The advice you need
Stress factor
I woke up with a burning rash
Gemma Dodd, 48, Barnet
Taking in the bustling streets, I grinned.
It was May 2021 and I’d just landed in Morocco for my best friend’s wedding.
‘I’ve needed this,’ I said, enjoying the sunshine.
The past few months at work had been stressful. Exhausted from the flight, I climbed into bed.
But hours later, I woke up with my skin burning all over.
Flicking a light on, I gasped at the angry welts on my arms and legs. As if I’d been whipped. I got ice from the hotel’s machine to cool the burn. Is it sunburn?
But then I remembered that my legs had tingled before the flight.
Now, they were unbearably itchy.
The next morning, I took an antihistamine.
At first, it worked. But each morning I woke with a similar burning. I despaired.
I was meant to be relaxing – but instead, I was scratching.
Back home, it was no better.
Docs prescribed stronger antihistamines, but they wore off over time.
Two months on, I was taking eight times the ordinary dose.
‘Is that better?’ asked my daughter, then 12, helping melt ice on to the painful hives.
But the itching didn’t stop.
‘It’s making me miserable,’ I confessed to my GP.
I’d had to step back from my coaching job, working with business leaders.
I want other sufferers to know there’s help out there
After months back and forth with specialists, it felt hopeless. Eventually, in March 2022, I got a diagnosis. ‘You have idiopathic chronic spontaneous urticaria,’ said my doctor.
My immune system was attacking healthy tissue. There was no definite cause. ‘But stress is a big factor,’ he explained. I was so stressed before the wedding, I thought. He prescribed steroids and more antihistamines, but six months on my symptoms were still unbearable.
I need to take control, I thought.
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