If you’ve been scratching your skin a bit more than usual lately, you might attribute your woes to a single culprit—say, a late-spring bloom, or a new laundry detergent. But if that itch continues to persist…and persist…you might start to wonder: “Is my skin just temporarily freaking out, or could it be something more serious, like eczema?”

Though eczema diagnoses in adults aren’t super-common, the condition does affect roughly 10 to 20 percent of children and 2 to 10 percent of adults worldwide, per the National Eczema Association (NEA). “Eczema is a chronic skin condition that is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors,” says Karan Lal, DO, FAAD, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based dermatologist. “It’s often diagnosed in young children and in babies, but not everybody shows symptoms early on.” And in fact, it’s possible to develop symptoms later in life as well.

As Dr. Lal explains, the majority of people with eczema have a weakened skin barrier caused by a genetic defect or the immune disorder that comes from within. This makes it easier for substances from the environment to permeate the skin, leading to irritation. He also points out that eczema is really an umbrella term for several different types of skin irritation. (For instance, when people refer to eczema as a long-lasting, inflammatory disease, they’re usually talking about atopic dermatitis.)

So how can you tell if your incessant pawing is the result of a temporary irritant or an actual health condition? Take this quiz to see if you can tell the difference.

Answer: Itchy skin

A person with eczema might experience dryness, rashes, bumps, swelling, or leathery or flaky skin patches/plaques, according to Cleveland Clinic. But Dr. Lal notes that several other skin conditions—psoriasis, for example—can manifest those same symptoms. The big differentiator for an eczema diagnosis, he explains, is itchiness: “People with eczema are always itchy. If your rash is not itchy, it is not eczema.”

Answer: Irritation often appears in different locations in adults, plus there might also be psychological effects.

Anyone, regardless of age, can develop eczema symptoms anywhere on their body, Dr. Lal explains. However, he notes that kids tend to show symptoms first on their scalp, cheeks, or backs of the arms, whereas adults often get irritation on the insides of the elbows, behind the knees or neck, on the eyelids, and on the tops of the feet. This is because “as eczema becomes more chronic, it kind of settles into those flexor locations—the inside of the elbows, behind the knees, the neck, the eyelids,” he says.

Importantly, adults might experience more emotional turmoil than kids do from their symptoms, according to a 2022 study in Pediatric Dermatology. Dr. Lal says that many of the clients he treats face depression—and in general, the more severe the eczema symptoms, the worse the depression symptoms, per research from The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Answer: False

Though eczema can look red on fair skin tones, they’ll often appear purple or dark brown on folks with darker skin, according to NEA. Beyond that, though, Dr. Lal notes that darker-skinned folks might also have plaques with a more “follicular appearance,” meaning the skin isn’t really colored at all—the eczema just appears as raised bumps.

Black and LatinX individuals are also more prone to developing eczema in general, according to research in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. And frustratingly, they’re some of the most frequently misdiagnosed subsets of people with the disease, mostly because dermatologists are trained to spot the signs in lighter-skinned folks, as the study points out.

Answer: Sleeping

Anywhere between 33 and 90 percent of adults experience sleep disturbances due to their eczema symptoms, according to a 2022 study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. “It’s usually the itch,” Dr. Lal notes. “It’s the most bothersome and burdensome symptom in terms of sleep deprivation.” He adds that many of the patients he treats report bloody sheets or pajamas from incessant nighttime scratching.

But although it’s not as widely burdensome as sleep disturbances, exercise can still be pretty uncomfortable for folks with the condition. In fact, research in the British Journal of Dermatology found that some people with eczema avoid vigorous exercise altogether due to the irritation that excessive sweating can cause.

Answer: Stress

Everyone with eczema has different triggers, says Dr. Lal—i.e., environmental factors that cause their symptoms to flare. These can range from dry, cold weather (or hot, humid weather) to certain plants or animal dander. But while stress itself isn’t an outside substance that can permeate your skin, it does cause your immune system to take a hit, which can make that already weakened skin barrier even weaker and allow the bad stuff to get in more easily, he explains. And as NEA notes, people with eczema are prone to anxiety as well as depression, which (naturally) can make this frustrating itch-stress-itch cycle even worse. “Stress is a really common trigger in adults,” Dr. Lal says.

If you suspect you might have eczema, make an appointment with your dermatologist ASAP. As Cleveland Clinic notes, while it is a lifelong condition that can’t be cured, there are ways to keep painful flare-ups in check with medical treatments or lifestyle interventions. The latter might include something called a “trigger diary,” per NEA—basically a record of what’s going on in your life during flare-ups. (For example, you might notice that they coincide with particularly chaotic periods at work, or appear whenever you eat certain foods.) Either way, whether it turns out to be eczema or another skin issue, the dermatologist will help you get to the bottom of it.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a64418877/quiz-could-it-be-eczema/