Most people relish the opportunity to hit the beach wearing next to nothing and soak up some sun. I love it just as much as the next person but I've avoided it for the last couple of years.
Why?
I've got psoriasis.
You've got some nasty bug bites, you would probably say to me if you saw my legs. Or if you saw my forehead you might think I have a bad case of acne. You might think I have dandruff if you see me itching my head.
It's all psoriasis.
For those of you that don't live with it every day, or who may not know someone who has it, psoriasis is a skin condition that presents itself in many forms. The type I have, plaque psoriasis, is the most common according to the folks at the National Psoriasis Foundation (http://www.psoriasis.org). It causes patches of tough skin that itch like poison ivy sometimes. That happens because a normal skin cell regenerates about every 30 days, but a psoriatic cell regenerates about every 3 days.
Psoriasis is not contagious, but it looks awful. You've never tried to sell something until you've tried to convince someone that something so ugly is not contagious. It will get you some interesting looks (gee, I used to think all those guys were gawking because I had a pretty face).
When it's really bad, it can affect your mental health too. You get frustrated because there is no cure and the prescriptions don't always work as well as they did when you first tried them. It causes a lot of social anxiety because after a while you get tired of the questions and the stares. I have worse skin now than I ever did as a teenager, but at the tender age of 32 I don't have the option of locking myself in my room and listening to music for hours on end on a bad skin day - I have to go out. (Whining to mom still doesn't work!)
Some days my skin will be so sensitive that it hurts to put clothes on, and sometimes my joints (especially my left elbow) will swell up. This scares me because there is such a thing as psoriatic arthritis and I would like to avoid it if I can.
Psoriasis (or "P" as the afflicted sometimes refer to it) changes your life and requires a lot of your attention. My whole beauty routine revolves around it. A lot of my discretionary money is spent on it. After nearly 8 years of it, I'd like to banish it to a corner and give it time-out. It doesn't work on my dog, doesn't work on psoriasis. Bummer.
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