My Topical Steroid Skin Addiction and Withdrawal Story

This is my arm off steroids after 10 weeks of no steroid cream for the first time since I was a toddler. My whole story can be found on my website called "Red Skin Syndrome" along with other skin friend's steroid cream addiction and withdrawal stories. My story is not that rare and I found that out after Googling steroid cream addiction several months after trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I found this site by a lady named Kelly, that described exactly what I had "Addicted Skin and Red Skin Syndrome."

I've always had eczema as far back as I can remember. My dad and brother had it and my family always talked about how bad my eczema was as a toddler. No one knew how I got it or how to get rid of it, so my mom just did her best to control the terrible skin condition. As a child, the eczema was worse on the backs of my knees and inside my elbows. My mother put socks on my hands at night and pinned them to my pajamas to keep me from scratching, but I actually chewed holes through the socks to scratch the itchy skin. The battle raged and somewhere along the line I remember my mom rubbing some ointment on my eczema spots and it seemed to work magic!

My dad began taking minerals for his eczema and hay-fever, which seemed to help stop both conditions, but I guess they never thought of giving me minerals. As I got older I developed severe migraine headaches around the age of 9 and had them until about 13 years old. the doctor told me to leave oranges, tomatoes, tuna, cheese and chocolate alone. I did for the most part but did not see too many problems when I did eat them. I think the steroid cream was suppressing any reactions to anything. Topical steroids do the work that your body would normally do, but the problem is when I lightened up for a while, the rebound would happen.

Things that did trigger the eczema and headaches were mold, mildew and strong smelling chemicals. I still have multiple chemical sensitivity and cannot tolerate those things. I also try to follow a diet of raw, fresh foods from local farms and heath food stores as most of the conventional foods are full of chemicals and toxins. Read this article about the poisoning of our food chain to see what I'm talking about.

I had a steady supply of topical steroids to keep my eczema under control and made sure that I stocked up with extras, as I would rub this 'magic" cream on like it was lotion. Every day I applied it to my hands and once in a while on a spot just to the right of my left eye. The most common steroid cream I used was Triamcinolone Cream and it is in the mild range of topical steroids. Notice the steroid side side-effects in the bottom section of the article? This should be in red caps!

I don't ever remember putting the steroid cream on the eczema spot on my face except for the past couple of years, because it seemed to be on my forehead now and that never happened before. I might have put it on that spot about 5 or 6 times in the past two years.

Everything always seemed to be okay except for two times when my face broke out in a horrible eczema flare. I was 13 and 23 when that happened and I attributed the whole mess to stress, which probably did play a part in it, but I now think it was my cessation of the steroid cream long enough to trigger a rebound effect. I would go without the dream for days and maybe even weeks if the eczema stayed gone.

My face was so bad both times, that I could not go to school for three weeks when I was 13 and stayed housebound for three weeks when I was 23. I don't remember how it cleared up, but I did not use the steroid cream on my face, but I always did on my hands because my fingers cracked and bled easily.

This is not an easy journey and if you read the whole story on my website, you will see why I have stopped topical steroids and why so many other people are stopping the use of these dangerous drugs. You cannot suppress the immune system, adrenals and normal body functions for years or even months and expect no backlash. I am in my seventh month of steroid cream withdrawals and although the worst of it is over, I have a long, uphill journey to being healed and whole again. The good news is that I will heal and so have others, so I continue to hang on to hope, healing and a healthier tomorrow.

The steroid cream rebound effect can happen to anyone who uses these ointments for a period of weeks, months and years. Dr. Marvin Rapaport is the Beverly Hills dermatologist that discovered the terrible side effects of the topical steroids and has treated over 2,000 patients for the withdrawals.

One of the red skin support group friends is the mother of a nine year old girl going through steroid cream withdrawals. This should not be! I warn all parents to read every bit of information on the steroid side effects before subjecting your child to this. The natural methods of healing do work, if you give them a chance. Diet changes away from lots of grains and gluten, avoid lots of processed foods and food dyes, avoid soy-based products which are very prone to cause allergic reactions and avoid chemical sunscreens and skin lotions with chemicals to begin the healing process for the skin. Use all natural products and give the child a diet of organic and natural foods. Drugs are not the answer for sure.

I was part of a phone conference with several other steroid withdrawal friends and him in June 2011. He explained to addiction and withdrawal process of steroid creams and that half of all people who use them become addicted. He and a Japanese dermatologist, Mototsugu Fukaya MD, JDA, are trying to get the Association of Dermatology on board about the dangers of topical steroids.

Unfortunately, the money seems to be a bigger concern for the medical community because they get very little support. I no longer trust the FDA, AMA or GOV. with my health issues. I am my own health advocate and will blow this horn as loud as I can~ STEROID CREAMS ARE DANGEROUS.

An excellent book that explains the way our ancestors ate and what makes us healthy. We can eat grass-fed meat, good fats, raw dairy and foods that we were meant to eat. I have the book and use it as a reference often.

I bought this book in 2000 and it changed my life. My fibromyalgia, back pain and many digestive ailments improved drastically. My skin would have healed if it was not for the topical steroids, but I am convinced that skin allergies and any other health issues will improve with a diet geared more towards fresh foods that we were designed to eat.

Weston Price had the same theory as holistic doctors today. Our foods are either healing or destructive to our body. I highly recommend reading any or all of these books to bring a healing change to your life.

Fat-free everything has not been a healthy diet for our society at all. Everything the FDA and so-called experts told us about fat was a lie. We need real butter, coconut oil and God-given saturated fats to stay healthy. Read it all in this book and if you dare, watch this revealing movie about our food supply!