How Homeschooling Helped My Health Issues

Ever since I was a baby I have struggled with severe eczema and allergy issues. I was three months old when my immune system issues started. From ages 3-5, I was enrolled in private school. The environment there did not help me whatsoever. I was on steroids, breathing treatments, and Benadryl to try and ease my overworked immune system. Now that I think about it, I do not remember much of my time in private school, only that I was miserable. When I was 6 my parents pulled me out and made the decision to homeschool me. By the time I was 7, my allergies and eczema became manageable. When I was 16, my eczema reared its ugly head to an extreme. I also developed other health problems. I was exhausted, in terrible pain, and worn down. Since modern medicine routes had failed to relieve my symptoms, I decided to try a natural route. With a holistic doctor’s assessment and guidance, I began a highly restrictive elimination diet in order to rule out the foods that could be causing my skin to react. Being homeschooled made this much easier as I could easily control my dietary restrictions in my own home. 

A new diet meant a huge lifestyle change for me. I had to cut out all dairy, gluten, which were part of the 73 foods I was allergic to. My holistic doctor also prescribed many different supplements, which had to be taken throughout the day. I cannot imagine trying to do this in a public school setting. Since I was at home, I was able to have a controlled environment where I could cook each of my meals fresh everyday and not have to worry about cross contamination or other factors. Another reason homeschooling made this diet easier had to do with peer pressure. People can be extremely judgemental—even about food. I believe that being homeschooled limited any negative interactions with people who would have made me feel uncomfortable about my limited diet. Without outside forces influencing me, I was able to stay on track and committed to my goal of healing my skin. 

Homeschooling provided me with a flexible schedule. I had many moments when my immune system had overworked itself and left me exhausted. The flexibility I had allowed me to take necessary breaks to give my body and mind a rest. I also had time to follow my passions. I loved politics in high school. I spent lots of time posting and blogging on social media. It was a great distraction from my eczema and gave me something to do. Since then, my trajectory has changed to health and wellness. Now, I post and blog about my eczema journey. The goal of this is to share my story in hopes that other people going through this can see it and feel less alone, maybe even inspired. With this, I’ve had several great opportunities. I was recently interviewed by the New York Times about my health issues and “crunchy” lifestyle. I believe that without the flexibility of homeschool that I would not have been able to chase my interests and this opportunity would have never come my way. I doubt I could have handled a seven to eight hour school day, healed my skin, and had time to just be a teenager. 

The first thought that comes to mind when people think about homeschooling is isolation. That is a massive misconception about homeschooling. What’s really isolating is being in a public place all day and having to be extremely careful about what you eat. I have been there. When I was five in private school, my teacher had me sit alone at lunch because they did not want the other kids food to cross contaminate with mine. This went on for a month. They didn’t know how to handle my food allergies. What would have been better, I eat lunch at home every day or I eat lunch alone at school? Being homeschooled was clearly the right choice. I never had to eat lunch alone. I was either with my family or other homeschool friends. It was great. 

Homeschooling  was one of the best decisions my parents could have made. Not only was managing my health issues easier, but I could also focus on things I would not have had time for in a public school setting. I hope my story encourages and inspires you. Thank you for reading.