*My month 36 update can be found here*
I apologise for the overuse of capital letters in my title but I can't contain my excitement as today marks exactly 3 years since I started Topical Steroid Withdrawal. On the evening of Thursday 6th June 2013 my life changed forever and what an extraordinary three years it's been. Since last August I have been living my life normally and it still feels like a dream. It's like that moment in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy steps out into the land of Oz and everything is suddenly in vivid, beautiful technicolour after 26/27 months spent in black and white. I don't need to go into how hard this process is - it takes everything from you both emotionally and physically but it also puts you back together again so you end up a stronger, happier, healthier version of you. On my two year TSW anniversary things were very different. From the beginning of my withdrawal I knew it would take at least two years to get better but when that second year marker came around, the only word I can give you for how I felt was disappointed. I looked at my hands, face and left ankle that I couldn't walk on and just felt down. I would never have gone back to steroid creams as they had caused all this in the first place but I worried that I would be stuck in this stagnant, crappy phase forever and this was my new skin that I just had to get used to. Only a couple of months later things completely changed. Suddenly my skin was wonderful. It is hard to put into words just how grateful I am for this process and hearing about TSA as it's changed me. I am a completely different person to the girl I was three years ago and I would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant I would be in the place I am today.
Topical Steroid Withdrawal has been hands down the best thing that has ever happened to me. Deciding to go through TSW is a brave, scary decision that should be yours alone to make. When I started there were very few people going through it but now there is a wonderful ever-growing community of skin warriors and I feel immensely lucky to be part of such an exceptional group of individuals. I think we are joined by what we have all gone through and one day hopefully others won't have to suffer as we have. I hope in the next year of my withdrawal we see the medical community and pharmaceutical companies taking some responsibility for their actions and also get some recognition for the condition topical steroid addiction itself. It is very real.
I think I have said enough so I'll leave you with these two very different pictures. Photo on the left was taken on Monday 1st July 2013 (I can't believe it was me). Photo on the right taken this morning - as always, no filters or face make-up.
Never give up.
Cara xxx
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