Growing up with eczema

unfinishedsimphonie:

(because everybody thinks all we have to do is put on lots of lotion and not scratch)

• waking up in pain with blood all over your sheets
• being afraid to go to sleep because you can’t control your scratching when you’re asleep
• having to do your laundry all the time because dead skin cells are everywhere
• everything burns in the shower, even when you use cold water
• no hot water: no hot showers, no hot tubs, no hot springs
• not being able to go on sleepovers or travel to certain places because you can’t pack your humidifier or air purifier or the climate will fuck you up or there are just too many allergens there
• if you ever do feel like going anywhere, having to pack your entire medicine cabinet (gauze and bandages included)
• having to be careful with anything you put on your skin: makeup, lotions, etc…
• clothing: as a child, cotton only – no jeans, no polyester, nope
• when eczema breaks out on your face or any visible part of your body, and people are afraid of being near you for fear of catching some horrible disease. also people just straight up staring at you
• hiding at home because you feel like the ugliest person in the world
• not being able to wear short sleeves or shorts because you’re afraid of people seeing your scars
• the only medications that work have horrible side effects…like topical steroid withdrawal or increasing the risk of skin cancer
• being the really annoying friend with all the food allergies
• not being able to exercise when you want to because you’re allergic to your own sweat or your joints are too inflamed to move
• not being able to cry because your eyelids might break out
• landing in the hospital because of life-threatening skin infections

…just sorta needed to get this off my chest