Psoriasis and mental illness

What is Mental Illness?

Mental illness is a collective term for mental illnesses is a little less severe. It can be fear, anxiety, depression or even more serious conditions like depression. Most often, mental illness goes away after a period, it is often linked to stressful situations and events in life.

Psoriasis is more than just a skin disease

To being diagnosed with psoriasis is not only noticeable on the skin rashes and eczema. Having psoriasis also affects how we feel on the inside to a large extent. Not feeling comfortable in your own skin or feeling that you cannot wear the clothes you want to wear naturally affects how you feel. Many psoriaticists feel that they can become depressed and that their everyday lives are negatively affected when they are reminded of their rashes. Many people also testify that their self-confidence is lowered when they get their rash from psoriasis.

Anxiety and depression that cause skin rashes

Anxiety and depression have strong links to the appearance of skin rashes, however, it is difficult to do research because anxiety and depression differ in different people and have different triggers.

If you have psoriasis yourself, you probably recognize that your skin problems will be worse if you feel down or stressed. It’s also double, your rash can flare up with stress and anxiety, but you can also have anxiety over your skin problems.

Stress combined with psoriasis can lead to mental illness

There are many studies showing that stress and psoriasis have strong links.

But there is much we still do not know about the link between mental illness and psoriasis yet. Researchers disagree to what extent psoriasis affects mental health, but you know that there is a connection. In a large study with 3,500 people from Lund University, the group of people with skin disorders (including psoriasis) showed that 14.1% also had a depression, compared with 5.7% who did not have skin problems. Suicidal thoughts were also more common in the group with skin disorders and psoriasis.

Meditation and routines can help your psoriasis

It has been found that keeping routines and meditation can help you with both your mental health and your psoriasis, and if one gets better, the other will probably be better automatically. Adhering to strict routines can make your body get used to a treatment and make you rewarded in the brain's reward system when you take your treatment, for example, the daily application of softening cream can actually make you happier.

Read more about other health conditions associated with psoriasis here: https://itsitchy.com/common-health-conditions-and-diseases-associated-with-psoriasis/

Written by Zac Hyde M.D.