Eczema Doesn’t Just Hurt My Skin — It Also Impacts My Mental Health

Having to live with a skin condition can bring about a feeling of isolation, even when you’re one of many with it. A skin condition that is widely shared among people is eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis. Eczema is a common skin condition that affects millions of people around the world, including nearly 10 percent of the population of the United States according to the National Eczema Association. 

In case you’re not familiar with eczema, it is a chronic condition that causes the skin to become excessively dry and itchy while causing blistering, cracked skin and skin discoloration. Although eczema is quite common, it’s rarely talked about in terms of body image, mental health and how it can trigger anxiety and depression — but in reality, that’s a huge part of living with the condition.

In my experience, living with eczema can be an attack on one’s self-esteem and often changes our self-perception, no matter the age. Eczema can cause self-doubt based on how you believe others view the condition and can give you a flawed sense of reality. It means wearing long sleeves, turtlenecks and pants in the summertime so the dark, distorted skin on my neck, inner folds of my elbow and behind my knees can’t be seen, creating a groundswell of moments I feel I need to lock myself in the house. It means having a dark, irritated ring around my mouth while working in customer service, trying to “look the part” when I felt like a beast. In my worst days, I’d call out to avoid the potential of being unpleasant.

I’ve lived with eczema my entire childhood, through parts of my adulthood, and having the constant need to claw at your own skin is one of the worst feelings. The worst of my bout with eczema was in adolescence and came with a constant uneasiness, hoping that none of my friends or others could see just how bad it was.

Having had eczema in noticeable areas and having to find ways of covering it up also brought about severe anxiety. For me, it triggers a feeling of not wanting to be around people or in social situations due to the noticeable change in appearance and constantly needing to pick at the irritation. Mentally, having a condition like eczema can make others see you as dirty or unkempt, although chances are people who have it are constantly washing to keep the skin moist or maybe just hoping it goes down the drain.

While there are many different remedies, from holistic to over-the-counter and prescription medicines, those of us living with the condition have a never-ending period of trial and error to try to find a treatment that works. I have tried many holistic and prescription treatments that seemed to exacerbate my eczema and further irritate my skin. I have also tried and failed with many over-the-counter topical creams that did absolutely nothing as well.

Going through so many different options that seemed to have worked so well for others can also cause someone to grapple with depression. The reality is there is no one cure, and everyone has a different experience with their eczema. One person’s eczema may be due to dietary allergies, while another may be due to weather conditions or irritants in their laundry detergent. It is not a cut-and-dry solution, and it has to be treated based on the individual.

As a 38-year-old adult, my body will start to itch or irritate almost instantaneously at the slightest use of the wrong soap or detergent, dairy, and even too much sugar in my diet. I spent years having to investigate what exactly was exacerbating my condition versus everything that I was seeing online. Thanks to these efforts, eczema hasn’t plagued me for many years.

As society begins to move into an era when we acknowledge those who live with skin conditions, it’s important that body image is not seen as a linear ideology. Most people who live with conditions like eczema cannot cover the condition with makeup or certain fabrics due to the irritation that erupts from the skin at contact.

By affirming the beauty of imperfection, it gives hope to the many who are living in the shadows. We shouldn’t have to live in fear that we are not good enough or attractive enough, or that we’re in some way cursed because we have anything other than the radiant, glowing skin that’s often advertised as the ideal. Even as those of us with eczema seek treatments and relief, we should all remember that beautiful skin doesn’t have to equal perfect skin. Imperfections are beautiful and worthy too.

Before you go, read about these celebs who’ve shared their health issues to end stigma: