Back in the summer I had a flare up of eczema . I’ve had persistent little dry spots appear before on my skin, primarily on my hands but also on my feet and arms. This time, it was different. By the fall, the dry patch was still there and growing ever larger. It had spread so that several fingers on both hands were afflicted. Ew! It wasn’t so horrible, but it was annoying: occasionally itchy and ugly, with a texture and look that changed in seemingly random ways. Yuck.
Knowing that western medicine had always failed to solve my eczema, and wanting to try a different approach, I went to a Chinese herbal medicine clinic. I’d been hearing about traditional Chinese medicine regularly for the past year, because a friend of mine is studying acupuncture. Her school, the Shiatsu School of Canada, offers inexpensive student consultations, and that’s where I headed. This was around the same time that I’d decided to take much greater action than I had been on the job/career front. Really, I guess, I’d decided to take greater action in general.
The treatment was fascinating to me, and I did experience changes as I drank the prescribed teas. (Ouff, they were not delicious.) After several weeks, though, I felt like I wanted to take matters more into my own hands. I researched my problem online and bought a bunch of different creams and soaps. From then on, I moisturized each time I washed my hands. It was annoying, but I believed it would work. And it did, and soon the tiniest spots disappeared and no new ones formed. It was slow going, but there was improvement.
The eczema persisted into this year. Now we’re at the end of February and guess what? It’s all gone. And I’ve even been pretty bad about applying cream regularly. My hands are back to normal. Success!
I can’t say for sure why my skin’s all healed up. I believe my problem may have been stress all along. We know stress does terrible things to our bodies and our minds, and affects each person differently. Maybe eczema is one of the physical signs that I’m not doing well. And now that I’m feeling psychologically much, much better, the eczema got the message: scram!
Comments
6 responses to “Stress and illness”
I think that in the future scientists will discover that stress (including stressing about your health and well being) causes all kinds of health problems – including cancer.
Indeed
I’m so glad this article wasn’t about an anecdote how TCM worked (preferential the stuff with endangered animal or plant parts.ugh). I have eczema on my hand and I agree, putting on a lot of cream works best. (My personal fav is currently hemp cream I bought at the Body Shop). medicine never worked for me in this particular case. (I’m not calling it “western medicine”, I am calling it medicine). Stress and winter makes it worse.
Hope yours clears up!
Same issue here. I get it on my hands. They really itch and if it gets bad, they will crack and bleed. It’s totally a stress thing. I’m trying to move out of academia (two year CC position) completely.
While stress management is something I will have to work on for the rest of my life (meditation, time off, etc.) I have a suspicion that academia (in all forms, from K-doctoral level) is inherently more stress full than lots of other jobs out there. It carries a special kind of
stress that never really goes away, because academia (like the rash) is always with you. The work never stops. There are no vacations. Congrats to you for taking proactive steps on bettering your life.
Academia is a tough gig in that way (and others!) for sure. I don’t mind that aspect of it BUT the stress of being an unhappy, unfulfilled, and seemingly not going anywhere in life freelancer… gah! Worst/eczema. Good luck!