Ginnaya Turner shares her personal journey through eczema:

I had eczema from a young age, which started when I was about 18months old and drank flea shampoo. Talk about toxic overload for a tiny nervous system! From that point I became sensitive to standard allergens and had to be careful with diet, especially dairy products. I still can’t face goats’ milk – ugh! My system had become aware that things I ingested could be potentially harmful and had gone into hyper‐protective mode to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

At the age of 10 my father died suddenly. Another major shock for an already sensitive body. With in weeks I had developed dermatitis on one finger, and while not severe at this stage, it was concern enough to visit doctors and dermatologists. Using steroid cream, the symptoms would disappear for a few days then pop up somewhere else and much worse. Within a matter of months the rash has spread over both hands and developed into an angry, inflamed
eyesore.

I spent most of my teens and early 20’s looking for ways to manage my condition. Being mindful of diet and other aggravators such as chemicals helped (a great way to get out of doing dishes!). As did many wonderful modalities, which helped support the physical symptoms and a stressed nervous system.
I had to limit the way I engaged with the world.

Throughout school I couldn’t swim in case my hands got infected. I couldn’t play many sports as my cracked, dry hands couldn’t hold a bat or racket. There were some tasks at work I had to get others to do as my hands just couldn’t do more nimble tasks. At one point I had to have weeks off work as my hands were so infected I had them bandaged up in mitts and had to have them redressed at A&E every day. Even driving was impossible.

Most importantly I became reserved in my interactions with others. Hands are a way we engage with others, a way we present ourselves to the world. Constantly hiding my hands behind my back, in my pockets. As for intimacy – who would want to hold a swollen, weepy hand? Who would want to be caressed with a scaly palm?

Which leads me back to the trigger. That little 10‐year‐old girl who figured out it was not safe to love, to give herself unconditionally to others as the Big Bad World could take them away at any time. With out even asking or letting her say goodbye. What an evil world it its! What a belief system to carry around!
BodyTalk has helped to identify and address these underlying issues. My skin is vastly improved, and scarring is gone. But for me most importantly, who knows at what other levels the root cause was impacting my life.