Abid

Age at interview: 24

Brief Outline:

(Text only clips) Abid has had eczema since he was a baby. He emphasises the importance of self-awareness, knowledge of the body, diet, and exercise in managing his eczema.

Background:

Abid, aged 24, is of British-Bangladeshi descent.

More about me...

Abid, aged 24, has had eczema since he was a baby. As a child, it was difficult for him to understand that the skin condition could be managed but not cured. As he got older he realised that self-management is key in coping with his eczema. Although he used to scratch his eczema as a child, it was mostly due to the skin being red and flaky rather than it being itchy. 

Abid’s experiences with healthcare professionals have been primarily negative. He has found that the healthcare system can be slow and GPs have differing ideas about how to treat eczema. He notes that in contrast to other countries, patients in the UK unfortunately do not build a strong personal relationship with their GP. Abid found the process of being referred to a dermatologist lengthy and complicated, and has therefore never attended a specialist clinic. With regards to treatment, Abid emphasises the importance of lifestyle and medication. Two important aspects of his lifestyle that help him manage his eczema are diet and exercise. Abid feels that healthcare professionals often underestimate the effect of diet on a person’s wellbeing. GPs regularly suggested that he cut certain foods (e.g. dairy) out of his diet. However, Abid felt that this suggestion is too simplistic; he is influenced by Eastern ideals within medicine and felt that in order to manage eczema, a deeper understanding of food and its inflammatory effects on the body is necessary. Rather than cutting out certain food groups, Abid avoids eating processed foods and he tries to use anti-inflammatory foods as part of his treatment to work “from the inside out”.  

Abid found that time-management in treating eczema was difficult. This process included deciding when to shower and estimating how long creams needed to soak into the skin before he started his day. He found that the prescribed ointments, creams, and shower products had a strong medicinal smell that he disliked. He has topical medications such as ointments and creams to remedy the symptoms of eczema but he avoids taking tablets. He says that this is because his diet already provides sufficient internal treatment and that focusing on internal physiological wellbeing is the best way to go about stabilising his eczema. Before buying commercial cleansers and shower gels, Abid would read reviews online. The internet is a useful source of information, but he warns against incorrect information and false advertising online. He often opted for products that contained natural ingredients and no chemicals. Even though these products were more expensive, Abid believed that they were worth the investment. 

Abid’s eczema often made him feel self-conscious and kept him from participating in certain activities such as swimming. However, around the age of 17, he became more confident and accepting of his condition. He now enjoys rock-climbing and believes eczema should not limit you in your hobbies. He thinks that planning ahead and preparing the skin before any rigorous exercise are important. Eczema now impacts on Abid’s self-consciousness a lot less. He believes that societal standards for attractiveness are unrealistic and biased, and he encourages people to be more accepting of others that are considered “different”. Abid’s advice to young people with eczema is to educate themselves about the body and the effects of different foods on eczema. 

Even though his eczema is still itchy, Abid is able to control his scratching.

throughout my entire life I’ve had eczema since I was young and when I was a baby apparently my mum told me all I used to do was scratch it. Which is interesting because as long as I can remember remembering if that makes sense I never did scratch it and doctors never told me it should, you know, that and I should be scratching and stuff like that so or n-not to not scratch it if that makes sense.

in my situation it never caused me to itch, I don’t know whether or not that was down to discipline or whether or not I was, I was never told it was to be itchy.
   
There is a lot of discipline involved like because back where I’m from in Bangladesh like if you get bitten my a mosquito it’s the worst thing, you could be constantly scratching it and after two weeks you get bit and you kind of like deal with it and its interesting how that journey happens. 

After reading about allergies and eczema online, Abid asked his doctor for a test but wasn’t given one in the end.

I read into it and it was like don’t eat this, this, this. Also you can get your doctor to, to get some kind of like a stickers on your body or something like that and they can test what you’re allergic to and not allergic to and I was like “okay this is cool”. 

Straight up went to my doctor said ‘Oh I’d like to be tested for what I’m allergic to’ and ‘Nah sorry we can’t really do that we don’t really have the facilities or I don’t think this would affect your eczema in any particular way’ or you know, these, these kind of like half-hearted jargon filled answers which you’re kind of expected to just kind of be confused and mildly acceptant of. So I got a lot of that and then it was yeah it w-, it was kind of a situation where just deal with it yourself. 

Going to the barbers could be an uncomfortable experience for Abid. He would be given unhelpful treatment suggestions and found shaving painful.

I had a little around my neck, the back of my neck if it ever got really worse then it would go over to the front but it’s not something that’s overly obvious. But when I went to the barber’s, when you have your short back and sides the back part’s not particularly fun because you always get this like nonsensical advice from a from a barber about, you know, “Oh I think you I think you should take this or that” or whatever. It’s like, no it’s nothing, absolutely nothing to do with you and you're area of expertise shall we say. 

It’s just those environments like when you go to like a barber for example and if you have any near your neck or anything like that then it affects you. Cos obviously like they, they really overdo it when, when you go to the barbers and stuff like when they shave, they literally shave your face like they’ll shave this and this and everything [laughs] it’s, it’s weird so when they go down the neck they go right down and if anything gets in the way then yeah it’s, it’s not a comfortable experience for either side really…because yeah but certainly more uncomfortable for the person sitting down.

Abid talks about using rubber gloves for washing up to avoid getting his hands too wet.

As someone who enjoys cooking so much I don’t enjoy washing up and not from just a scale of it’s not necessarily fun or whatever and I’m, I’ve just enjoyed a meal, I wanna relax or whatever, it’s actually the fact that if I get my hands wet that, that would, that’s a catalyst for my eczema to, to get worse. And I don’t feel like rubber gloves are like the best alternative I feel like I have to replace them every, y-you know, like every fortnight because there's, y-you know how it is when you, when you put in a pair of gloves and accidently some like water might leak in and like yeah it’s not fun. 

Abid felt more comfortable using a shop-bought moisturiser at work rather than a prescribed one.

I used to work at a desk job and had a small cream which was, which was branded and looked pretty okay but if you had like a huge tub of like hydrocortisone or some, some huge thing, people are gonna ask you questions and if you’re not comfortable with that then it might be worth, you know, just taking the ta-label off or just keeping it in your desk or whatever and just using a little at a time. It’s a shame that we have to do that but if you want to I guess have fewer conversations around that then  yeah just, just slip it into your lifestyle a lot easier yeah.

Abid talks about the texture and practicalities of some emollients he has tried for his eczema.

I think there’s one which is quite common which is called Epaderm which is like I can’t, I’m trying to think of a, of a texture to, to give you a an idea of it but it’s almost like pâté almost and you're supposed to rub that in your skin and it’s, it’s not, it’s not really practical. And it’s not even from that point of view and like you have to be super conscious of this, so if you want it to, if you want to try to rub this in, this incredibly greasy thing, you’re not gonna feel comfortable putting clothes on after, so you need, let’s say you start your work at 9 ‘o’ clock which is a normal, normal time to work. I wake up and let’s say it’s a half an hour commute, normally you would wake about maybe 7 ‘o’ clock have a shower, have your breakfast and go to work kind of thing. In this situation you’ll have a shower and you, strangely saying you can’t put your clothes on after because you’ve just applied this, this so called cream.

And then you're there, kind of stuck in this kind of limbo, where you’re pretty much magnetic man which everything will stick to you.

Abid’s experiences of travelling have made him more interested in ‘eastern medicine’ approaches.

I don’t want to talk about the differences in possible western or eastern medicine etc. but some, some have a belief of possibly solving the symptom as a lot of western medicine is assumed to do whereas other ideas of like eastern medicine , you know, the far east etc. after travelling there and actually having some experience with eastern doctors and stuff, you know, “you’ve got eczema okay let me check your tongue”, like where’s the correlation there? But it makes total sense just like ‘Okay I think, I think your diet’s okay but I think maybe you can avoid food that cause inflammation”. “What, what does that mean like I’m not eating anything that’s cutting me or anything like that”, “no not really but what about things like chilli or, you know, things that are just overly spicy things that are possibly too rich”, you know.

I’m like “Oh okay that’s, that’s something that I've not really interpreted before” and that certainly plays a part and I’ve been a bit more conscious and a little bit more underwhelmed when it comes to enjoying food. But yeah those are things that are not really explored I think in, in western medicine or, or with doctors. 

Abid was nervous about rock climbing at first, but didn’t want to let having eczema stop him from having fun.

In my own like twisted sense of thought I thought if I could, I know this sounds really this might sound really strange to you but I feel like if I actually engage in, in something which is quite abrasive and physical and aggressive and, and possibly damaging to the hand that could lead to prepare, sorry not prepare, repair. So on the way to my old job I always used to go back to go past this like fifteen meter high rock climbing wall and I thought “wow that, that looks fun” kind of thing, saw a lot of people and they were doing it in groups and rock climbing is something that even today I’m apprehensive about because it, you know, you can risk your life doing it so. Thankfully everyone’s on that same level so I told two of my, two of my friends. I was like “lets, let’s do this”, and they were like “yeah, yeah totally up for it”. 

And it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, you know, there’s a possibility that the idea of being ten meters in the air which is I guess equivalent to like four floors or, you’re not gonna complain about your hands and, and want to come down so you kind of just get on with it. And I think that brings along a sense of progression both physical and mental because you, you I think you get on with it. And I guess the term would be exfoliate but I guess if you’re, if you’re grabbing these, you know, these rough rock placements all over the wall, at the end of the day my hands were actually quite soft in a strange way, once I washed them they were quite soft. Well like, okay if there, if there’s a time to put cream on or whatever then that would be the ideal time. 

Abid talks about using rubber gloves for washing up to avoid getting his hands too wet.

As someone who enjoys cooking so much I don’t enjoy washing up and not from just a scale of it’s not necessarily fun or whatever and I’m, I’ve just enjoyed a meal, I wanna relax or whatever, it’s actually the fact that if I get my hands wet that, that would, that’s a catalyst for my eczema to, to get worse. And I don’t feel like rubber gloves are like the best alternative I feel like I have to replace them every, y-you know, like every fortnight because there's, y-you know how it is when you, when you put in a pair of gloves and accidently some like water might leak in and like yeah it’s not fun. 

Abid worried about romantic partners responding badly to his eczema.

In terms of like being in relationships or whatever like it’s, it’s something that surprisingly when I was actually first in a relationship no comment was ever made about… and I was like “wow okay maybe this isn’t as weird or as I thought it would be”. I thought it was gonna be like, you know like a scream and a run away kind of thing but no, maybe cos it’s qui-, a lot less than it used to be maybe. So yeah you, that’s, that’s a balance really you kind of know when you’re in an okay relationship if, if that happens.

So, so yeah. But of course you want to look your best and you want someone else to appreciate you on a, on a physical level as well. So yeah it’s it would have caused a bit more discomfort if I, if I if it was a lot more excessive but I guess people find ways around that I guess.

Abid felt more comfortable using a shop-bought moisturiser at work rather than a prescribed one.

I used to work at a desk job and had a small cream which was, which was branded and looked pretty okay but if you had like a huge tub of like hydrocortisone or some, some huge thing, people are gonna ask you questions and if you’re not comfortable with that then it might be worth, you know, just taking the label off or just keeping it in your desk or whatever and just using a little at a time. It’s a shame that we have to do that but if you want to I guess have fewer conversations around that then yeah just, just slip it into your lifestyle a lot easier yeah.

Abid finds it off-putting when GPs look online for information.

I’ve generally just done, done quite like a vague Google search and tried to click whatever I could’ve but the information again was quite varied. 

Strangely enough and this sounds very strange but I’ve, I’ve seen in more recent times again without naming any names of peoples or places or whatever but doctor’s in front of you, “oh I’ve got this, so and so blah, blah, blah I think it’s this term”, “oh okay let me just search that up for you” and they in front of you will go on Google and it was, it’s it’s such a strange experience. But that's unfair I guess to assume that one GP can know every single condition out there in the world, but it’s such an unsettling experience and it’s it’s awkward and you don’t really know what to do or say in that situation but “oh okay that’s interesting you’re on the same site as I did” [laughs]. But yeah it’s, it’s kind of hard to take that kind of advice seriously because you’ve just seen it yourself

Abid has read about diet and eczema online, but didn’t find talking to his doctor helpful about it.

Because I read a lot into, cos now we have the internet everyone is, is their own hypochondriac and /doctor and I read into it and it was like don’t eat this, this, this. Also you can get your doctor to, to get some kind of like a stickers on your body or something like that and they can test what you’re allergic to and not allergic to and I was like “okay this is cool”. 

Straight up went to my doctor said ‘Oh I’d like to be tested for what I’m allergic to’ and ‘Nah sorry we can’t really do that we don’t really have the facilities or I don’t think this would affect your eczema in any particular way’ or you know, these, these kind of like half-hearted jargon filled answers which you’re kind of expected to just kind of be confused and mildly acceptant of. So I got a lot of that and then it was yeah it w-, it was kind of a situation where just deal with it yourself. 

Some things are realistic, some things aren’t like I don’t know if this is me personally but like keeping the idea of like a food diary is like hard work. Like I even tried downloading an App on my phone where you just record like the calories, I don’t know if you've seen sort of those. 

But yeah that, that’s for some people that’s quite a that, that’s an okay alternative I guess but for me personally it’s, it’s a little bit too much of a challenge to like constantly keep track of everything, maybe because I eat too much I don’t know.

Abid says the information he finds online is not always relevant to him.

I’ve had a look into like WebMD and stuff like that but the information you get is so physically geographically varied. You’ll find like information from a- around the whole world and strangely enough it’s not always, always relevant to like if you're, if you’re from a particular country for example and your humidity level and environment etc. these all play a big fact, and if you’re from a country and you’ve moved to another country , or born in that particular country like myself, then its…genetically, you are a particular type of person and you have to quite, you have to acknowledge that and kind of adapt to that. So yeah some of the information wasn’t particularly helpful. Websites, I’ve generally just done quite like a vague Google search and tried to click whatever I could’ve but the information again was quite varied.