alcohol and psoriasis

[Brighteyes]

Hi! Am new and appreciative of finding this site via google.
Think I am lucky to have only lived with psoriasis since I turned 40, am 44. It coincided with job difficulties and heavy drinking. I have it on the palms of my hands and soles of my feet, also my lower legs. A week ago the scales which often split turned into puss blisters and my diagnosis is now palmer-plantar pustular psoriasis, I was still prescribed dovobet. I had to go a walk in clinic rather than my GP. My  knuckles are alsoswollen.
Previously I have pretty much used under foot blisters to ease the pain of the cracks on my feet, which helped. But this time when I changed the blisters to keep them clean, the skin peeled off too leaving raw soles and making it impossible to walk on one foot and painful on the other. Does anyone have any suggestions how I might relieve this pain. Am used to thick scales with cracks, not large patches of raw skin?
Also has anyone's psoriasis disappeared when they have stopped heavy drinking (and not come back)?
Excuse  me for asking questions on my very first post.
Hope this finds a lot of you well and coping.
Kind  regards

Your post sounds very similar to my story.
I too did not have any psoriasis until March 2010 ( I was 41 at the time ).
Mine came on after a couple of years of student life ( copious amounts of alcohol + junk food), followed by marriage breakdown, followed by my new babies heart surgery, followed by two miscarriages.
I guess you could say that stress probably had a lot to do with it.
With regard to heavy drinking, I can relate. In the early days of my diagnosis (PPP), I did self- medicate....A LOT! What I have found over the years is that, whilst alcohol does numb the physical pain, it does nothing for the emotional pain.
Stopping drinking did not make my PPP go away, but it has removed a huge stress factor on my body and mind. Drinking became an emotional crutch and the downers got worse every time. I will be straight with you.....between 2010 and 2012 it was not unusual for me to drink a bottle and a half of red wine round 5 times a week.  
I still drink (Thursday nights is my chill in front of the TV evening ) but now it's like a treat to myself.
What has replaced it is reading, crafts, meditation, music, exercise, offloading here on this forum and keeping a journal.
You will see in Back Into Hell how much of a rollercoaster my own personal story has been and I still wobble, the difference is that now I get back up faster because of the coping mechanisms I now have in place.
I really hope some of this makes sense.
As for dressing raw skin......try a nice foot soak ( dead sea salts are good for this ), gently pat dry, massage with coconut oil/prescribed ointment and occlude ( wrap ) in cling film. Apply cotton or bamboo socks to really get those oils soaking in. I also pad my shoes with thick sanitary towels ( yep, you read that right ).
For my hands it's much the same for keeping clean then I apply plastic gloves and cotton gloves ( fingers cut out ). I'm sure it all sounds a bit of a kerfuffle but, over time, it become just as routine as brushing your hair.
Experiment and see what works for you.
Feel free to ask me anything, anytime.



P.S RE: The Itch.
Yes, the itch is horrendous but scratching is really bad for already raw skin. When you have your feet wrapped and covered with socks try dealing with the itch by applying pressure with your fingertips then releasing. I found that gave me relief about 80% of the time. Walking on it stops itching too.....bl**dy cruel irony though.