Eczema Taught Me To Be A Sensitive Superhero

Eczema can be a cruel teacher. But an important lesson it continues to teach me is that you don't know until you try. It taught me to have the courage to try new things even if healing and results might not be guaranteed. And that I have more strength in me than I realize at any given moment.

How did I get to this point?

If I didn't get to a place where conventional Western medicine stopped working on my skin, where even after going to various dermatologists left me at a dead end, and the Standard American Diet (SAD, indeed!) made my skin worse, I would not have had to push myself to think outside of the box of my current reality and find another way to heal and nourish my body. You have to change your habits and way of thinking to transcend your current experience with pain and go beyond what you think your only options are. You are presented with what is known from the past, but that is so far from everything possible in the future.

Do you have to stick to what you know?

Just because you grow up having certain beliefs or are taught that there is only a certain way or a certain health practitioner you go to when you have pain does not mean that that is actually the end of your options. Or that just because it is tradition to eat certain sugary or inflammatory foods or to consume alcoholic drinks during the holidays, birthdays, and other celebrations – or worse, when you're just stressed out from life and are using it to cope – doesn't mean that you have to subject yourself to what you know will cause pain. And all just to "fit in" to outdated societal standards and expectations.

What have I learned from eczema?

Having eczema showed me that I can explore alternative and ancient therapies like Chinese Medicine to heal my skin and my body in a way that is more suited to me, which is holistically and individually. I love the idea of having a customized treatment plan made just for me, my constitution, and the current climate I'm living in. I had to go beyond the cosmetics in drugstores and malls and to learn about green beauty products that are actually safer for my skin and sometimes act as skincare.

How am I a highly sensitive person?

Being an eczema warrior made me expand my perception of what is possible for me to have a sensitive nervous system. It led me to learn about what it means to be a highly sensitive person (I highly recommend looking up this term and watching the documentary "Sensitive: An Untold Story") and to see how what I used to think were my limits and downfalls were actually my superhero qualities and strengths. My sensitivities are my "spidey senses." They always let me know when something will get me off balance.

What are the advantages?

Being sensitive, I am super aware of every factor that does not make me happy or healthy. And I end those situations faster than people who don't have to be vigilant about the state of their skin and nervous system. Friends and acquaintances have told me many times that they are proud of me because I got out of relationships and situations that I was unhappy with after a few months to a year. They knew people in similar situations and were willing to stay unhappy for decades before they had the courage to change their lives.

Eczema is very painful, but it teaches me how to be stronger and sharper every day.