Exclusive | The scary condition sufferers say traps you in your own half-alive corpse its caused by a medication taken by millions

Kelly Barta was turning red. It was 2012, and the 38-year-old mother of two had just quit the topical steroids she’d used for nearly 30 years to treat her eczema.Within days, she was crimson from head to toe, tormented by searing pain and a “bone-deep” itch.“It literally felt like someone poured boiling water over my whole body,” Barta told The Post.

The burning wouldn’t let up for five years — and in that time, she lost her career, her marriage and nearly her life.Barta was battling topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) syndrome, a debilitating condition some face after quitting high-potency creams to treat skin issues like eczema. Common symptoms include intense burning, redness, itching and skin shedding.Many sufferers are bedridden or housebound for months — or even years — before the effects begin to subside, according to the International Topical Steroid Awareness Network (ITSAN), which advocates for awareness and supports those affected.Roughly 10% of the US population — about 31.6 million people — live with some form of eczema, the most common chronic inflammatory skin condition in the country, according to the National Eczema Association.Barta was first diagnosed as a child, when patches of itchy, red and irritated skin bloomed behind her knees and in the crooks of her arms.She managed it with moisturizers and hydrocortisone cream until she became a preteen, when the onset of puberty and the hormonal fluctuations that come with it caused her eczema to grow worse, spreading to her hands and her neck.“There’s a lot of bullying around skin conditions because it’s associated with infectious diseases, so being in middle school, all I wanted was to look better, even more than feel better,” Barta said. When she went to a dermatologist and they prescribed her topical corticosteroids, the effects were almost instant.“Within a couple of days, the rash cleared up and I felt a lot better too,” Barta said.

“I ended up managing my skin...