A little concerned
 

Hey, all.

I last self injured last week.
Whenever I do it, I use freshly boiled water to wash my tools, and afterwards I use antiseptic spray and cream to dress it. I also use plasters with antiseptic pads inside.
I replaced the dressings regularly as usual, kept the wounds clean and left them dressed for a few days before leaving them to the air.

That's how I always care for myself and I did nothing differently this time, so I'm not sure what would be causing this.

I'm not experiencing pain - not even if I poke or itch the area. There's no discharge or anything like that.
The area I harmed (my wrist) has become quite red and itchy. The skin feels a little rough to the touch. It feels, looks and itches just like eczema and it is about the size of a 50p piece.

It's been like this for about three days, but has got no worse over the last two.

I'm not too worried, but I am wondering what this could be...

An allergy to the plasters, maybe?

Sounds like it could be allergic contact dermititis from the dressings to me. I get it from bandaids, never used to and then all of a sudden i started getting rashes from them. Is the rash in the shape of the bandages you're using... that's kind of how I'd tell whether it is dermatitis or not. Depending on how obvious the self harm is/how much you care you can ask a pharmacist, they'll know. Or just buy some hydrocortisone 1% cream without showing them and see if it works

I do suffer from eczema on my hands from time to time, so I have some cream already. I put plenty on it this morning and again this afternoon and it does seem to be helping. It must just be eczema and I'm being paranoid.

Thanks for the advice!

Its not unusal to develop an allergy to the dressings you are using. Perhaps try a differnt brand/type of dressing and see if that helps.

I'm now allergic to plasters since that was all i would used to cover my cuts up :(

I am exactly the same... when I first used them... had no problems... but now I have to be really careful and at times it gets to the stage where I am not able to cover them at all :sad: