Eczema Treatment Care

I have eczema on opposite sides of my mouth (on the left edge and on the right). I didn’t have a real problem with it until I went to the Philippines over the summer in ‘07, and it just got so agitated and red as I had no remedy on hand, and mistakenly tried using chapstick to calm it down (to keep it from flaking, etc), which really made it worse.
I managed to see an on-hand doctor on campus and she prescribed the hydrocortisone cream. She warned me not to use it unless necessary as it is a steroid cream, but I find it hard to live without on a using it every other day, every other two days at longest. After such, the areas start to get red, irritated and itchy again.
Is it really that bad to continue using the cream? It definitely keeps it at bay. I kinda just want to just stick with it until it possibly dies off altogether.