Hi, I’m Huiying. This is my journey.

I still remember the many doctor visits for my eczema and asthma, and even being hospitalised a few times for asthma episodes as a child. Doctors often prescribed topical steroid creams, and my parents faithfully applied them, hoping to help my skin.

During my teenage years, I think hormonal changes gave me some respite. I had relatively good skin, save for flare-ups in stressful times (exams!), when I still reached for steroid cream because it suppressed them.

After graduating from NUS with a Bachelor’s (Honours) in Life Science, I started working, and my eczema got worse at times. My asthma even came back once. My body was probably telling me to take it easy: fewer late nights, less alcohol (oops).

In late 2016, during my second pregnancy, a bad flu turned into a cough that wouldn’t go away while I was travelling extensively for work. I was prescribed a steroid inhaler again, and with frequent flare-ups I was applying steroid cream quite often.

After my second son was born, my asthma recovered, but the eczema continued. The creams became more potent and more frequent, yet my flare-ups stopped subsiding.

My sister pointed me to the ITSAN website. As I ticked through the signs of topical steroid addiction, I realised the flare-ups that wouldn’t settle could be a side effect of the creams themselves. I felt a mix of fear of the unknown and hope for real healing.

I threw away all my steroid creams and started my TSW journey. Through the worst of it I found a community online going through the same, which inspired me to document my journey on Instagram in 2020.

Through a lot of trial and error, my skin inflammation finally resolved and I came out of TSW in the second half of 2021. It was the most challenging time of my life, and the most expensive lesson too!

Today I manage my eczema-prone skin without topical steroids. I still get the occasional patch, but I know how to come back to the basics.