For the past couple of months, I’ve been emailing with a lovely young lady named Louise about her psoriasis. The pink loving Louise lives in Ireland and wants to be a Beauty Therapist when she gets done with school. This girl’s an animal lover (6 dogs, 2 cats and countless horses) and thinks spending time with her boyfriend is the perfect day.
I had a chance to interview Louise about her psoriasis and she was happy to share her courageous journey with us:
1. How old were you when you were first diagnosed with psoriasis? What was your initial reaction?
It was just after turning fifteen. I completely broke down when the doctor told me that it was psoriasis because I knew of people in my family who had it, but i never thought I’d get it, but then I did.
2. What do you feel is the most frustrating part about having psoriasis?
I think the most frustrating thing is not knowing how to get rid of it.. and just trying to learn to live with it and accepting that you have it.
3. Share your best advice for other young girls who are living with psoriasis.
I would say try to not get upset over it, or feel down about yourself.. but that’s hard to do and I know it is because I know how you feel, but you have to just remember that you’re still you and you’re still beautiful. 🙂
4. What are some of your favorite tips and tricks for controlling your symptoms?
I’ve found that talking about it to people really helps me. Holding in how you feel about it is the worst thing you can do! I remember for a few weeks after when i got diagnosed with psoriasis i didn’t tell anyone that i had it, i tried covering it up because i felt so disgusting with it.. but once I talked about it to my friends, boyfriend and family i noticed an improvement in it nearly the next day! 🙂 So you should always just talk about it, never hold in your feelings. And now that I talk about how I feel my psoriasis is completely cleared up. 🙂
5. How does psoriasis affect your daily life, physically and emotionally?
When I had it really bad, on my face and neck (which were most visible) I felt so horrible and ugly, I used to have to go to school without any make-up on and just let people see and it upset me so much, so I held in all my feelings about it. – which was the worst thing I could have done! – I used to tell people that having psoriasis didn’t bother me and that I didn’t care if people called me ugly or looking at me saying ‘whats that?’ But it did bother me, a lot and it started to get worse. But I talked about it and I felt so much better because people were there for me to help me build up my confidence again. 🙂 Having psoriasis emotionally is the worst in my opinion, because you lose all self-esteem and confidence in yourself and that’s something everyone needs to have and its hard to get it back but you will get it back because everyone’s beautiful no matter what skin problems they might have. 🙂
6. Have you been able to identify what triggers your flare ups? If so, what do you do to avoid them?
I’ve found stressing about stuff, worrying over things and holding in all my feelings triggers the flare ups mostly, so I just tend to avoid doing any of those. 🙂
Hi all of you psoriasis suffers out there. I am male 50 years old and have had to deal with this symptom since my early 20″s. I have used all the expensive creams, pills and light treatments. My GP and I discovered that I have a vitamin D deficiency (it always gets better with the sun have you noticed?). I have been taking 3,000 UI of vitamin D for the past two years and this has helped to keep my flare ups to a minimum. I am not a doctor but this seems to work for me. Please discuss this with your doctor and let me know if this helps.