Why I’ve Started This Blog

Like many of you out there, I suffer from chronic allergy, eczema and sensitive skin issues that for years I’ve kept hidden from pretty much everyone but my family and very close friends. Until recently, hiding it has been pretty easy most of the time. Sure I’ve had a few random oddly placed eczema outbreaks that just couldn’t be hidden, but that’s for another post. To hide my eczema and oh-so-sensitive skin, I’ve resorted to some pretty common things, like wearing something with sleeves to hide those nasty little bumps and patches that pop up on the insides of my elbows and the under side of my arms with the change in seasons. As for allergies, while I have quite the laundry list of allergies that I’ll be posting in the future, I can sum it up in a few key words: cats, dust and POLLEN (my sworn enemy for life!). I can *thankfully* easily stay away from almost anything that would trigger some sort of reaction, and so it’s pretty easy for me to hide that whole set of problems..

Anyway, I’m starting this new blog for a bunch of reasons. For one thing, I’m hoping that documenting my trials and tribulations with skin issues could be somewhat cathartic and possibly help relieve some of the stress having skin problems can create. It may sound silly to say that skin issues are incredibly stressful, but have no doubt, skin issues are not just physically painful. They can be rather emotionally painful as well. I would never wish my skin issues on my worst enemy (except maybe pollen…if it were a person….or…whatever, pollen sucks!). Eczema outbreaks of any kind are rather unsightly, so when you’re having one, you worry what it looks like to others, or what they might think, or if you’ll get odd looks, or sympathy looks, or asked what’s wrong with you or if you’re sick or something….the concerns go on and on, which in and of itself is stressful. It’s stressful to be concerned what it looks like to you let alone others, then you realize you’re stressing over the appearance, which in turn stresses you out even further! As you can see, it’s a vicious cycle of stress and emotional pain. I’m one of those people who worries a lot and stresses over many things big and small. So when I’m having an outbreak, I’m one big ol’ ball of stress, and I can’t keep it in, because It builds and eventually I just break down and cry it out. This is only temporarily helpful, because the crying doesn’t make the eczema go away…it just lets off some steam. The minute I’m done, I see the eczema outbreak again, get upset, and the cycle starts anew. I want to stop bottling it all up because I’m very tired of crying over this. Instead I’m going to try writing about all of this and hope that it helps me.

Another huge reason I am starting this blog is the hope that I might be able to help others who also suffer from chronic eczema, allergies, and sensitive skin issues. I am going to share all the various treatments I am using or have already tried with as much detail as I can give and who knows? Maybe one of those treatments will help someone else, regardless of the outcome for me. I also know how tough it is to deal with these problems and knowing you’re not alone can be quite the relief at times.

So, there it is. Why I’ve started this blog. I can’t say how often I’ll post, or what a typical post will be like, but I can promise that I will do my best to share all of my experiences.

~Christina