THREE YEARS

All it took was time.
Pic on the left taken nearly two months into withdrawal on Monday 29th July 2013
Pic on the right taken Monday 13th August 2018

It's another TSW milestone for me today so naturally, I've written a blog post all about it - although really, I haven't got anything to say. Because there is nothing to say.

Three years ago today I simply woke up and realised I had recovered from topical steroid addiction.

At the time, even though I was over the moon, a big part of me didn't truly believe it would last. In 2015, there were so few of us out there who had recovered and practically no one documenting the after. All there seemed to be was a lot of disappointment from those who had flared again and others who just vanished from the internet. I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

There is still so much fear and confusion surrounding TSW and the after years. Will I flare again?! I cannot tell each and every single lovely person reading this post that you will never find yourself in the clutches of TSW again, but for me personally, apart from two isolated incidents on my hands when I went to Verbier in Switzerland (which lasted a week) and the odd minor rash, I have had three blissful years of skin that I've waited my whole life to experience.

I know I am a broken record when I say this but not having to think about my skin now, and do whatever I want, not bound by anything, is truly the most wonderful feeling in the whole world. It is real freedom.

T-S-W. Within moments of finding those three magical letters for the first time, I knew with all my heart I had found the right path for me and that it would be the answer to my 'incurable' eczema.

I see so many people both on Instagram and Facebook understandably upset that they are not seeing improvements after months and months of suffering so I feel I need to say again that I went through withdrawal for years.

This process is not going to be easy and some of us had/have suppressed our system with drugs for many many years - there are even some of us who have done it for a lifetime - so expecting your body to recover in mere months is crazy. None of us should have to go through this process in the first place but if you are going commit, then you have to be realistic and remember exactly what you are asking your poor, confused body to do.

I am not a doctor or a medical professional, I am simply a woman who has inadvertently studied skin for over thirty years and while that does not make me qualified to tell you what you should or shouldn't do, I do believe it makes me justified in saying that by doing what I felt was right, turned out to be the best decision I ever made in my life.

Please do not take what I say as medical advice, but please take what I say as my totally honest opinion, not fuelled by anything but the need to impart what I have learned in the hope that it will help someone else out there.

I am so glad I went through TSW and I will never stop being grateful to every single person and website I came across that kept me going and helped me decide I was going to do this in the first place.

If you believe that TSW is right path for you then know there is light at the end of the tunnel and always remember that it will take TIME. This is not a linear process and it's pretty much a given that you will doubt said process. Doubt and anxiety are symptoms none of us are prepared for when we go into it and for some, they will be the hardest to overcome.

Ok, so maybe I had a little more to say than I initially anticipated...

Thank you, always, TSW.
Cara x