TSW Is Finally Being Seen (Topical Steroid Withdrawal Is Going Under The Microscope)

This month, Dermatology Times did something extraordinary: they put Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW) on their front cover.

Not buried in the footnotes. Not dismissed in passing. They put it front and centre for the whole world to see.

They've validated and acknowledged so many peoples' pain and heartache in one fell swoop. It's being investigated.

For years, patients like my son and I were told it was just a flare. That we were steroid-phobic. That we were overreacting. That we were making it up.

But just like so many others in our position, we knew.

We knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the skin burned worse the more we used the creams. We knew it wasn’t “just stress” when our bodies reacted in ways no one could explain. We knew we weren’t losing our minds when we experienced zingers from hell. We were losing our skin, our confidence, our peace, and in some cases, our ability to function and our will to live.

My son and I have lived through TSW firsthand. We were failed by the system that was supposed to help us. And we’re not alone. Just check out the stories on ITSAN (the International Topical Steroid Awareness Network).

For many of us, this cover story is more than just medical reporting, it’s a form of justice, well at least a small step towards it.

It validates the suffering that was so often met with gaslighting, blame, or silence. It acknowledges the complexity and the trauma of a condition that was so rarely believed, and even more rarely treated appropriately.

I truly hope that what we’re witnessing now is the beginning of a shift. And that shift will only take hold if our stories continue to be told.

In the past 24 hours alone, I’ve seen people say:

“I’ve been called insane by doctors for what I knew was real.”
“In my country, they say we’re a cult for even talking about TSW.”
“Ten years ago, I found one blog post that saved me. That’s all I had.”

TSW is not new. But finally, it is being recognised as biologically distinct, with research pointing to mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammatory pathways, and the discussion of potential treatments (although I'm not sure their cures won't be worse than the disease).

The article states:

"TSW as a Distinct Condition: The neuroinflammatory molecular evidence supports that TSW may be biologically distinct from atopic dermatitis. This challenges the assumption that TSW symptoms may be merely a flare, laying the groundwork for formal diagnostic criteria in clinical settings."

This can no longer be passed off as a theory, it’s clinical inquiry. It’s cover story material and it’s long overdue.

To everyone out there still fighting to be heard, I see you. The gaslighting that the medical and pharmaceutical industries are apart of is shameful.

No TSW sufferer is asking for pity, they're just asking to be heard by medical professionals and acknowledged that what they're going through is real and it was caused by the so called "cure".

We’ve been asking for progress in this and now we have the science and the stories to bring it to light, and the Dermatology Times is helping to bring it to light.

It's about time.