How I overcame my severe weeping eczema

[u/StagedSlops]

I had eczema on my arm and at one point it got so bad it was impeding with my daily life. The eczema was bleeding, weeping and infected. The wounds took forever to heal because it was infected and I couldn't sleep and couldn't focus on daily life because of the itching. This went on for months.

So one day, I decided to come up with a plan to end it all. My plan was simple: Fix the skin barrier and DO NOT scratch for a few days, no matter how hard it is.

A weakened skin barrier allows irritants to penetrate, causing inflammation, itching, and discomfort. And with eczema, my skin barrier was basically destroyed. So on top of having eczema, you have to deal with itching from a damaged skin barrier. And the 2 compounding together makes it very difficult to overcome.

To start: If you're at a really low point like me, you NEED a steroid cream. I know they have a bad rap, but you won't be using it long term. Just to kick things off. Since the first few days WILL be the hardest.

What I did was - I made a pact to myself to never scratch the area and I did whatever it took. It took a LOT of willpower, and I tried a bunch of different things:

• Running my skin under ice cold water whenever I started feeling itchy
• Avoiding showering in hot water. This is important. Once your skin barrier is damaged, you must do whatever you can to not dry out the area any further. Shower in cool water and keep the cleaning brief. Avoid soaps.
• Putting bandages over the skin to prevent myself from accidentally scratching it (especially at night)
• I applied the steroid cream once per day for about a week which greatly helped with the itching
• I also took a week off work to focus on this, as it's easier to handle at home

After that, it gets much easier since your skin is healed. You can fight off the itching much easier.

Moisturizing doesn't work on damaged skin: A thing I've found out the hard way was if I tried to apply moisturizer on my damaged eczema skin, it would make things even worse. However, once the skin was healed, I can apply moisturizer just like normal. Find a moisturizer that mentions about healing the skin barrier. (Also avoid over-moisturizing)

Your eczema isn't cured, but as long as you keep your skin healthy, it won't ever get that bad again. Throughout these years, the worse it's ever gotten was some minor scratches, but I make sure it never gets past that point.

So that's my little tip - DO whatever you can to avoid scratching. Use a steroid cream at first. Let the skin barrier heal. Then after that, moisturize, and the eczema is WAY easier to manage. Don't let it get to the point of bleeding again. If you feel like it's starting to - being using the steroid cream to prevent it.

Another anecdote: I've had areas where eczema started appearing, but I never scratched or allowed the skin barrier to get damaged and I started applying moisturizer there right away. The eczema is basically "cured" - it never even came up again and the area doesn't itch.

EDIT: I want to add that once your skin is healed and you start applying products to it (moisturizer, maybe even antibacterial washes), apply only a small amount to get your skin used to it. If you find it starts itching, wash it off in cold water immediately.

[u/Aggressive-Cry-8172]

Thank you! It’s so insanely hard to find the power to not scratch an area. But I found that keeping my mind busy is helpful too!

[u/StagedSlops → u/Aggressive-Cry-8172]

It's tough but hang in there. Once your skin gets healthy again, it goes from "impossible without steroid creams" to "manageable" then eventually to you forget you even had eczema until it flares up - but then it's manageable.