Do you know how atopic eczema feels like?

Atopic eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis) is much more than a skin disease, it affects the whole body of patients, their life and mental health.


The #AtopicalLives exhibition is an EFA project featuring real people affected by atopic eczema of different age groups, portraying for the first time the similarities and differences among patients in Europe.

Under the skin you see
An endless race to find a balance between the constraints of your illness and the will to live to the fullest. Watch these atopic eczema patients on top of their lives, under the skin you see.
English
Srpski
Slovenščina
Türkçe
+
Skin in the game
Daily treatments and family: children with atopic eczema learn early the importance of discipline to be healthy and play, skin in the game.
English
Türkçe
Espanol
+
Atopical Lives
The best happens when other people welcome you as you are, despite how the eczema looks today.
English
Danish
Dutch
Finish
French
German
Italian
Spanish
+
Listen
Episode 1 – A life with a skin disease

Could you imagine spending most of your childhood living in a hospital? In this episode, an anonymous 62-year-old woman from the Netherlands speaks freely about her life with atopic eczema. Listen to her experience coping with the disease at work, with family and in her daily life.

Listen
Episode 2 – Growing up with atopic eczema

When a child has atopic eczema, it impacts the whole family. In this episode, a mother from Finland tells the story of her 13-year-old daughter. A loveable kid who enjoys school, but who everyday deals with constant itch. This episode shows how her family finds ways to support her.

Atopic eczema is much more than a chronic inflammatory skin disease. In these four galleries, discover the real-life stories of 19 patients from eight European countries and how the disease impacts their lives.
Look at me, I have atopic eczema

Gallery 1: Atopic eczema affects people of all ages and backgrounds. Meet them, they are not very different from you.

Slideshow
My atopic eczema burden

Gallery 2: Patients with atopic eczema have to wait to have the right diagnosis and to access the right treatment. They also have to po with the cost of their care. 

Slideshow
My atopic skin

Gallery 3: Body image and self-esteem are important for patients with atopical eczema, whose skin is fragile.

Slideshow
My life with atopic eczema

Gallery 4: Apart feom frequent sleep disturbances and anxiety, eczema disrupts the live of patients and caregivers

Slideshow
Browse through the country galleries and discover how life with atopic eczema unfolds for patients and their families.
Czech Republic
Slideshow
France
Slideshow
Italy
Slideshow
Serbia
Slideshow
Slovenia
Slideshow
Spain
Slideshow
The Netherlands
Slideshow
Turkey
Slideshow

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Eczma stories

Since I was born, I carry atopic eczema on my skin. In the current time, I try to live normally, but it's hard to control my skin... It stops me doing thinks I like. I follow treatments but they don't help that much. It feels that I am giving everything that I got, yet I don't see positive results on my skin... It makes me feel sad and depressed.

Helder, 19, Portugal

Can’t explain the full story in 500 words. However I’ve had it as small as I can remember. Then it came back to beat me badly in 2014 when I was at Dance College in London. I was LIVING the DREAM of DREAMS. I couldn’t believe I was there. It took me though. In 2015 December I had to give it all up. I’m still battling. I’m still trialling new methods & medications. It’s the biggest hardest journey ever. It’s horrible. It’s harsh. It’s lonely. There NEEDS & MUST be more awareness.

Fay, 25, United Kingdom

I've lived with atopic eczema since I was a toddler. My life is non stop itching and scratching, my face and arms flare up from the warm water in the morning. It's made a lot of things difficult. I'm constantly needing to upgrade my skincare, and it costs a fortune. I have scars from scratching in my sleep, I'm always self conscious about it. However, it has gotten better. Quite a bit better. With a lot of care, things have changed.

Dean, 18, Great Britain

Living with eczema means itching constantly, and scratching in response, and then drawing blood, and trying to hide that. Living with eczema means being told you'll "never be cured" and being prescribed all manner of potions and lotions, none of which work. It means waking in the night in agony, bleeding over sheets and clothes, paying for any treatment that might work regardless of the cost, and scalding yourself in the shower to try to find peace. Living with eczema doesn't get enough credit.

Victoria, 20, United Kingdom

I would like if skin care products were paid by the health insurance, the increased need for them is already a burden, I of course have an increased need for care. More causes-treatment should be explored on the patient as such.

Dirk, 52, Germany

I scratch myself and it means complications, I cannot swim and do sports. I need to spend more money on clothes and cannot have tight clothes nor fully covering shoes. Work clothes can be a problem, the ability to adapt them. I am worried when I am looking for a job because you cannot wash your hands as often as may be needed. The employment service needs to understand that I cannot search for all jobs. >>

Anna, 20, Sweden

The medical world is sometimes so difficult, they do not cooperate. I really had to urge the dermatologist to look further. He did not want to. Eventually, I went to an allergologist and it turned out to become better with dietary adjustment. It’s important to work together and to look beyond.

Eva, 33, Netherlands

In acute conditions, it puts a lot of strain on me, both mentally and physically, and it also puts a strain on finances, healthy living is expensive and eczema limits many things I can eat, and manythings are expensive and you have to be able to afford it.

Michaela, 28, Germany

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Dear visitor,

 

Please remind that all photographs on the Atopical Lives website are in printing quality for non-commercial purposes only and require indication of copyright “© 2018 or 2022, Lurdes R. Basolí / EFA Atopical Lives Project”.

 

Please remember to comply with the mandatory attribution and make sure to read the terms of use below:

 

Terms of Use

The www.efanet.org site and its original content are owned by EFA – European Federation of Allergies and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations – and are protected by European copyright and intellectual property and proprietary rights laws. Your access to download and use of the pictures in www.efanet.org/campaigns/atopical is conditional on your acceptance of and compliance with the following terms of use:
 
1. Downloading the pictures does not grant any property rights but permission for use only. This permission can be revoked by EFA ex nunc at any time without a need for justification.
2. Downloading, distributing and publishing the pictures, in digital or printed form, is allowed for non-commercial use only. You are not allowed to license, sell, rent, lease, disclose, exhibit or otherwise commercially exploit the pictures.
3. No photograph will be retouched, cropped or transformed in any way. The original format of the images will be preserved.
4. Publishing the pictures in digital or printed form requires indication of copyright “© 2018, Lurdes R. Basolí / EFA Atopical Lives Project”
5. The pictures may be published in blogs and both online and print newspapers, journals and magazines when indicating copyright.
6. The pictures may be used for publication in digital and printed form only when being contextualized with atopic eczema.
7. Any use of the pictures without previously downloading them directly from www.efanet.org/campaigns/atopical is bound to the terms of use stated above. Any misuse will be pursued and has legal consequences. This is a legal contract. By downloading the picture you agree to be bound by these terms.

 

Download Image

Dear visitor,

 

Please remind that all photographs on the Atopical Lives website are in printing quality for non-commercial purposes only and require indication of copyright “© 2018, Lurdes R. Basolí / EFA Atopical Lives Project”.

 

Please remember to comply with the mandatory attribution and make sure to read the terms of use below:

 

Terms of Use

The www.efanet.org site and its original content are owned by EFA – European Federation of Allergies and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations – and are protected by European copyright and intellectual property and proprietary rights laws. Your access to download and use of the pictures in www.efanet.org/campaigns/atopical is conditional on your acceptance of and compliance with the following terms of use:
 
1. Downloading the pictures does not grant any property rights but permission for use only. This permission can be revoked by EFA ex nunc at any time without a need for justification.
2. Downloading, distributing and publishing the pictures, in digital or printed form, is allowed for non-commercial use only. You are not allowed to license, sell, rent, lease, disclose, exhibit or otherwise commercially exploit the pictures.
3. No photograph will be retouched, cropped or transformed in any way. The original format of the images will be preserved.
4. Publishing the pictures in digital or printed form requires indication of copyright “© 2018, Lurdes R. Basolí / EFA Atopical Lives Project”
5. The pictures may be published in blogs and both online and print newspapers, journals and magazines when indicating copyright.
6. The pictures may be used for publication in digital and printed form only when being contextualized with atopic eczema.
7. Any use of the pictures without previously downloading them directly from www.efanet.org/campaigns/atopical is bound to the terms of use stated above. Any misuse will be pursued and has legal consequences. This is a legal contract. By downloading the picture you agree to be bound by these terms.
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