Sophie Cooper is 21 and, two years ago, saw that cream as a solution.
It was eczema, nothing more. Her doctor in Kent, England, prescribed increasingly potent topical steroids for 10 weeks. It didn’t work, so she stopped using it, and months later returned with something stronger. No one explained what would happen when she stopped completely. At the end of 2025, she stopped the treatment entirely, and that’s when hell began: red, oozing sores covered 95% of her body. It is called topical steroid withdrawal syndrome, and there is almost no research on it.
Now she changes her sheets every morning because they are stained with blood overnight. Showering is, in her words, as if acid were being poured over her. A burger with her boyfriend caused sores to open on her jaw. People mistake her for a burn victim. And yet, she continues posting her story so that no one else feels alone in this.
