You should NEVER cold-turkey steroids. If you tried them and hated it, you can. But if you have been on them for a while, you need to taper slowly.

If they freaked you out, you should have just tried cutting the dose. Or asked your doc for a different one. Dexamethasone was actually the first one found to help people after serious acute Covid to avoid inflammation leading to Long Covid. I'm afraid you shot yourself in the foot there.

But I'm the same way with opiates. Tried one pain pill after I had three buried teeth extracted. I hated it so much I switched to ibuprofen.

Educating anyone benefits everyone.