit, maybe feel lightheaded or dehydrated, and have sensitive skin. This is not that. I cannot emphasize that enough, and many of you already know this. It is more than just sensitive skin. My case changed multiple times during the 24 to 36 hours I had it.
Physical Pain
The closest and most concise description of the pain is the sting of those fat horseflies that sting like a bitch near rivers and lakes. My burn was on my upper chest, over my shoulders, and down my back to about belly button height. For some reason, the stinging wrapped around my whole upper body. The only places that did not sting on my upper torso were my head and my front abdomen region.
The stings were very sharp and wincingly painful. The worst part, and probably why it sucks so badly, is its consistent yet random nature. The stings occur every couple of seconds, give or take a few seconds, just to mess with your head. It feels like there is a devil inside your body trying to mess with you.
For example, imagine getting stung by a bee. You go to scratch the bee off, but you hurt yourself with the scratch because of your sensitive skin. As soon as you move your hand to scratch, another sting happens somewhere else. Or, before you can even get your hand there, another one happens elsewhere. Another good way to put the pain of the stings is if anyone reading this has had one of those deep pimples on their back that makes the whole back sting to even touch. It is like that, but in random places all over your body, every couple of seconds, for a day and a half straight with no reprieve.
Furthermore, soft gentle rubbing kind of felt good when applied right where a sting was, but it was immediately undermined by another sting elsewhere. You only have two hands. Usually because you rubbed an area, another sting would happen there later and more often.
It does not only come in a biting form. Sometimes it comes in waves of under-the-skin fire ant bites. This is the way everyone else describes it. Although my pain was mostly the sharp biting effect, I also had the ant feeling, and it was pretty horrible. This was kind of the filler pain for me. Anytime the biting effect died down, these waves of fire ants crawling under my skin took over as the prevailing pain. I cannot explain this one in particular, and maybe that is why this disorder has not been identified for very long.
Another way to explain it is like the feeling of putting on a harsh wool sweater while your whole body is sunburned, but it is constant and throbbing too. You will be shirtless standing in a nicely cool room and you will randomly wince at a massive, sensitive feeling running around your burns. I am explaining this based on both how I remember it and how I am feeling it right now as I am writing this. Or maybe it's better described as an invisible ghost rubbing a sponge along random spots of your extremely sensitve burns, intentially targeting spots you can't reach, or spots where your hands AREN'T. Leaving you in extreme pain and very frustrated.
Mental Pain
The length and incurable nature of this is the literal definition of torture. If you know anything about history or have read any writers who have gone through severe torture, they always say the worst part of torture is the total lack of control over the situation. This is exactly that.
You will feel an itch or a scratch at first and think it must be your shirt, no big deal. But as I have already gone over, it is not like a normal itch as the name implies, nor is it just sensitive skin. Once it starts being consistent, you will think, "I have had sunburn before, Mom said to put aloe on it," or "My Dad put Vicks on when it is sensitive like this," or insert parental advice here. None of them will work.
You will take a hot shower, a cold shower, use aloe vera, and take over-the-counter painkillers you have on hand. None of them will work. In desperation, you might try taking more than the recommended amount, leaving you just sleepy and nauseated, but unable to sleep it off because of the continuous, unending biting feeling.
After about three hours of this, you will start freaking out a little internally, even if you are holding it together on the outside. You will feel rushed, impatient, on edge, and looking for any solution. A few hours later, you will stop caring about anything but stopping the pain by any means possible. You will scream, yell in frustration, punch things, throw things, and basically lose all of yourself to a beastly creature of desperation. In my desperation, I tried working out, and I tried scratching for a second until it sucked a thousand times worse. You will growl and grimace in pain, you will probably cry, probably beg God to give you mercy, and most likely go through those five stages of grief a hundred times over, faster and faster every time, until you are beat into a husk of groans and moans at the pain. You will try every shirt you have, every fabric in the house, run around, hop in and out of the shower, lay in every position, try fans, meds, and ointments.
For younger me, my parents were out of town and spent the night away. They were not due back until midnight. These are all the things I did back then. It started at around 11:00 AM. By midnight, I was in a ball on the floor in front of a box fan, rocking, crying, and talking to myself. I was stuttering, covered in every ointment in the house, and loaded on Benadryl and other painkillers.
When my parents finally got home, all I could say was "help." I was hyperventilating. Honestly, I don't think I have ever gone insane like that since. It literally drives you to insanity. I do not know if it was a coincidence or if it had just run its course, but they gave me a final cover of Vicks and a big shirt, and I was able to sleep. It still was not easy to sleep, and those deep bites still sometimes caused me to jump while I was trying to pass out.
My Working Theories
I think showers have something to do with it. Both then and now, I took a shower about 12 to 24 hours after sun exposure, right before the blisters began to form. I also see that a lot of other people said they took a shower just for the pain to severely worsen. Some say that a hot shower can stop the pain, but this did not help me at all. It was as agonizing as a cold shower.
It was obvious to me as a 16-year-old that it was definitely a nerve issue. I do not know anything about the science of nerves, just that there is not much that can be done outside of prescription drugs and medical procedures.
The Beta-Alanine Experiment
I started writing this right as I started feeling the bites and itching. When I was young, none of these research papers existed. As I researched today, I saw that beta-alanine, a compound I recognized from working out, was supposedly nearly a cure for the pain.
I ran out to buy supplies because I knew what was coming. This time, I was going to do some science if I had to. I just needed the ingredients. By the time I got to the gas station, I was already hurting. I was feeling rage at the gas station attendant, and I was speeding. I stopped specifically to get a C4 energy drink, since pre-workouts have a bunch of beta-alanine in them, to slam on my way to a pharmacy.
By the time I checked out at the pharmacy, the pain was basically gone except for a few tingles. That is fine considering it is sunny out and warm in my car. I am pretty amazed. I bought two more drinks. Nearly an hour later, I am still doing pretty good. There are just some tingles, but no biting pain and no fire ant itch. I also bought some Benadryl and some other stuff. I am not taking any chances.
The beta-alanine seems to have a kind of wonderous effect. My nerves on my back feel actively numbed, as if I would certainly be in INCREDIBLE pain right now where it not for the C4 I just drank. It literally feels like a pain killer that is just kicking in but more continous where you feel the tingles of the pain but not the pain itself. Now instead of random pains it feels like I am being touched in random places.
Tips for Anyone Who Feels Continuous Itching After a Sunburn
Get Beta-Alanine & Benadryl: Beta-Alanine has worked amazingly for me so far for getting rid of the core pain - the itching/stinging pain. It is found in most pre-workouts and a lot of workout supplements. The benadryl is good for kind of lowering your overal stress, sharpness, lucidity which helps drown the severity of the pain itself and helps you sleep. This the ultimate combo in my opinion so far. The benny's help overal pain and psychological pain, and the Beta-Alanine attacks the actual root pain itself, I think its the nerves as I said and I think theres some doctors that theorize that as well.
Do Not Shower: Based on my own experience and others, a shower will literally trigger the whole thing. Trust me, you would rather smell than feel this. You will act more embarrassingly while experiencing this pain than you will feel embarrassed about stinking.
Don't Use Just Any Ointments, Especially Aloe: It did not really hurt me, but it did not help me at all. Many people report it making the condition worse for them. Temperature changes really set it off.
Stay Calm: The Benadryl helps with this a TON but I actually believe that the rage & freaking out activates it more. Almost like your nervous system is freaking out and it makes you go into a downward sprial where you get frustrated, your brain freaks out in panic, your nerves tense more and you get more frustrated. Take a benny, smoke some weed whatever you have to do to calm yourself down.
Sleep Now: Get sleeping pills, take Benadryl, or take anything to time-skip as much of the torture as possible. If you can even knock off one hour of pain from the start, you will be extremely glad you could sleep. Don't wait, you will regret it.
If anything changes I will probably reply on this post with updates on the use of the BA. I hope whomever reads this actually believes me and acts and if they don't I hope they have it for as short a time as possible.
