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A woman who was addicted to steroid creams has claimed they’re ‘worse than heroin’ after using them for 40 years to help tackle her painful eczema.
Karyn Flett, 52, started suffering from eczema on her face, hands and around her joints at the age of 11, and was prescribed topical steroid creams.
Ever since, she’d relied on the medication to soothe the itchy, inflamed skin, but says she’s now decided to quit after beginning to experience sweats and rashes - similar to menopausal symptoms.
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The beauty therapist was left in ‘agony’ when she stopped using the cream and went cold turkey last September, saying her body went into 'full-blown topical steroid withdrawal' as she developed a burning rash all over her body, also experiencing shakes and sweats.
Flett, who was unable to work and housebound for six months, said water felt like acid on her skin, which was so itch it felt like she might ‘tear herself to the bone’.
She even resorted to wearing a balaclava and full upper-body bandages to ease the itching – and to keep her weeping face from sticking to her pillow.
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Flett, from Fife, Scotland, said: "At age 45 I started to worry about one thing, the only thing I thought steroids did to you, which was thin your skin. I started thinking, 'right, I need to use these less'.
"I was going into bouts of withdrawal and getting these severe symptoms, such as shakes and sweats. I had symptoms similar to menopause.
"I went away in September and decided not to take my steroid cream, and went into full-blown withdrawal.
"I had a burning rash from my feet all the way over my body.
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"My face was on fire, it was swollen. My eyes were really hard to open, they were swollen. I went off my food, and then I started going into full-blown shakes.
"When I travelled home, my clothes stuck to my skin. I blistered from my calf up to the back of my thigh and I could feel fluid running down my leg.
"When I got home, my husband had to help me into the shower and I had to rip the clothing off of my skin.”
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She added: "I've always been a mum who likes to do my hair, makeup, get my lashes done, nails and look my best on a night out.
"That just left me. You lose all your self-confidence, and you just don't know how you ever get back to the person you were.”
The mum-of-three said the first four-to-six months were the worst, as the body is ‘just crying out for it’.
“It's been likened to being worse than a heroin addiction,” she said.
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"You get a deep, absolute bone itch with topical steroid withdrawal. It's absolute agony, you feel like you can tear yourself down to the bone.”
Flett is now sharing images of her painful, flaky skin to help raise awareness of the potential dangers of long-term use of topical steroid creams.
In a TikTok video, she describes topical steroids as ‘drugs’, saying: “I wasn't a drug addict by choice."
Seven months on, Flett believes she is finally healing well, but is calling on medical professionals to prescribe steroids with caution.
"You were only ever told it can thin the skin, so be careful of the amount they use,” she said.
"They didn't say 'don't use it for a month, don't use it for a year, don't use it for decades'. So, I used it for decades.
"I just don't think that it should be given to children or babies to put onto their skin.
"I'm waiting on a flare-up happening again and trying to keep my stress levels down, but it has destroyed me and my family.”
Flett added: "I can now see a future of not having inflamed, painful skin that will stop me from doing stuff in my life.
"Maybe the last part of my life is not going to be dictated by a skin condition that was caused by the drugs."
Jess Hardiman