We asked 18 young people about the look and feel of their psoriasis. The main things they described were:
- patches and plaques
- inflamed and red skin
- itchiness
- soreness and pain
- skin flaking
- scars and lasting changes to the skin
Some symptoms, like dry skin and itchiness, became worse with a ‘flare-up’. Sometimes flare-ups happened unexpectedly; but other times people knew of specific triggers like stress or fragranced bath and shower products. Adam’s psoriasis could flare-up rapidly (e.g. over the course of an evening) when he was age 19/20.
Steven talks about some of his psoriasis symptoms, such as flaking and the redness of his skin, and people’s reactions.
Steven talks about some of his psoriasis symptoms, such as flaking and the redness of his skin, and people’s reactions.
Age at interview: 22
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 14
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I think cos it was quite gradual for me, I kind of learned to get used to it, I think. It wasn’t like one day I woke up and was like covered in flaky skin everywhere. I kind of like watched it almost like grow [laughs]. It can be hard. You kind of get used to flaky skin everywhere. Bought a new car that’s got black seats, which means I’m like once a week hovering, like to get rid of flakey-. Don’t do it, buy a car with like white seats, definitely [laughs]. That’s cos white seats hide it a lot better. It can be difficult, you kind of get used to like people asking you the whole time if you wear short sleeved tee-shirts. It’s like, in the summer I tend to wear tee-shirts and shorts. And people are like, “You’ve been bitten. You’ve been bitten”. And I’m like, [looks around] “Where?” and they’re like, “Can’t you see it?” I’m like, “No” [laughs] they’re like, “That big patch”. “Oh, I’ve haven't been bitten, its psoriasis”. And occasionally, very occasionally, you get some like really like nasty things. I once was in public, I was in the high street somewhere and this woman said to her daughter, “Step away from the leper.” And I was like, sorry, no, this isn’t going on. I’m like wearing a t-shirt. It’s not leprosy, its psoriasis, like calm down. And I thought like, not only is that quite bad for me, but like, if I was a person with leprosy like how would I feel, like that’s horrible.
Patches of psoriasis
Psoriasis was often described as different to ‘normal’ skin. People talked about patches or plaques, which varied in size, shape and appearance (see also type of psoriasis). For some, their psoriasis was like a rash: red, often raised or with scabs. Jack says he didn’t mind the look of his psoriasis at first as it was only “small red dots” on his torso.
Naming some of his plaques was a coping strategy for Steven, though he now prefers not to spend a long time focusing on his skin.
Naming some of his plaques was a coping strategy for Steven, though he now prefers not to spend a long time focusing on his skin.
Age at interview: 22
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 14
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I’m quite a positive person and I had to be positive. At one point, the way I got round it was by naming the patches which sounds ridiculous and it was when it first started and I had like, John, [laughs] Joan and you know. And I think that was kind of like my coping mechanism for a little bit. And then, I think I got a bit too hooked into naming them. And it wasn’t really helping at all. And I was like, okay, firstly you know this is ridiculous like why are you carrying on doing it? But like, what’s that achieving? Nothing. Let’s just kind of stop getting attached to it, almost like pretend it’s not there. Use the like 10 minutes of your day when you have to moisturise or whatever to like acknowledge it’s there and then the rest of the time just kind of ignore it unless someone asks about it.
Patches/plaques could feel very dry and ‘crispy’. Dry skin was often itchy and prone to cracking, which could cause bleeding and scabs as well as risk infections. Some found their skin was especially dry in winter. Russell’s dry skin looked “a bit silvery or white”. A few people talked about the difficulties of wearing make-up; while some said it was a confidence boost, it could also highlight the dryness of the skin. Lisa doesn’t tend to wear make-up products like foundation because it will ‘congeal’.
To help with the dryness, people used medical emollients, shop-bought cosmetic moisturisers or found their steroid creams helped - but these topical treatments could be unpleasant to use. Some people said they became better at keeping the skin moisturised as they got older.
A characteristic of psoriasis is built-up skin, where the layers grow on top of one another (see causes). The patches can be raised and flaky, which adds to the itchiness. Lucy described her psoriasis as having “scales”. Steven could feel the return of his “real skin” with topical treatment because “it’s not flaky and it’s flat”.
Megan found that the building up of layers of skin on her scalp caused some hair to fall out.
Megan found that the building up of layers of skin on her scalp caused some hair to fall out.
Age at interview: 16
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 7
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I think my hair just randomly started falling out one day, and I got really panicky about it, so I was talking to my mum, and my-, we rang the hospital, and they said it could be because my psoriasis was growing thicker in my hair; like it was growing really quickly, and you couldn’t stop it growing even if I put the creams on, like it wouldn’t stop growing, so my hair just started falling out. And then they said to me that I had to like really carefully get like a comb, and carefully like not scrape, like carefully brush my hair so that my psoriasis would fall out of it, and like not cut the tops off of the skin, but take away the skin slowly so that it would reduce it growing so quickly. But I remember like trying to hide it; so I wouldn’t have my hair up; I'd wear my hair down all the time cos it was like right behind my ear, like here [points to left ear]. So, I used to wear my hair down so that you didn’t see it at all.
And did it help with what the dermatology department suggested of combing through your hair, did that help at all?
Yeah it stopped it from growing so quickly, because I was taking the like top layer off as soon as it would grow. So, then cos I brushed my hair like every day anyway; I had to brush it in the morning and the evening to make sure that all the scalp was like clear, and even though I knew it would grow again, I was prepared to go through it, like ready to take off the heads a bit again.
Inflamed skin
Lots of people said their psoriasis looked redder than the rest of their skin. For Steven treatments, such as dithranol, add to this by tinting the skin. Ella finds some areas of the psoriasis on her body are red (such as on her chest) but others are not (such as on her hairline). Sometimes the person’s skin was also very sore and sensitive to touch.
Flare-ups could make the skin more intensely red. Inflamed psoriasis can look “angry” and “red raw”. Louie and Jack talked about activities, like doing sports and being in a warm room, which make their skin more ‘flush’. Louis and Lisa had strategies to settle their skins down when inflamed, such as keeping the room cool or wearing a t-shirt (rather than a jumper/coat) outside.
Inflamed and red skin could be mistaken by other people for another injury, such as an insect bite, a burn or a cut. It could be difficult for doctors to diagnose the symptoms of psoriasis and sometimes they thought it was another condition, such as ringworm (a fungal infection). Simon sometimes used excuses for his symptoms, like he had accidentally knocked his forehead, because it was easier than explaining about psoriasis to other people. Damini felt self-conscious when the redness of her skin attracted attention and questions. Ella and Carys have been told by strangers that their skins looked ‘sore’.
The redness on Louis’ face drew unwanted attention from others. It became easier for him to explain once he had a diagnosis of psoriasis.
The redness on Louis’ face drew unwanted attention from others. It became easier for him to explain once he had a diagnosis of psoriasis.
Age at interview: 21
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 18
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Obviously psoriasis isn't particularly a good-looking thing to have on your skin. Very like red, angry, blotchy. And when it started on my arms and on my chest, that wasn't so bad because people don't see it day to day, but when it started coming up my neck and onto my face, then people would say, "Oh Louis, what's that on your face? What-, like what's going on?" And at the start that was a bit [sigh], that was a bit irritating, but I think you get used to that quite quickly. I think, especially once I knew it was psoriasis, I could say, "Oh, got this, don't know how long it'll be there for, hopefully it'll go away, that’s effectively it." But before it was sort of confirmed I had psoriasis, I had to sort of say, "Well I've got a rash, don't really know what it is, don't know what's going to happen to it." So that was-, that was a bit more difficult saying, "I don't know what it is, it's just something that's there."
Some people talked about having ‘sores’ and ‘cuts’, caused by scratching when the skin was itchy. Simon described having “welts” as part of his psoriasis. A few people had blisters, a feature often associated with pustular psoriasis (see types). Russell had blisters on his feet with his first flare-up, but says it’s not been like this since.
Itching and scratching
Most people said psoriasis made their skin very itchy and many felt it was the worst part of having psoriasis for them. It could become especially bad because of triggers and irritants, like certain fabrics or perfumes. A few said they didn’t have much itching or it only happened when their psoriasis was bad. Others spoke about intense itchiness and how distracting it could be. Megan described it as a “weird itch”, Louis sometimes had “a burning itching sensation” and Lola felt like her scalp was “on fire”. Megan, Abbie and Damini all found their psoriasis itchiest at night and some people had woken up, having scratched while asleep, to find their skin sore and bleeding.
Although many said it was best not to scratch, it can be difficult to avoid. Lucy thinks it “comes across as rude” to scratch in public, but says it’s hard not to when it’s so itchy. Zara sometimes digs her nails in as she finds the pain preferable over itchiness. Sofia says, “Occasionally it is very hard not to” scratch her psoriasis, so she tries to do it only gently to limit damaging her skin. Other strategies for coping with itching include:
- sitting on the hands
- cooling the skin down, such as having a cold shower
- cutting their nails short
- finding distractions, like talking to someone
- putting on emollients, moisturisers and/or steroid creams
- taking antihistamine tablets
The itchiness of psoriasis on her feet distracts Zara at school.
The itchiness of psoriasis on her feet distracts Zara at school.
Age at interview: 16
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 2
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Once an itch starts it’s difficult to get rid of. And the more you itch it like your feet get redder and then your feet start to bleed. And it’s constantly there and it bugs you and you just, you’ve got to find some way of just forgetting about it. It’s like, it’s like having I don’t know a broken arm or something and not, and not being able to write and you always know that’s there so when you go into class you can’t write down the notes and it just becomes a lot more difficult.
I can, I don’t know, be in English or Maths or something and my feet would get itchy and I’d, I’d like I’d curl them up in my, in my shoes to try and stop the itch and try like release some of the pain and everything and when I did that I kind of zoned out and I’d miss just that part of the lesson which might have been key so I’d try and do algebra and she’d just explained it and I wasn’t listening, it was difficult.
People tried to avoid scratching because it could be painful and make the psoriasis worse or “spread”. Some appreciated being told by other people not to scratch their skin as they saw it as caring. Others disliked these comments and found them annoying.
Simon talks about itchiness and the impact of scratching on his psoriasis.
Simon talks about itchiness and the impact of scratching on his psoriasis.
Age at interview: 22
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 17
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Sometimes for me you don’t really notice it very much. It’s when untreated areas they start to itch after a while because the skin condition, the skin’s basically reproducing and you basically start itching at it, and you keep scratching and, you know, that’s when it starts to get sore.
But the thing is, with scratches, I think the best way to put it is when you have a certain itch and scratch it and it feels good, and you keep scratching and the next thing you know, oh no, you’re bleeding [laughs].
Yeah.
I realised that does sound a bit weird but it is like scratching an itch basically. You feel it, and you scratch it and it feels better and you just go back to doing it. And then the only consequences you really notice like five days later when you notice that it’s spread out just a little bit more.
What do you do about that, do you sort of try to avoid the scratching if you can?
Yeah. I just really try to distract myself from it. Like it’s itching in about two places right now because of the psoriasis and right now this interview is just helping keep my mind off it because if I keep talking then it’s gonna help me.
Itchiness has become an everyday part of Steven’s life. Family members sometimes tell him not to scratch, even if it’s a ‘normal’ itch.
Itchiness has become an everyday part of Steven’s life. Family members sometimes tell him not to scratch, even if it’s a ‘normal’ itch.
Age at interview: 22
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 14
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My problem is that it’s quite itchy and I tend to kind of like agitate it, I think is the best word. I don’t agitate it as much as like make it worse, but I tend to kind of like try and remove the scales or something. And mum is the number one, “Stop picking it,” or like “Don’t touch it,” and sometimes it gets like, literally my head is just itchy and not even psoriasis and like right now, I can feel like here [points to top of head], I just wanna like give it like a normal-, like any other person would do, give it like a scratch. And it’ll be like, “Stop scratching your head, don’t scratch your head da, da, da”. And I’m like, “My head is just itchy. It’s not the psoriasis, please.” And I think you learn like you would learn anywhere else. You learn to live with it. You learn to deal with it. And, it’s just that kind of getting used to something that you’ve not had for the first 17 odd years of your life, whatever it was, and then bang, it’s all changed.
Abbie says scratching is “the worst thing to do” for psoriasis, but can give some relief.
Abbie says scratching is “the worst thing to do” for psoriasis, but can give some relief.
Age at interview: 20
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 10
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Like a lot of the time I'd be really itchy especially like during the night. If I wasn’t quite comfortable, or it was hot, I'd feel itchy and I'd wake up and I'd sit and itch to the point that I'd make my legs bleed, or I'd scratch my scalp so much that I'd make my scalp bleed. And it was always the worst thing to do but it always had that, that sensation that it was nice to have that, just a relief there although it was almost just annoying because afterwards, well you make it bleed, then you make it worse.
And then yeah, but then you have to be careful because a lot of creams that you use afterwards it does make it -, it makes it worse, so like my, the top of my ears that was always quite thick and horrible, and I would sit there and I'd sit and pick it because I could, because it was there.
And that’s kind of result of it, it’s like, 'Oh I shouldn’t do this,' but there's that relief of just being able to scratch it and itch it, and it not feeling as thick and heavy.
Soreness and pain
Scratching the skin often made it sore, but psoriasis can be painful in other ways too. Sometimes the skin cracks on its own which makes it difficult to move, as for Carys who has a physically active job. Simon’s psoriasis is especially sore in hot weather and he finds sweating makes his skin sting. Louis took painkillers to get to sleep. Avoiding triggers and irritants which might aggravate the skin usually helped.
Louis stopped playing rugby when he had psoriasis and took up swimming instead.
Louis stopped playing rugby when he had psoriasis and took up swimming instead.
Age at interview: 21
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 18
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So I was playing quite a lot of rugby before it happened, and that was a big no [laugh] because obviously that would-, that would make it really, really sore. So I couldn't do any of that. I did quite a lot of swimming, because I sort of checked with the GP and apparently I wasn't gonna to put anything in the water that was going to be bad for anyone else. So I did quite a lot of swimming, which was again really soothing. So it meant that I could go and do something to take me mind off it and get some exercise without it being sore. And I was but initially a bit worried about the chlorine irritating it, but the chlorine seemed to be alright. And again I just made sure I had some emollient on and I was okay. But yeah, it meant that I couldn't play rugby at all. And I had to be careful with sort of pretty much everything else, just to try and sort of stop aggravating it as much as possible.
Louis’ skin became less red and painful when he changed from a shop-bought shower gel to a prescribed soap substitute.
Louis’ skin became less red and painful when he changed from a shop-bought shower gel to a prescribed soap substitute.
Age at interview: 21
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 18
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So I found out that showering with hot water sort of made everything quite red and angry and painful. So I started showering with cold water, or sort of lukewarm water, which made, which made a big difference. And the soap I was using wasn't particularly good for my skin, it was quite-, it was-, made me lose a lot of moisture and it was sort of irritating it. So the, when I went back to my GP the second time, I-, he gave me some it was sort of like E45 moisturising shower wash cream stuff that I could use. And instead of sort of like dehydrating my skin and making it itchy and sore, it would just sort of soothe it. Which was quite nice. So that did make a bit of a difference. But I eventually started showering with just like fre-, the coldest water I could get effectively, because it was just so much-, so much nicer to do that. And it would like calm my skin down and soothe it. So, as I say, some of the times when I'd come home and it had been really bad all morning, it was like a really sort of intense pain, I'd just hop in the shower, put it almost cold as possible, and just stand in the shower for sort of half an hour until it got better. Then I'd hop out and cover myself in the creams again. But I think as much-, it was as much trying to deal with the psoriasis itself as sort of making sure that my skin had no reason to be sort of itchy and painful. So while the steroids were probably good in the long term for reducing inflammation and stuff, making sure that your skin was sort of hydrated and had a sort of barrier between it and the clothes that were rubbing on it, meant that you were much, much less likely to get sort of an itchy, painful event.
Particular parts of the body can be especially painful. Zara has psoriasis on her feet – it makes walking, running and standing difficult, with sharp painful sensations “like tingles up your body”. Zara’s toenails fell out when she was younger and it hurts when doctors spread her toes apart to examine the psoriasis. Megan finds it painful when her psoriasis plaques get caught on her tights.
A few people saw some kinds of pain as a ‘good’ sign for their psoriasis. Megan doesn’t like the sting of swimming in chlorine or salty water, but she thinks it helps by “cleaning” her psoriasis.
Abbie feels some kinds of stinging might be a sign it’s clearing her psoriasis.
Abbie feels some kinds of stinging might be a sign it’s clearing her psoriasis.
Age at interview: 20
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 10
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And then hair dye – I did like to dye my hair and I've gone from like bleach blonde and stuff before, doing it on my own, and when it was in a worser state that the hair dye would sting a lot but I'd still do it as much as it hurt. And but then I felt like, 'Oh well, well it's, it's stinging in, it's like burning on it a little bit but it's gonna get rid of it,' and that was like a theory in my head. I don’t think it did help, I just kind of ignored it, but I like to dye my hair but -.
Like it's burning it away, and maybe if I'm doing this and then it's just gonna ease it. I don’t know, it was a really -, it's a really weird thought but like the sensation of it, even though it stings a little bit, it's, it's nice.
It's really bizarre.
Skin flaking
Skin flaking or peeling was a major part of psoriasis for most people we talked to. Steven says “you learn to brush skin off quite quickly”. An exception was Louis who was grateful that his hadn’t been flaky. Skin flaking was often a source of feeling self-conscious and embarrassed. Louie found skin flaking from his scalp and across the eyebrows most difficult. Steven gels his hair up to keep it in place and finds this helps reduces flakes which “flick” off. Some people had been teased about skin flaking, often in school.
Lots of people said skin flaking had impacts, such as:
- worrying about other people (and family pets) seeing or touching the skin flakes
- concerns about cooking or working in a job with food
- skin flakes showing up on dark coloured clothes and hair
- getting distracted and picking at skin flakes
- doing more cleaning, such as hoovering and changing bedding
- finding ‘symptom relief’ products to gently remove flakes, such as exfoliating gloves for Lucy
- difficulties shaving – Damini and Lisa found their skin cut more than usual, though Simon found his psoriasis skin was less prone to bleeding
Lucy and Lola had close friends who would subtly brush skin flakes from their shoulders. Others had strategies, such as using a lint roller, to remove the flakes from their clothes before going out. Louie also uses a hairdryer to blow away skin flakes from his bedding.
Ella feels self-conscious about skin flaking and finds it’s difficult to cover her psoriasis with make-up.
Ella feels self-conscious about skin flaking and finds it’s difficult to cover her psoriasis with make-up.
Age at interview: 16
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 3
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And like there's only a certain extent that I can cover it up, like with foundation and-. Because, because it's not just-, like with acne you can cover the redness, but with psoriasis it's like the skin is quite flaky. So when you cover it, it sort of makes it more obvious because like it sort of flakes and so everyone can see it and that can be really difficult because when you're trying to like work and you can see like people are looking at it – that’s what I hate the most; I'll be having a conversation with someone and they won't be looking in my eyes; they’ll be looking like-, they’ll just be like looking slightly off, like off my eyes. I'm like, 'I know what you're looking at,' and like it shouldn’t bother me because obviously like if someone had a mole on their face like you'd look at that without helping yourself. But I can just tell-, I can-, and I notice it and it, it's like oh it just bugs me because I'm like, 'I know you're looking at it,' and that makes me more self-conscious because I know they can see it and- When it's on my body it's fine cos I can wear a jumper or wear a long sleeved top and it doesn’t matter, but when it's on your face and you have to put your hair up for sport or for work, you can't do anything about it even if you try and cover it up. And when you're having like a rough day and it's got quite bad, there's nothing you can do about it.
What would you do in that situation if you sort of got the feeling that somebody was looking at a patch of psoriasis?
Well if it was someone I knew like quite well, I would tell them what it was and explain to it. But if it's someone who I don’t know I just-, I think I'd just-, I think I'd just sit through it because I don’t think there's much that you can do at that point. I wouldn’t want to go, "Oh can you stop looking there," like because then that would make the other person feel embarrassed, so I think I would just- would just leave it and let them look at it and it's not going to hurt me from them doing that.
Louie used to avoid wearing dark clothes because they showed up the skin flakes.
Louie used to avoid wearing dark clothes because they showed up the skin flakes.
Age at interview: 16
Sex: Male
Age at diagnosis: 13
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I’ve got it all over my scalp as well which is really the real pain, yeah, because loads of people think ‘oh he’s got dandruff’ or ‘he’s got-‘ but in-, ‘he’s got this’ or ‘he’s got that’, but in actual fact it’s just psoriasis on my head and I just have to explain that to people. And with certain shampoos it does get better but it would never really go away until obviously I get rid of-, if I get rid of psoriasis. And that’s another thing – it’s stopped me wearing black clothes as much. But now, now that I’ve accepted it – I wear darker clothes like I can wear a navy top now, I don’t really care if anyone sees it because half of-, loads of the population have dandruff or this or that.
So wearing things like dark clothing – I didn’t-, I frowned away from wearing black and navy for a while because I thought ‘oh it might leave like dandruff or flakes from my scalp on my clothes’ and I just got to the point I just thought ‘really like it’s not- not that big of a deal’. But the only thing that does still affect me a little bit is my blazer at school because it’s black. I sometimes find little bits of white scalp but only little fine bits on my blazer and I just shake it off, just do it discretely, just shake it off and it doesn’t really affect me anymore.
Having psoriasis on her scalp is difficult for Lola because of the skin flaking.
Having psoriasis on her scalp is difficult for Lola because of the skin flaking.
Age at interview: 17
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 14
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What’s really nice about brushing my hair, is it gets rid of it and that kind of helps with the itch. It sounds really horrible and gross talking about dead skin falling off you. That for me is really hard at school is that like I will take off my jumper and suddenly whoosh there’s like dead skin, and I’m like ‘ahh’ or looking down and like I move my hair and I can see it on my clothes or on the table if I’m in a lesson or studying. And that for me is just like-, if I was someone else I’d be like, “Ahh that’s horrible.” Or like, you kind of-, if you see-, you don’t,- I don’t know for me I just feel like so like embarrassed and just want to kind of curl up and not be there anymore. Cos you’ve got to deal with it, or like on your jumpers or if I look, I’m like ‘oh it’s on my jumper, just crap, I need to get rid of that.’
Scars and lasting marks
Some people had lasting impacts on their skin, even when their psoriasis had cleared. Lola, Carys and Abbie had some ‘scars’ different to the surrounding skin, showing where psoriasis had been. Most people felt okay about the scarring though and preferred it over active psoriasis.
Hyper-pigmentation is when the colour of the skin changes, becoming lighter or darker. Sofia had some white patches after using steroid creams. Hannah says the scarring from her guttate psoriasis made her look “a bit like a leopard”.
Hannah finds she often compares her skin to that of others. She hopes the hyperpigmentation from psoriasis will improve with time.
Hannah finds she often compares her skin to that of others. She hopes the hyperpigmentation from psoriasis will improve with time.
Age at interview: 24
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 16
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I feel like it's a really strange journey. It's been a really strange journey for me because when it's at its worst you always think ‘I just want it to get even a slight bit better and I'll be happy’ and then when it does, you’re not and you’re just sort of never really satisfied. Because you're always looking at other people's skin. For some reason, you're always comparing yourself to people whose skin seems seemingly perfect. And whenever- with me because of my skin tone being quite tanned, when my psoriasis went, I was left with lots of hyperpigmentation, so I have found myself kind of even being frustrated at that, I mean it was not quite perfect – I can still see where it was and all the marks. So you just- there’s this constant feeling of never being satisfied because it's not like it was before, you know, it had ever existed in your life. And you’re always kind of constantly striving to get to that point where it's like it never happened. And it, that's a really long journey and often it doesn't ever happen where you get to the point where it's just not visible at all. So things were quite hard then to come to terms with when you have psoriasis that, you know, your skin might never be the same.
Could you say a bit more about hyperpigmentation and scarring for example and your experiences of that?
Yeah, I think it is more likely to happen in like darker skin tones but I-, you can get both, so I sometimes get light patches and I sometimes get dark patches. Don't really know why, some go one way and some go the other. And the problem is most of the time the doctors say, “You've got to ride it out, that's gonna take, you know, it could take months, it could take years. You know, if you keep like exfoliating and tanning eventually it evens out,” but, you know, there are some areas I've had for like three or four years that haven't completely evened out. And there's some that took a couple of months and now I can't see them at all, so. It's just all, there's no, there's no kind of rule to it. But that was something that I wasn't forewarned about by any dermatologist or doctor and then just discovered afterwards that that, that ‘oh this has happened’. And then they sort of said, “Oh yeah, that's pigmentation.”
So yeah, I sort of just had to deal with it as it was there. And I mean it's not so bad with the summer because I tend to go out in the sun and sort of feel like things are evening out.
Damini isn’t worried about the lasting marks on her skin from psoriasis and think it might stop psoriasis from returning in those places.
Damini isn’t worried about the lasting marks on her skin from psoriasis and think it might stop psoriasis from returning in those places.
Age at interview: 21
Sex: Female
Age at diagnosis: 4
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Could I ask a bit more about scarring, cos you mentioned a bit earlier and what your experience with scarring has been?
Yeah, yeah, I’m just left with, it doesn’t affect me. I don’t, I find that people haven’t really noticed it. I think it’s just through my eyes that I can see it. But I haven’t, people haven’t, as far as I’m concerned, people haven’t noticed it, haven’t mentioned it, haven’t asked me questions about it. Yeah.
Is it something that any of the doctors have mentioned before?
They have said that you’re left with white patches, but they’ve never mentioned like permanent patches which I’m left with. But I have read up online and it is quite common to have with psoriasis. But I find that the scars are a good sign, because I’ve noticed that the psoriasis never actually comes back on that patch where I have the scar, so.
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