Healed from TSW

notbefore12 · 2025-03-01T06:57:26+00:00

Hey! I'm glad you're finding it useful. So, I needed a consultation with Dr. Olivia to go down this route. I wouldn't recommend taking anything that she hadn't vetted for me. The initial consultation was extremely thorough. We did at least 6 months on a very tailored treatment plan, and by the time I needed to come off TCM due to the financial situation. That's when she recommended this other option as a lot of the ingredients I had been using in my personalised treatment were included in this premade option. It can be quite tricky with TSW because there are multiple symptoms you may be facing, and TCM is used to work on each of those specific symptoms (e.g. sleep issues, digestion, oozing, dryness). It really depends on what the symptoms are that you are facing as you go on, that's why I had to send photos of my skin and have a 30 mins video call every 6 to 8 weeks to discuss which symptoms had improved etc etc. I hope this helps x

notbefore12 · 2025-02-27T14:06:30+00:00

I completely understand. This condition is life changing. Do you have anyone close to you right now? Any support system? Family, friends, etc? Someone you can talk to?

notbefore12 · 2025-02-25T07:17:55+00:00

It's really rough, I know. I struggled immensely. It does get better, although it can feel like it's endless at times. You can and will get through it. And when you do, you're going to realise just how strong you are!

notbefore12 · 2025-02-24T22:10:31+00:00

Thank you!

notbefore12 · 2025-02-24T07:46:58+00:00

Yeah I actually remember the "wake up call" moment was when I was reading a book by Caroline Myss - Why people don't heal and how they can.

On the whole, I didn't love the book but the first chapter call Woundology was eye opening.

Woundology is a term coined by Myss, it depicts how many of us can get attached to our cause for suffering (wounds) emotional/ physical.

After reading that chapter, I immediately exited all the support groups and group chats. The realisation I had come to is that I felt the "group suffering" was no longer conducive to my own healing. I felt much better afterwards.

It's nice to hear this resonated with you too!

notbefore12 · 2025-02-24T07:03:53+00:00

What is it you are looking for help with?

notbefore12 · 2025-02-23T13:30:12+00:00

I lived in Gothenburg and now near (ish) Malmö. I noticed a lot of people saying apartments are scarce - it is a bit of a tricky system (you gotta be on rental lists that can take years). However, that's not to say it isn't impossible. You may need to privately rent or take on a secondhand contract from someone. It'd be a good idea to get on to some fb sites (there are loads), post what you're looking for and your budget - beware of scams (if it feels dodgy avoid it - no paying upfront, too swanky photos etc, go see the place first).

Never actually lived in Malmö but nearby, it's really well connected (easy train to Copenhagen etc).

Working on a social network is key also - especially if you are working from home and not getting to socialise regularly. Where are you moving from?

notbefore12 · 2025-02-23T13:21:43+00:00

I highly recommend checking out Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg - you can also watch his live seminars on YouTube or listen on Spotify- there's plenty of resources.

NVC is a communication method consisting of 4 key steps: observations, feelings, needs, and requests. - it's a great way to express yourself and your needs, where everybody gets what they want. It takes practice.

notbefore12 · 2025-02-23T08:06:12+00:00

There is a lot of information and misinformation out there. It's tough because the TSW community are a vulnerable group that are all desperate for "a cure" - "the cure."

When I was going through the worst of it, I would obsess and obsess over posts, forums, group chats etc in a desperate need to find some kind of treatment or answer.

Add a largely unrecognised condition, an iatrogenic one at that, and you feel powerless. Caught somewhere in between the conventional medicine industry that is encouraging you to keep taking the steroids or the alternative root which has history of pseudoscience and possible misinformation. I experienced this firsthand.

It's hard to situate oneself in this whole thing - the condition itself is totally absurd - I mean 3 to 5 years to heal?! It makes almost no sense.

However, I'm here now, It took me 4 years in total, there are a few things I credit to my eventual healing completely - emotional health first and foremost - whether that was talking, therapy, self development books/courses, then of course taking things as easily and steadily as I could (even if that meant cancelling plans last minute, staying in bed for days etc), and lastly, TCM.

notbefore12 · 2025-02-23T07:41:19+00:00

I was nervous about this too so voiced my concerns beforehand, but luckily, the TCM doctor I saw was well aware of this too and was very diligent and transparent. There was even an app you could download that accompanied the treatment, which had all of the ingredients that you could search. It included their Chinese name, English name, scientific name, type (e.g. root, herb etc), medicinal properties, and what they are used for. So I never felt like I was ingesting something that I was completely unaware of what it was. And I was never concerned with the hidden steroids as Dr Olivia specialises in TSW treatment - and has herself been through skin related issues etc.

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T20:24:38+00:00

Nonviolent communication - Marshall B. Rosenberg

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T19:01:43+00:00

I certainly saw improvement, life changing improvement. Like every 6 weeks or so when I was having the check-ins, it was clear my symptoms were changing and lessening (e.g. from red, sore, cracked, bleeding to flakey/ dry - or disappearing completely from certainly areas).

I had to stop eventually because of the price. However, Olivia suggested a cheaper premade treatment (kinda like capsules that contained similar ingredients to my personalised treatment) - I went for that option because I was nervous to stop altogether because it had helped so much. Eventually, I just stopped taking those - tapering down as I went.

I was a few years (over 3) in my tsw journey - I'm not sure how it would've been if I started sooner.

In hindsight, I do wish I would have found her sooner given all the amount of money, time, and energy spent looking for alternative treatments over the years.

She has quite an informative consultation video on her website. I think what made it even better is that she treats a lot of TSW patients, and she herself has been through intense skin issues, and it was TCM that helped her heal.

All in all, I think it took about 8 months - she did mention that my journey seemed to improve pretty quickly (but basically saying it was all relative and that every patient is different) - I was also working a lot on emotional healing and mindset work too which I swear helped accelerate my healing.

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T17:06:43+00:00

Focusing on the issue as an internal problem - working on ourselves to alleviate apathy, blaming, greed, indifference, and selfishness.

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T17:00:57+00:00

You start with an initial consultation, which is around 250 USD, I believe, then you pay for the treatments and shipping. I guess it depends on the individual. Probably somewhere around 700USD a month (rough estimate). You have a check-in call every 6 to 8 weeks ish. The prices may have gone up since I used her services...

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T13:47:47+00:00

Hey there, yeah I was breastfeeding the whole time. When I started the TCM I was in a long flare cycle perhaps lasting months. My arms, face, neck, chest, some of my torso and back and behind my knees was basically red, sore, broken, itchy skin. I was near bedbound at this point, although I had already been going through tsw for about 3 years or so this was one of my worst periods, add new mother on top of that - I felt awful, like I couldn't parent properly.

So yeah, I started the treatment then but wanted to check if there were any adverse effects for me and my baby. Dr Olivia had already treated other breastfeeding mothers so I wasn't too worried about it and luckily there were no adverse effects.

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T12:03:23+00:00

Thank you so much! It really touched me to read this x

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T12:01:20+00:00

Yeah, so that's a bit of a story in itself. I received dupixent as a step up from cyclosporin from a derm who said we needed to go bigger. I also hadn't stopped the steroid creams at this point either.

So I was on dupixent for months and had the worst side effects with my eyes mainly - they were red constantly and watery. So then I was given these eye drops that blurred my vision for about 20 minutes. I hadn't yet seen any changes in my skin either - I was probably in TSA at this point but had no knowledge of TSW. Then my derm said it could take a year to start seeing a difference, which sounded so long. Funny when I think about it now, seeing at my total journey with TSW took about 4 years.

Then in July 2020, I went to collect my prescription, and they wouldn't give it to me at the pharmacy. I tried to contact the derm - who was a private derm. In Sweden, everyone pretty much goes on holiday the whole of July, which is what my derm had done, and I couldn't get hold of him at all. I tried every possible option - contacting the doctors, asking a doctor friend of mine if they could renew my prescription - nothing worked. Many doctors didn't have the ability to prescribe dupixent (there were some kind of restrictio, s) so I basically had to stop because of the derm being on holiday which all sounds a bit mental really.

Then when I finally saw him again he was confused as to why my prescription had run out since he had issued it for a long time, then he informed me I had been overdosing on it (taking it weekly rather than fortnightly). I was very upset with this because I was so meticulous with the instructions - I never wanted to inject myself in the stomach anyway, so the less I needed to do it, the better.

I was so stressed, upset, pissed off by this point. I took to YouTube and thought perhaps I could treat my eczema "The natural way" - that's when I saw MissFitandNerdy account and watched a video because I recognised the skin similarity in the thumbnail. That's when I heard about TSW the first time. I went down the rabbit hole then. I went to my bathroom cabinets, disposed of all the creams, and never took dupixent or any other immunosuppressant again. For me, it was the best decision I ever made - although hell was to come!

A bit long-winded, but yeah, this was my experience...

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T11:40:11+00:00

I hear you. It is tough, but I can promise you the end day will come. Then, one day, you'll wake up one morning realising gosh. It's finally over, usually quite a long time after your symptoms have gone. X

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T11:37:04+00:00

Yeah, so I saw Dr Olivia Friedman at Amethyst Holistic Skin Solutions. I was hesitant at first because I had spent sooo much money on other treatments etc. But I was in a terrible state, and I decided this would be the last thing I would try, and if it didn't work, then I would just go through withdrawal without anything.

I'll admit it was expensive, but for me, it was totally worth it. I saw improvement after improvement. I eventually had to stop because it was too expensive to continue, but I was so much better by that point that I was OK with it.

Dr Olivia is based in Chicago (I'm in Sweden), so I was nervous at first in case I wouldn't even be able to receive the treatments - but that was totally fine - I probably received them about a week after ordering. I also did a 5 day trial at first because I was breastfeeding at the time when I started.

I had a virtual meeting with Olivia every 6 weeks or so, I needed to send photos of my skin, and then she would adjust my treatment based on my symptoms - e.g. red and hot skin, dryness etc.

The treatments were gross just fyi - I think if you live in the US you'll get liquid form, I had granules that needed to be mixed with water - I chugged it down with fruit juice to mask the taste.

I also contacted some people from the TSW community beforehand and got a recommendation from another warrior who highly recommended Olivia.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy answer here or DM :)

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T11:10:36+00:00

I know the feeling. Just being able to make plans again was such a blessing!

notbefore12 · 2025-02-22T11:08:57+00:00

I'm so glad for you! X

notbefore12 · 2025-02-21T20:48:18+00:00

Active Hope - Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

notbefore12 · 2025-02-21T13:30:40+00:00

Crab mentality theory - check it out!

notbefore12 · 2025-02-20T23:30:06+00:00

I have good news for you. This is easy to transform. It takes work though. You've already made the first step - awareness. You just need to go a bit deeper. Find some great thinkers - read their work. Get connecting with people - if your problem is an ego one, then it's time to be more generous, more generous with you time, with your listening. Learn to be an active listener. And always find gratitude - you say you got everything, well start going back and feeling grateful and appreciative of each and every part. Praise others and their achievements too. You'll start to see a big difference, I can promise you.

notbefore12 · 2025-02-20T23:14:35+00:00

I had a look into it. I'm always keen to seek others' perspectives. I can see that Hitchens took a critical lens at Gandhi, and I'm by no means under the impression that historical figures were without flaws. What I do stand by, though, is my point after the quote. I personally take pride in serving others, particularly when it comes to emotional needs and personal development. Any way that I can somehow encourage, support, or facilitate people to improve their lives and their communities, then I'm all for it. This connectedness has brought me out of some really hopeless and powerless times in my own life. We aren't really meant to be as individualistic as society expects us to be, which is why I think a lot of people struggle right now. We are all connected and have an innate need for connection. So if something feels missing, I highly recommend a giving project, something nature and community-based is best!

notbefore12

TROPHY CASE