Anyone here ever been through Topical Steroid Withdrawal/Red

>>17531899
Describe your situation further. Why were you using them, and for how long? Who prescribed them?

I had a run-in with mystery dermatitis a while back and have some experience i guess.

>>17531907
An annoying rash on my hands. Got prescribed Ultravate, dermatologist told me to take it for a month and keep using it if it worked. Have been on it for at least a year, daily, only on my hands. The longest I've been off it is about a week, and I developed the red, burning skin I've seen described, then immediately applied more cream.

My eczema was work-related and I no longer work there anymore, and now the only problem with my skin is the thinning caused from the cream. I'm trying to figure out how to get off it without having to go through the hell that is RSS but I have no idea what I'm doing.

>>17531915
Like most drugs, first thing to try is the standard method of tapering off.
Decide on a timeline for getting off completely, eg 4 weeks.
Then, calculate how fast you need to drop the dose to get off of it within that timeframe (simple linear function).
This is harder with creams since you have to measure the dose: get creative.

If you don't care about time or don't like math, just use a little bit less every day.
If you're using it "as-needed", ie randomly, set a maximum dose for each day, and lower that slowly.

>>17531958
I'm worried about tapering off because I've read that steroids are cumulative, so each application just makes the eventual RSS when stopping completely last a little longer. I've read the best way to get off these in particular is going cold turkey, but I really, really hope that isn't true. My dermatologist actually recommended tapering off and replacing with a non-steroid cream, but I'm skeptical of that. I'm now on my third day off it and my skin is doing fine, would it be a bad idea to just wait for it to flare up then use it as needed?

>>17531970
>I've read the best way to get off these in particular is going cold turkey
It's the fastest way, of course. Since you've only used them on your hands, it's mostly safe (people get bad reactions if they're using it on half their body, since they're absorbing so much through the skin that they're getting the side effects of an internally-used steroid as well).
But it will suck donkey balls, which is why doctors tell you to taper off instead.

>would it be a bad idea to just wait for it to flare up then use it as needed?
Nope. Just don't fall into the trap of doing this forever. If you go through the stop-flareup-start-stop cycle more than a couple times, start measuring how much you use during each flareup, and use less on the next one.

And yes, start using a non-steroid anti-inflammatory cream (especially if you have dry skin).
Maybe try a mast-cell stabilizer maybe, i'm trying ketotifen for GPC right now.

>>17532116
Thanks for the info, I'll have to look into mast-cell stabilizers (never heard of that before). Dry, thin skin is pretty much my only problem at the moment, and some mild inflamation around my knuckles from time to time which is where the eczema originally was. As for amount, I've never measured it, but I've always used a pea-sized amount or so; it's taken a year but I still haven't depleted one tube of the stuff (50g).

I'm mostly worried because Ultravate is a Class I so it's really potent, and the fact that I used it daily for so long with no breaks makes me think my withdrawal could be really bad. I've also read that it affects your entire body, not just the places you applied the cream. Any insight on that?

>>17531899
aloe. lots of fucking aloe. primarily on visible skin.

>>17532679
Vaseline is something I've seen mentioned, any thoughts on that?