Psoriasis and Stress: Managing your emotions

Psoriasis attacked me initially on my scalp and back and then gradually I got psoriasis flakes all over the body. For almost 9 years, I tried almost all sorts of treatment, but, there was no long term success. Then I started exploring various psoriasis healing measures available on the internet and I came across various real life stories of psoriasis healing by holistic healing concept.  It inspired me a lot because during my struggle in all those years, I understood one thing very clearly that this is not just a skin problem, rather it is a problem related to my internal body metabolism. Now, since January 2014, I have adopted the path of holistic healing. The results so far are quite encouraging. I am about 75-80% clear now.

The building of Holistic healing has 5 main pillars:

• Change in diet (Dr Pagano diet, alkaline diet)
• Change in lifestyle (Smoking, alcohol consumption, regular exercise)
• Stress management (Accepting your skin, managing your stress)
• Use of natural herbs and supplements (Turmeric, flaxseeds, coconut oil, aloe vera, Black cumin seed oil, Neem)
• Using natural shampoo and oils for topical application (natural treatment for scalp psoriasis)

Psoriasis and stress

There is a general belief that stress and tension are one of the major contributors towards psoriasis development. I am not sure if stress caused my psoriasis. But, there is no doubt that psoriasis had made me tensed and depressed a lot of times in the past. Even now, sometimes, I feel sad and depressed because I am still struggling to heal my psoriasis.

Psoriasis on face: My story

In my case, the attack of psoriasis was very severe on my face. Areas near my nose, on the forehead, all inside my ears, behind the ears, on the chin, on the area between lips and nostrils- I had thick psoriasis scales everywhere. Even today, my face is not completely cleared of psoriasis scales.

I do remember those strange looks of strangers every day. Sometimes, they would enquire about my psoriasis patches and sometimes, they would simply ignore them. Almost everyday, I would be explaining about these psoriasis marks to few people. Sometimes, they would give me advice also. Sometimes, people would hesitate in shaking hands with me and I could see them talking about my psoriasis without even bothering that I am still around. All these experiences would make me feel damn bad and I would feel as if I should run away to my room and close the door from inside and weep. But, you know, weeping was never been so easy for me. Psoriasis developed when I was just 21 years old. As a young man, it was a daunting experience for me to have reddish white marks on my face and other parts of the body when like any other guy of my age, I was also willing to eat, drink and wear whatever I wanted to.

Psoriasis is a frustrating problem

The most painful aspect of psoriasis is that it is a very frustrating problem. If something is working fine for you and you are on a recovery track and you are optimistic that finally you have found the cure, then suddenly you will experience that the healing process has slowed down or almost stopped and the psoriasis flakes are coming back. Such a roller coaster journey is the most painful thing. You will be clueless because you are still following the treatment religiously. You haven’t done anything wrong. You will be clueless that where to go and whom to contact. You will go to doctors and they will advise you to try something else and will claim that their treatment is best and the treatment you are following is a trash. Now, how to make them understand that this so called trash treatment was working so fine for you till a few days back.

Even today, after clearing so much, I do experience those intermittent relapses for a period of 1-2 weeks and then gradually I will return back to the previous recovery mode. But now, struggling for a long time, I behave sensibly and don’t let those stressful emotions overpower me.

Managing your emotions

The below tips can help you manage your emotions and heal your psoriasis

• Accepting your skin helps

Accepting my skin (and psoriasis) and having an open attitude towards psoriasis has helped me in making quick progress in my healing process. With the passage of time, I am having a more balanced approach towards psoriasis now. I don’t feel bad if someone brings my attention to my psoriasis marks now and I am no more angry with the people who had hurt me directly or indirectly in the past. I don’t blame them for their behavior because there is high possibility that I might have behaved the same way if I didn’t have this skin condition.

Read more here: Accept your psoriasis and start healing

• Start the holistic healing process

This blog is all about holistic healing of psoriasis. Read and understand the concepts, educate yourself and start the journey of holistic healing. When others can do it, then you can do it as well.

• Join a support group/ community

I think, the pain and stress we all experience can only be understood by fellow people with the same problem. Our friends, well wishers and even our family members will never be able to understand the exact pain, we are going through in day to day life. Hence, joining a support group is a great idea where you can meet and talk to other people with similar issues and life experiences. It can be a very liberating experience for you.

There is such a group on Facebook. Come, join us by clicking here :https://www.facebook.com/groups/1550316531867815/

• Yoga and meditation

Yoga and meditation are natural stress busters. These practices can help you re-establish the balance in your life and hence, make your life easier.

Conclusion

Accept your skin, whenever someone asks you about your psoriasis, explain them without getting too emotional or tensed. The more we will be open about our skin problem, the lesser will be the stress and sooner we will be able to control it.

Work  on your psoriasis in a holistic way to heal it. There are so many real life stories to prove the worth of holistic healing concept. Never lose hope. Accept those intermittent periods of relapse in your healing process and keep yourself motivated to work continuously towards the healing process.