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Psoriasis and Your Emotions

A diagnosis of psoriasis can represent a kind of loss. It may change the way you see yourself, the way you perceive others and your expectations for the future. Be patient with yourself. Make sure to take the time you need to come to terms with your diagnosis.

With loss usually comes a sense of sadness, or grief, which is just a normal and very human reaction. While not everyone will experience it when diagnosed with psoriasis, grief tends to play itself out in a fairly predictable process, and understanding the stages of grief can help you make sense of your emotions as you move forward with your life and the management of your psoriasis.

Our understanding of the grieving process is that it generally involves five distinct stages. However, we all experience these stages in a unique way. Some people will go through each stage in order, one stage at a time. Others will go through the stages out of order, or even experience the same stage more than once. The time it takes to pass through each stage is also personal, with some people passing through the stages rapidly, and others more slowly. You will go through the process at your own pace and in your own order.

 

Emerging from the fog

Diagnosis of a chronic condition like psoriasis may take over your life at first and leave you distracted and preoccupied. The information you have to process—from your doctor, your pharmacist, or any other member of your health care team—can be complex and intimidating, not to mention that it may seem to come all at once.

Denial may begin to set in as you spend more and more time searching for any information you can find about psoriasis. You may even feel embarrassed about your skin condition and reluctant to seek out or accept the help of your family or friends. Other feelings you may be struggling to overcome might include:


● Being overwhelmed
● Confusion
● Disjointedness
● Isolation
● Relief that you finally have a name for your condition


In the early days and weeks following your diagnosis, you may find your mix of emotions difficult to untangle and control. Try to remember that knowing what’s wrong and working with your doctor to find ways to ease your symptoms will help inject hope into that emotional knot.


What you can do:


● Do your best to find out as much as you can about psoriasis
● Keep your doctor’s appointments
● Take notes when you are seeing a health care professional and consider taking someone along with you
● Track your symptoms and print records to bring to your appointments
● Learn about the strong emotions associated with psoriasis and how to cope with them if necessary

Living day to day

As your emotions begin to settle and your thoughts clear, you will have more time and ability to focus on getting through each day without being so preoccupied with itchy skin and covering up. You may find some symptom relief, or you may be challenged by searching for treatments that work for you. Should your psoriasis patches begin to shrink, you may still be worried that they will return. This may cause you to feel uncertain about the future, leading to a focus on living day to day.

The idea of a “normal” life might seem like a distant memory. Feeling uncomfortable, or worrying that you will, may begin to colour your emotional outlook, making you feel:


● Displaced
● Challenged by everyday life
● Isolated or misunderstood
● Fearful of worsening symptoms
● Controlled by psoriasis


Even if you’ve worked out a plan with your doctor, you may be more focused on your skin discomfort and appearance, and less on the actual condition of psoriasis. Accepting your condition for what it is may still be a struggle, and you might not really want to learn more about psoriasis than you need to know to get through each day.

Talking with people may provide you with some comfort, though you may wonder how anyone could understand the extreme itchiness and discomfort you’re going through.

Your expectations may be modest, or you may be fighting off the feeling that getting back to normal will be a real challenge. You probably just want to feel “a little better”.


What you can do:


● Try to improve your outlook by enjoying positive experiences and doing the things that mean the most to you when you can.
● Resist the urge to tell your doctor you are “okay” if you’re not.
● Make the most of your health care visits by preparing a detailed description of all your symptoms.

 

Feeling more positive

Your journey has taken a turn for the better—your treatment, which can sometimes be a trial-and-error process, is bringing you some relief. Life is beginning to return to something approaching normal, and you may be growing more positive with the results. But you may also be afraid that all this is only temporary, and that eventually your symptoms will begin to get worse.

In this more hopeful period, you may experience a new mix of feelings, including:

  • A more positive outlook
  • A desire and willingness to take charge of your psoriasis
  • A new confidence in your ability to adapt to change
  • A sense of achievement tempered by a few nagging doubts

Where you may once have felt helpless, you might now feel more up to the challenge of psoriasis. Your focus may have expanded beyond the day-to-day, but you may not yet be willing or able to set your sights too far down the road to your future. Your goals may be growing more ambitious, but your expectations of treatment might remain low to avoid suffering too much disappointment.

What you can do:

  • Remember that psoriasis is more than just itchy, cracked skin—it’s a chronic condition that affects your skin and possibly your joints.
  • Take good care of your skin to help delay or prevent more patches from developing.
  • If your symptoms return or worsen, talk to your doctor—your psoriasis may be progressing.
  • Communicate openly and honestly with your healthcare team.
  • Make plans for your future with psoriasis.

 

Getting into a groove

When you reach this part of your journey, be sure to keep it in perspective—it’s not so much a destination as a new way to help you keep moving forward. If your psoriasis has improved greatly or even gone into remission, you will be feeling great. Or you may be feeling more positive because you have come to terms with psoriasis, which can also be a great accomplishment.


Of course, the concern that your skin symptoms will return may never leave you, but that’s just part of dealing with a chronic condition. More importantly, you will be experiencing a welcome new range of emotions at this point, including:

  • Relief
  • A sense of normalcy
  • Gratitude for the support you received
  • A sense of being fortunate
  • Hope and positivity
  • Success


You probably have learned to take nothing for granted at this point. However, you may also have learned to ask questions, gather information, and make decisions that help you move your care forward. And if you have accepted that psoriasis is just another part of your life, you are surely doing what you can to manage its symptoms and slow its potential progress—which includes accepting and appreciating the support of your family and friends, and asking for help when you need it.

Care is no longer something that is done to you—it’s something you seek out, negotiate, and manage. Your expectations of treatment are probably pretty high now, and so are your goals for life.

What you can do:

  • Keep using your online treatment plan to help you better manage your care program and to keep a record of your symptoms
  • Stay on your medication unless advised to stop by your doctor
  • Don’t get complacent with your improved state of health—keep up the good work, and work hard to manage your psoriasis symptoms

 

Practical Tips

Here are a few more practical tips to help you take a more active role in your psoriasis management:

  • Develop some new hobbies and friendships.
  • Keep and use your sense of humour.
  • Accept help—and help others.
  • List important daily activities and try to do one or two each day.
  • Try to stop rushing around—make time for yourself, and relax.
  • Do things that make you laugh or smile.
  • Consider joining our Facebook page or following us on Instagram or Twitter

 

Extracted from: Living with Psoriasis,  Your Guide to Living Well After a Psoriasis Diagnosis. Canadian Association of Psoriasis Patients, July 2015
Reviewed by: Sabrina Ribau
Medically Reviewed:  by Dr. Yvette Miller Monthrope, April 2021

April 2013 Newsletter

Download the April 2013 Edition

Protect Your Skin

Psoriasis makes your skin sensitive, so practising proper skin care is an important way of helping to prevent or reduce symptoms of the disease. Proper skin care can also help protect your skin from infections and injuries that may lead to challenging flares.

Here are some tips on how to protect your skin with good skin care:

1. Keep things gentle

  • Stay away from harsh skin products. Use gentle soaps, and try to avoid strong or scented soaps. Look for creams that don’t contain alcohol, which may dry out your skin.
  • Do your best to prevent injuries to your skin. Scratching at your skin and picking at your cuts and scrapes is a no-no. Injuries to your skin can cause psoriasis patches to show up anywhere on your body. Trim your nails carefully, and avoid wearing tight shoes, clothing, watchbands, and hats that can irritate your skin.
  • Do what you can to avoid cold climates. Cold, dry air can make your symptoms worse.

2. Keep skin moist

  • Use creams and lotions that moisturize effectively.
  • Take a bath or soak in water once a day. This can help you replace moisture lost by your skin, especially in dry climates, or to medicines that dry your skin. Before drying off completely, apply moisturizers to help seal in the moisture so that your skin doesn’t get drier. Adding oils to your bath water may also help, but be careful not to slip getting out.
  • Use a humidifier to add moisture to the air at home.
  • Consider wrapping areas of your skin with a tensor bandage, fabric, or plastic to keep skin moist right after applying creams or lotions (this is called occlusion therapy).

3. Keep up with your medications

  • Remember to apply topical treatments and to take medications as instructed

Prepare your skin for topical medicines. If you gently soften and remove psoriasis crusts and scales from you skin before applying these agents, you can help your skin absorb the products better. Try rubbing cream gently into the affected areas to soften them before carefully peeling off what skin you can.

Smoking

As we all know by now, smoking is just a bad idea for your health. But despite what we know of its ill-effects to your lungs, heart, and general health, including your skin, there are still a large number of people who still do it.

In fact, studies from the U.S. and around the world have shown that people with psoriasis are more likely to be smokers than the average population. Whether that’s because people take up the habit after developing the condition, or because it contributes to the development of psoriasis, is still not known. What is known is that if you do not smoke, you shouldn’t start. And if you do smoke, you should find a way to quit.

Quitting

Of course, quitting is easier said than done. If you are a smoker with psoriasis, and you are having trouble quitting, be sure to talk to your doctor. There are many ways to approach quitting, and getting help to do it is a great idea.

Nutrition

Eating a well-balanced diet is important for anyone, but especially for someone with a chronic disease like psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis (PsA). It contributes to your overall health and may help you to manage your disease. Though diet may not have a direct impact on your skin condition, it may actually help you to protect your joints from the damage of PsA, a type of arthritis that occurs in about 1 in 7 people with psoriasis.

Below are a few tips on eating better. Remember to tell your doctor or pharmacist if you make any major changes to your diet, as some foods and nutritional supplements may interact with your medication.

  • Try to eat a wide variety of foods.
  • When making meals, prepare extra for later.
  • Do your best to eat regularly.
  • Keep food portions to a reasonable size.
  • Add colour to your diet with fruits and vegetables.
  • Consume only moderate amounts of sugar and salt.
  • Reduce your hydrogenated or trans fat and cholesterol intake.
  •  Make an effort to plan your meals.
  • Consider a multivitamin to supplement your diet.

Nutritional supplements

Nutritional supplements of any kind can change how medications work. Some people with medical problems should not take supplements at any time. Before taking supplements, check with your doctor and do not exceed the doses that are recommended on the product’s label. 

Feed your joints: Did you know that cartilage – the hard, slippery stuff that protects the ends of bones – depends on joint movement to absorb nutrients and remove waste? Staying active “feeds” your joints and keeps them clean and healthy.

Can special diets ease psoriasis?

Changing what you eat may give you a greater sense of control over your overall health, but no diet can “cure” or “ease” psoriasis or PsA. Most dietary claims have no scientific support, and studies have not found any diet that significantly improves these conditions.

But…

If you are overweight, losing 10 pounds (4.5 kg) can reduce joint stress on your knees by as much as 40 pounds (18 kg). Losing weight can help reduce folds of skin on your body where psoriasis can appear. Most doctors recommend a common-sense approach to eating to maintain a healthy weight.


 

Extracted from: Living with Psoriasis,  Your guide to well after a psoriasis diagnosis. Canadian Association of Psoriasis Patients, July 2015
Reviewed by: Sabrina Ribau
Medically Reviewed:  by Dr. Yvette Miller Montrope, April 2021

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We are a non-profit organization serving those impacted by psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. 

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G303-851 Industrial Ave, Ottawa, ON. K1G 4L4

(343)887-4PSO (4776)
or
TF: (866) 575-2846
 

info@canadianpsoriasis.ca

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