Depression and psoriasis

[ccarr06]

I think the impact of psoriasis on mental health needs to be taken more seriously. It's hard to explain to people, and in one way, they see it as vanity as it's 'only skin, not cancer'. They don't realise the painful side to psoriasis, and how it impacts on your life.

Thank you for sharing, I'm sure these comments are helping our readers.

Some very good words there, how many times have I heard "It's only a skin problem" I would love to be able to give everyone psoriasis for just one day then they would think differently. If they didn't I would give them psoriatic arthritis for the next day, that would shut them up for sure.

I agree. It's not until it affects you that you realise how big an impact it has. I knew of the condition before I had it, my grandad had it, but he always spoke of it as though it were nothing (he got it on his elbows) but he cared enough to by a UV lamp in the 70s, which cost a lot of money. It's a tough condition to live with, because it's not seen as serious by so many people. They don't fully realise the biology behind it, and how it affects the body (the tirdness, itching, inflammation, etc), they see red marks or scale, and think that's all there is to it. More education and awareness is definitely needed!

[ccarr06]

Very   ccarr !
Exactly as it is.
I myself have been so lucky that at least my psoriasis was very limited and only to my scalp behind my ears, so easy to hide with a bit of long hair.
But I am quite sure that at my side the PsA started after a period of extreme stress.

Stress seems to be such a big trigger for psoriasis, which also leads into depression in itself for some people, so it can be a vicious cycle. You suffer from depression over psoriasis, then the stress that depression has on the body can feed into the psoriasis and make it flare up even worse. For me, I was highly stressed during the period when I got sick (I started a new job, and got thrown in the deep end, and found it difficult to gain my footing), so I think it was the two combined (on top of genetics) that caused it.

PsA sounds so awful to struggle with! I didn't know much about it, until I looked at the forums here. I'm sure that can lead to depression too, from the pain alone.