A secondary school teacher who believes her skin has become “addicted to steroid creams” now vacuums her bed every morning as she sheds it “like a snake” in her sleep after going cold turkey following 44 years of using the treatments. First prescribed corticosteroid creams when she was around 10 for a “small patches of eczema” on her elbows, knees and hands, mum-of-two Nicky Higgs, 54, finally stopped using them in January 2021, because if she stopped and started her symptoms flared up uncontrollably.
Reading about topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) after suspecting the creams were no longer working for her and often feeling ill when she was not using them, she was alarmed to see reported symptoms including everything from burning, weeping and peeling skin to insomnia, fatigue and depression.
Deciding to cease using steroids altogether, Nicky, who lives with her husband Simon Higgs, 55, a professional, and their 19-year-old daughter, in Wirral, Merseyside, said: “Every time I went to the doctor for my eczema for decades they’d prescribe steroids and I’d use them. The cream would clear up the eczema quickly then I’d stop using it and my skin would just get even worse. It was peeling, shedding, crusty and red.
