Im a Teen with Eczema and Its Impacted My Life More Than You Can Know – Yahoo Lifestyle

Ive always felt different from other kidsbecause I look different from other kids. When I was 2 years old, I was diagnosed with severe atopic dermatitis (AD), a form of eczema, a disease that causes rashes and intense itching. It completely changed my life.

Heres how I can best describe it: when you have an itch, you want to scratch it, right? Well, with my AD, its so much more intense. Scratching makes you feel itchier, so you scratch more, and more, and more. Its almost impossible to stop. Sometimes during really bad flare-ups, I scratch so much that my skin starts to bleed. The areas become raw and painful, it feels like having a million paper cuts all over your body.

My parents always tell me, Isaiah, stop scratching. I know theyre just looking out for me, but I cant stop. In those moments, I just need them to understand Im doing the best I can. Not only is it annoying to itch, but it hurts, too!

The physical pain and irritation are only part of the picture; living with severe AD has affected many aspects of my life. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was play baseball. But the grass and sweating that comes with playing outdoors triggers my AD, so eventually, I had to give up my dream of playing the sport. My AD has also impacted my studies. There were times when I had to miss school because flare-ups kept me up all night scratching, or because I was in the hospital with an infection.

What Ive learned, though, is that when one door closes, another opens. Being unable to play baseball allowed me to discover my true passion: music. When Im playing the drums, I feel amazing. It gives me the kind of fulfillment and independence that my AD denies me in other areas.

Being able to escape into my music has been great because living with AD can be very isolating. Even though there are people in my cornermy parents, my siblings, my friendsit can feel like Im the only person in the world living with the disease.

And then, of course, there are the people who dont understand AD at all. They just see my skin covered in rashes. Or maybe they just notice that Im scratching all the time, or that I miss a lot of school. They dont know that Im scratching because I cant help it, that the rashes arent contagious, or that I miss school because Im up all night from the itching.

There are a lot of people who can be mean. Ive always worried about people liking me and seeing past my AD. Some people cant. One time, I reached out to shake a classmates hand, and without warning, he shoved me to the ground. He thought I was contagious because of how my skin looked.

So, on top of living with severe AD, I have also taken on the extra task of educating people about the condition. Thats why it has been empowering to work with the teams at Understand AD and the National Eczema Association. Together we are working to help increase education and understanding of the disease.

The Understand AD Squadwhich includes a dermatologist, a psychotherapist, and a young adult living with ADcame to my house to talk about my experience and help me feel more confident living with AD and managing the disease on my own, especially as I head into college next year. We captured it all in an educational video series and created a lot of useful resources, to hopefully help other teens and their parents going through a similar experience.

I came away from this experience with a lot of new knowledge, but the biggest thing I realized is that it helps to have a squad of your owna team complete with dermatologists, therapists, and loved ones.

I was lucky to have my parents growing up. Even though they can be annoying (like when they constantly remind me to take care of my AD), they are always there for me. As they say, Im their tough guy. With their help and with the help of my squad, Ive never lost hopeand never will.

Isaiah is a 17-year-old high school student from Maryland. Isaiah recently joined an awareness initiative called Understand AD, by Regeneron and Sanofi in partnership with the National Eczema Association, to educate others on the burdens faced by teens with atopic dermatitis, a disease hes lived with for most of his life. Isaiah also loves playing the drums in his spare time and playing chess.

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Im a Teen with Eczema and Its Impacted My Life More Than You Can Know - Yahoo Lifestyle