Stress and Eczema

After an online discussion with another individual with eczema, it hit me that my eczema is probably triggered by stress. In the past year I have spent a lot of time cutting allergens out of my life. I have not cut very many foods from my diet but I have watched for outbreaks that happen after eating certain foods. I have noticed no correlation between my diet and eczema outbreaks. I thought that perhaps there were environmental causes and since my last outbreak I have gone about being more diligent about cleaning, wearing gloves when washing dishes, and switching to beauty products that contain less chemicals.

I believe that the steps I have taken have helped and actually spent a good 3-4 months without an outbreak. Then in December I has another hand eczema outbreak. The difficulty in determining what caused the outbreak is that it could have been one of two things (my diet did not change). One it was my cat. I am very allergic to cats and after discovering this a few years ago, I sent my cat to my parents. When the holidays come around, I get to see my gorgeous kitty again. This usually lead to my asthma being triggered and some bad days and nights. This time around was WAY better because I did now allow my Luna to sleep in my room and limited the amount of time I held her. I still let her sleep near my on the couch and played with her, so I still got my Luna time.

My little allergen: Luna 

So now to stress. Holiday stress gets to all of us. I had a great time with my family and there was no drama but still. I had a layover getting home and my first flight was delayed making me miss the second and apparently last flight home. That was stressful. Spending two weeks away from my significant other was stressful, especially after he got sick. I also lay awake at night thinking about finishing my dissertation and my future, so that was stressful... In short there was plenty of stress despite the happiness of getting to spend time with my family and the new puppies (Rory and Amelia).

RORY

Amelia

I now suspect that along with environmental factors, my eczema is triggered and/or worsened by stress. In 2014 I hope to work on this. I hope to spend time on my hobbies and get this dissertation finished. Over the last few years the dissertation was been a major source of stress and I really can't wait for it to be done. In the meantime here is a list of things I plan on doing to help reduce stress:

• exercise 
• leisure reading 
• baths 
• meditating 
• spend time on my hobbies (makeup and art) 
• spend time talking to my family 
• going out with close friends 

So, there you go. Hopefully you all are staying eczema-free!