'My eczema cost me my job, my social life and almost my home'

A young woman whose “constant battle” with lifelong extreme eczema has cost her a job and prevented her from seeing friends for months at a time has found confidence and purpose by sharing images of her aggravated and flaky skin on social media. Courtney Celine Bray, 26, told PA Real Life she has been suffering from eczema across her whole body since childhood, with the skin condition causing “intense” flaking she constantly has to clean up, bright red and raised rashes, open wounds and sores, and severe itching that causes her skin to bleed.

At age 23, Courtney, based in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, said she lost her job as a dental receptionist because her eczema worsened and was severely impacting her mental health, leading her to be late frequently because of poor sleep. Courtney has been on sick leave for the past month from her position at a call centre because her skin has been “the worst it’s ever been”, leading her to worry about paying her mortgage if she is forced to remain off work.

The severe eczema led her to seek therapy for depression and she finds it “quite isolating” as it prevents her from dating and meeting up with friends. Courtney suspects she may be suffering from topical steroid withdrawal and is testing different treatments while documenting her struggles online – where she has found sharing images of the aggravated skin on her face and body has boosted her confidence.

“When I was having a down day, I’d gone searching for (eczema content) and I’d found these people on Instagram and I just thought, ‘you know what, why not share my own story with it and connect with these people?’,” she said. “One, it could make me feel better because I’d have this support system and two, it could make someone else feel better to see skin like mine.

“Since I started doing that and started thinking more about it and learning more about it, I’ve gotten more confident with it, so I’m more willing to talk about it and more willing to be seen outside when I’m having a bad flare.”

Courtney, who also has coeliac disease and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, has tried numerous steroid creams and even underwent ultraviolet light therapy several years ago which did improve her skin condition “slightly” but the eczema has worsened since then.

Talking about one of her worst episodes with eczema, Courtney said: “One morning I woke up a couple of months ago and basically my whole face had just totally swelled up, the corners of my eyes were very dry so they had sort of sealed shut.”

She had to hoover up flakes of skin “at least five, six times a day” because every time she moved “there were flakes falling everywhere”. “It’s just been a constant battle,” she said.

Losing her job as a dental receptionist three years ago marked a low point for Courtney and caused her to undergo therapy for depression.

“My skin started flaring, it was weeping and oozing a lot, I was getting really itchy rashes and a lot of open sores and wounds and it was becoming a lot more widespread, so I was getting it a lot more on my arms and neck,” she said.“Because it was getting on top of me, I was getting very down and I was having a lot of issues with my mental health and I was being late to the job a lot.

“When you have severe eczema, sleeping is just a nightmare, but then I wouldn’t know how to explain it to my bosses so I would just say I’m really sorry I’m late, and I did end up losing the job.”

She has been on sick leave for around a month from her position at a call centre because of the intensity of her eczema. “I have a mortgage and everything and my first thought was, what am I going to do, because if this is going to go on long term, then how am I going to pay my bills?” she said.

Courtney said her eczema can be “quite isolating” as she is too self-conscious and depressed to leave her home at times. “I don’t want people to see it and be like, ‘oh my God what’s that?’” she said.

“If I did have to go out, I’d be very anxious about it because I know people can see my skin and obviously in my mind, I think everyone’s going to look at me.”

She has not gone out with friends “for months” and the eczema has dissuaded her from going on dates, she said. “I do see some family, but it’s rare that I’ll go to them, they generally come and see me because just leaving the house is such a chore at the moment,” she said.

“My dating life is currently non-existent to be honest. I’ve just stopped any kind of dating or seeing anybody because you don’t want to meet someone new and be like, oh, sorry about my face.

“It can make you very depressed, especially when I’m stuck at home because I’m just sat thinking about, is it ever going to get better?”

Courtney does not have the option of covering up her eczema using make-up as this severely irritates her skin. “A few years ago, if I was going out or something, I’d risk putting some mascara or eyeliner on and within hours, I’d have to take it off again because it made my eyes red and inflamed so it just became not worth it,” she said.

Courtney has dealt with eczema since she was around six months old but the skin condition “took a nosedive” at age 16 thanks to the stress of studying for her GCSEs and became “more obvious” to other people. “It got quite sensitive, so wearing clothes was an issue so I would show up to school wearing baggy leggings and a hoodie just because it was the only thing that felt comfortable,” she said.

“Obviously, it’s a bit odd when you walk around wearing full-length t-shirts and stuff so people would ask about it.”

As she moved into A-levels, she “stopped caring” about school and began skipping classes because the skin condition drastically affected her mental health. “It messed up my whole life to be honest because it was causing so many issues,” she said.

Courtney suspects she may be suffering from topical steroid withdrawal, which is a reaction that can occur after prolonged steroid use with symptoms including redness of the skin, a burning or stinging sensation, and oozing open sores. She claimed when she told a dermatologist of her concern, they laughed at her and said there was “no such thing” before prescribing her more steroid cream, which she did not accept.

“It made me feel a bit like she wasn’t really listening,” Courtney said. Courtney is currently trying out “no moisture treatment”, which involves cutting back on the amount of water she drinks and not applying cream so the skin starts “naturally repairing” itself, she explained.

Earlier this year, Courtney made an Instagram, @theitchycoeliac and a website as she struggled to find people sharing their personal experiences with her conditions. “I noticed when I was doing research into coeliac disease and my eczema, there is a lot of sites that give you the facts and the medical advice, but there wasn’t so much about the personal experience with it,” she explained.

Joining the online eczema community and sharing updates about her struggles has improved her confidence, helped her accept her conditions, and provides her with a purpose.

“It could make someone else feel better to see skin like mine,” she said.

To learn more about Courtney’s experience, visit theitchycoeliac.com