Psoriasis, particularly if it develops on visible or sensitive areas of the body – such as the face, hands, arms, feet, or genitals – can seriously damage a person’s emotional and psychological well-being. Children, adolescents, and those dating can take it particularly hard, with feelings of embarrassment, shame, depression, and despair, fearing possible negative reactions from people.

Those fears and emotions are perfectly natural, and professional counseling can help you process those negative thoughts. Seeking support from others with psoriasis or other skin diseases is also helpful, as we all have stories of realizing that we were far more fixated on our psoriasis than people we were encountering or dating.

Still, we do not want to dismiss the hurt that is caused when someone says a rude or uneducated remark about your psoriasis. That pain is real. We would suggest a polite, factual explanation about your noncontagious psoriasis being driven by your immune system, which is often helpful in defusing the situation, as most normal human beings will quickly realize their mistake and apologize.

Children can also give us a refreshing way of looking at things. One father with severe psoriasis reports that after starting a new psoriasis treatment and going into full remission, his child remarked, “Dad, you look weird without your psoriasis.”

One of our missions at Psoriasis Cure Now is to educate the general public about psoriasis, since once educated about it, people’s odd comments subside. It seems the mystery surrounding psoriasis was what used to cause most of the problems. We are happy to report that anecdotally, it appears that unkind remarks directed towards people with psoriasis are becoming less common. The body-positive movement for psoriasis patients and others is helping this process along. Three cheers for that. And as effective treatments continue to reach more patients, this issue should fade as our psoriasis patches fade.