Re-Entering the Boxing Ring with Eczema

Tips and Lessons Learned after a 25+ year break

Photo by the author of eczema on her right hand. Red, bumpy, inflamed skin on the author’s right hand particularly on her thumb and down, her index finger, and her pinky and down. This was after a few days of treatment.

Like many other babies, I struggled with the skin condition eczema: dry, itchy red skin that could worsen depending on how much I scratched it.

But also like many other children, I grew out of it. Sure, I struggled with dry skin every once in a while, but eczema was a thing of the past that had long since faded from my memory.

At the time, I was struggling to survive a toxic work environment, taking much too much of my time, effort, and sacrifices and consistently spitting me back out without any support.

At some point, my hands started getting itchy. My partner noted that I was unconsciously scratching them, that it was a stress/ coping mechanism that was clearly hurting me. I balked at this suggestion. On some level, I knew that that would imply that I was practicing self-harm behavior on a very minor level, but still self-harm behavior and I didn’t want to believe I was that far gone.

“I’m scratching because it itches,” I said over and over again. And it did itch, but even I had to admit that he was catching me scratching unconsciously.

Weeks passed and I had scratched my hands raw. They were harsh red, swollen, sometimes scaly, sometimes bumpy to the point of tiny…