Georgia's Story

Our Digital Communications Officer, Georgia, shares her story of living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

My name’s Georgia. I’m the Digital Communications Officer at the Psoriasis Association, and I’ve been living with psoriasis for over 10 years and, more recently, psoriatic arthritis (PsA) for the past two.

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I had eczema growing up, so I got pretty used to using creams and steroids from a young age. It was mostly under control for a while, but when I was 17 and doing my A Levels, I had a really bad flare-up.

Around that time, I started noticing how dry my scalp was, along with cracked skin behind my ears. I went to have my eczema looked at as it had gotten so bad and that’s when a dermatologist told me it was psoriasis behind my ears and on my scalp. When I googled scalp psoriasis, it looked exactly like mine and it all made sense.

I was given some new treatments that helped through my late teens, but when I went to university, I found it really hard to keep up with them, especially the coal tar treatments. I used to pretend I was going to bed early so my housemates wouldn’t come in and see me doing them. I felt so embarrassed - about the smell and about having psoriasis in general. I tried to hide it with my hair as much as I could and hardly ever wore it up. I was so jealous of all my friends who didn’t have to worry about how they wore their hair.

In my early 20s, my psoriasis started getting worse, and I developed patches on my face, chest, torso and back. Then when COVID hit in 2020, it reached its worst point.

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That was probably the hardest time for me. Before that, I could usually cover it up, but this was different. Makeup just made it worse. In a way, I was glad it happened during lockdown because no one had to see it and I could apply treatments more easily. Around then, I started an Instagram account to connect with other people living with psoriasis. None of my friends or family had it, and it felt so isolating. When I first got psoriasis, I genuinely thought no one else in the world could relate to how I felt.

I was really lucky to have some private treatment for my scalp with a trichologist (a specialist in hair and scalp health), who taught me so much about how to care for it properly. At that point, my psoriasis was so thick that I was actually losing hair because new follicles couldn’t grow through.

Once my scalp started to improve, everything else seemed to follow. I think I finally broke that cycle of stress and flare-ups. My face cleared up a lot, and through Instagram, I also reached a place where I felt more accepting of my psoriasis. I stopped worrying so much about hiding it and felt more comfortable going out with it visible. I had mean comments throughout school because of my eczema, but I had started to realise that if anyone said anything, it was their problem more than mine.

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In 2022, I started working at the Psoriasis Association, which felt like a real full-circle moment. Now I get to support and talk to people who really understand what it’s like. I feel very lucky to be able to use my experience to empathise with other people who know how I’m feeling. It seems strange now to think that I ever felt alone, when there is so much support out there.

Because I’d learned so much about psoriasis, I started to recognise symptoms of psoriatic arthritis quite quickly. My ankles became stiff and swollen, walking was difficult, and I was waking up in pain every morning. Everyday life just felt exhausting and I had to use a walking stick sometimes. Putting it into words here, I can't really explain how much PsA impacted me, but it really did affect every aspect of my life.

That same year, I was also diagnosed with coeliac disease, which honestly felt like a lot to deal with all at once.

Thankfully, I was able to see a rheumatologist fairly quickly. They confirmed PsA and started me on methotrexate and sulfasalazine in 2025. They helped take the edge off, but I was still in quite a lot of pain and was limited on things that I used to do, like go on long walks or go to the gym regularly. I’ve found living with PsA much harder than psoriasis, both mentally and physically. It really does impact pretty much every part of your life.

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After advocating for myself and with the support of my colleagues, I’ve recently started Cimzia, and I’m already noticing a big difference to my pain levels and inflammation. I feel like both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis took a lot from me, but I finally feel like I'm getting back to the person I was before.

I’ve always believed that everything happens for a reason, but when you’re living with a chronic illness, it doesn’t always feel that way. Sometimes it just feels unfair, with no real explanation. What I do know is that living with multiple autoimmune conditions has shown me a level of resilience I never knew I had.