Too embarrassed to leave the house

Posted Sat 25 Mar 2017 23.31 by CTM98

Hi I'm new but a long time psoriasis sufferer. I have it very severely on my scalp and have patches all over my body, mostly on my chest, back and ears. I'm 18 and I go to sixth form and sometimes I'm so embarrassed about my condition that I find it really hard to leave the house. I have to wear a black suit to school and I think you can all relate to how grossed out people are by the mountains of flakes on your shoulders and back. I'm literally covered in fallen flakes all. the. time. People comment on it and tell me it's gross, obvsiouly they're just saying that because they're confused and don't understand what I'm going through but it's beyond embarrassing. I've missed a few days of school on my most severe days because I just can't bear the idea of being stared at and laughed at all day. I've been using Betamethasone scalp oil for a year now and it's started to loose its effectiveness. I've never found anything that works for my body so just moisturise and apply coconut oil like crazy to stop the itch. I know this all sounds a bit petty and I just need to get over it and live with it but it's really having an impact on my quality of life at the minute. Over the Easter holidays I'm going to shave my head so that I can apply the oil more throughly and comb some of it out. I'm just at the end of my rope on this now, I was a severe eczema sufferer as a child and was never able to have my arms and legs on show because of it- that was bad enough but I can't exactly cover my whole scalp! This has been more of a rant than anything but just wanted to get you guys advice because I see a lot of you are older and have suffered a lot longer. Thanks!

Posted Mon 27 Mar 2017 13.17 by Metarie1985
Beauty standard ignorer, unapologetic P sufferer for 10 years, determined to stay positive!

Hi CT - really sorry to hear you're struggling with this, I have pretty bad scalp P too and it's a nightmare, especially as I've got into the horrible habit of picking at it :( It's gross. Have you tried good old hairspray around your roots? It can help keep the flakes from falling out your hair onto your shoulders, as long as you don't fiddle or brush it out. More of a hack than a treatment but it's helped me when I'm trying to look presentable!

Posted Mon 27 Mar 2017 19.17 by Peter W
Plaque psoriasis (on and off) since mid 1970s

Hi CTM, Sorry to hear about how you're feeling. Scalp flakes really are annoying and embarrassing, When I was younger (a long time ago!) most people had dandruff - it was before the invention of anti-dandruff shampoo - and flakes on dark clothing was pretty common. But not so now, of course. I find that Coal Tar shampoos work well for me - I use Capasal shampoo, and have also used Alphosyl. You could talk to your GP and/or pharmacist about those. One thing I find to make my psoriasis less embarrassing is to tell people about it. My hands were REALLY bad last year and people used to mention it. When I explained what it was, they were very sympathetic. It must be quite difficult at school though. But you could try something like: "Yes, it does look look like dandruff, doesn't it. But it's actually a skin condition I have, and it's really annoying and embarrassing. If you have other patches you could show them (like on elbows etc) that can be the start of sympathy, rather than ignorance. Hope you find a way of dealing with this that's good for you.

Posted Sat 1 Apr 2017 22.35 by Hashee

Hi sorry to hear how low your feeling. i started with psoriasis at 24 , im 53 now, and i know how embarrassing it is, I would advice you to go to the doctors and ask if you can try another treatment, often psoriasis gets used to one treatment and stops working. May be a coaltar shampoo, Hopefully they will find a cure soon.

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