Harriet Williams, 33, has opened up about her decades-long battle with eczema and the difficult experience she says followed years of using topical steroid creams to manage the condition.
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Harriet said she has suffered from eczema since she was a baby, with severe itching being one of the major symptoms she experienced throughout her childhood.
After receiving advice from specialists, her parents began applying steroid creams to her skin when she was five years old. She continued using the treatment for more than two decades whenever her eczema became severe.
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However, Harriet said her condition became increasingly difficult to manage despite the treatment.
In 2020, she noticed that her prolonged use of steroid creams had left her skin with what she described as a “paper look”. During the COVID-19 lockdown, she decided to gradually stop using the treatment in April of that year.
Harriet said that when winter arrived, she experienced what she believed was topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), with several symptoms appearing at once.
She said she experienced skin and hair shedding, worsening itching, difficulty regulating her body temperature and a “thick layer of skin” that developed across her body.
Since stopping topical steroids, Harriet said she has gone through several intense flare-ups, including one period between September 2023 and March 2024 when she was unable to leave her home for seven months.
Speaking about the severity of the experience, Harriet told PA Real Life:
“A topical steroid withdrawal flare-up can be very debilitating. (At its worst) I couldn’t actually move my body and I was in constant pain that I couldn’t quite describe.
“It was very hard to regulate my heat, there was a point where I lost all my hair so I was completely bald and my skin was falling off and I had loads of patches. It was just a really horrendous time for me.”
Harriet recalled that her eczema was treated during her childhood by a specialist dermatology team that worked to control her flare-ups.
She said some episodes were so severe that she would scratch herself while sleeping until she bled.
Her condition also affected her school life, as Harriet revealed that she was bullied by other children who called her names including “Crocodile” and “Tortoise.”
Before stopping steroid treatment at the age of 27, Harriet said she relied on the creams whenever she experienced a flare-up. During particularly difficult periods, she could use them every day for a week, while at other times she would use them every few months.
She also tried alternatives such as coconut oil and shea butter alongside the steroid creams, but said none worked as effectively for reducing the severity of her symptoms.
Explaining why she eventually decided to stop using steroid treatment, Harriet said:
“I was on the highest potency steroids and it got to a point where there is actually nothing else for doctors to prescribe for me.