接受牛皮癣的救济
It can be tough not to care what other people think about your plaques from PsO. But that’s exactly what the doctor ordered.
You know thedeal with psoriasis (PsO): Red plaques and rashes can appear in places where you can’t conceal them—not if you want to wear shorts and bathing suits when it’s warm outside (like everyone else does) or a sexy dress on a hot date. But when other people who don’t have a clue about PsO react negatively or even with fear, thinking your symptoms may be infectious, it can be tough not to feel self-conscious or even downright bad about yourself.
您的挑战（也许最重要的下一步前进）？在巴尔的摩的约翰霍普金斯医学的皮肤科助理教授Sara Lamb，M.D. Sara Lamb说，学会接受自己，PSO和所有人。But it’s not like she doesn’t understand how tough this is to do: “Disturbances in our physical appearance can affect our confidence because we don’t like standing out as being different or sick, which can cause lower self-esteem,” she adds.
那么你如何从想要将你的皮肤隐藏在世界上，让你的余生到一个自我接受的地方，甚至可以信心？
越过PSO否认
Debra Sullivan, Ph.D., who is a Walden University Master of Science in Nursing program faculty member and nurse in Nashville, TN, has had psoriasis for decades. She made the journey from perpetual self-scrutiny to acceptance long ago. When she first started getting plaques on her knees and elbows at 18, Sullivan tried to ignore them. “People would ask me about it, and I would come up with excuses and say I had fallen and scraped my knees and elbows,” she says. “I’m sure everybody thought I was the clumsiest person in the world, but that’s what I did for a while.”
By age 20, Sullivan realized the plaques weren’t going away. “It was really bad, and so I was always covering them up,” she says. Since she lived in Ohio, where the weather is often on the colder side, this strategy worked most of the time. Even so, she decided to get them checked out by a local doctor, who diagnosed her with PsO and injected affected spots on her elbows with cortisone shots over the next year. The shots helped for a time, but they also took away all sensation in those areas.
Eventually, Sullivan developed a severe infection on one elbow, but because she couldn’t feel it, she didn’t tune into the problem until she noticed it was swollen and red—and even then she wasn’t aware how serious things had gotten. She went back to her doctor, who told her that he could see her bone. The cortisone shots had led to the infection (a known potential side effect) and prevented her body from creating an immune response to it. Her doctor immediately discontinued the shots and gave her a course of antibiotics. The infection eventually healed, but the incident freaked her out so much that she stopped doing the cortisone shots for good.
算法处理起伏
在她停止治疗后几年，鼓励沙利文去克利夫兰诊所去看一个专家，在那里她被介绍给他身体上的牛皮癣斑块。最终，她找到了一个帮助的人，但她头皮上的PSO仍然是焦虑的源泉。“你总是试图覆盖它或穿着像围巾的东西，这样你就不必担心你的头皮上显示的薄片，”她记得。“在那个年龄上，你对你的外表非常谨慎，所以我总是担心。”
She discovered that the sun helped her plaques quite a bit (the ultraviolet B rays found in sunlight have been shown to slow down their growth). But, in Ohio “there wasn’t a lot of it,” she laughs. Still, between bouts of direct sunlight and the new cream, Sullivan thought she was on the road to freedom. That bubble burst pretty quickly when the cream stopped working. She tried a new one. It helped for a while, too, until it didn’t. The cycle repeated over and over, as it often does for people with PsO. This can happen for all sorts of reasons, such as your body building up a tolerance to a treatment.
“I had this illusion that, oh, I found this cream, it was all going to be better, but that’s not how it works,” she says. “It’s a constant battle with trying to find something that’s going to work again. And then your insurance probably won’t pay for it because it’s usually more expensive.”
就With PsO
花了一些时间，但是当她大约25岁时，沙利文终于到了一个人决定PSO只是她是谁的一部分。如果有人问过她的斑块，她会解释她的病情。“起初，我会开玩笑。我会说我有“牛皮癣心碎”，因为曾经是广告，“沙利文说。“我刚学校拥有它。”
Still, Sullivan has experienced some not-so-fun incidents over the years. The worst happened at a beauty salon when the stylist was washing her hair. “She suddenly jerked her hands out of my hair and said, ‘Ewww, what is that?’ I told her it was psoriasis and that it wasn’t contagious, but I don’t think she believed me because she put on her gloves and acted like I had the plague,” recalls Sullivan. Though the situation was hurtful, it taught her to be proactive in educating her hair stylists about psoriasis—that it’s not a disease someone else can “catch.”
Tools for PsO Self-Acceptance
If you’re stuck in the mire of self-doubt, Sullivan and Dr. Lamb have some words of wisdom. “Don’t let psoriasis take over your life. It’s just one small part of who you are,” advises Sullivan. “Honestly, most people in your life will accept you because they know who you are as a person.”
Dr. Lamb says that being in a support group with other people with PsO is one of the best steps you can take toward self-acceptance. Having friends who understand what life with psoriasis is like can help boost your confidence and lessen some of those embarrassed feelings you might experience when you’re trying to explain your condition to questioning strangers, she adds.
沙利文还建议写下你感激的东西。作为一名护士，她看到许多具有严重健康问题的人，她说真的将她的PSO透视。“如果我开始感到难过，我有一个小小的名单，”她说。“我有我的流动性，我可以沟通，我的生命中有人，我的基本需求得到满足。”这项练习提醒她，她的生命中可能会发生更糟糕的事情。
And don’t forget that there are now a large number of treatments available for psoriasis that can help clear up your skin, if not 100%, pretty close to it, says Dr. Lamb. If you’re not already seeing a dermatologist, she advises that you connect with one ASAP to get started on a path toward calmer skin—and a less self-critical heart and mind, too.
PSO受影响的地区：Mayo Clinic. (2020.) “Psoriasis.”https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/psoriasis/symptoms-causes/syc-20355840
可可酮注射副作用：Mayo Clinic. (2021.) “Cortisone shots.”https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/cortisone-shots/about/pac -20384794
Ultraviolet B for PsO:国家牛皮癣基金会。（2021.）“光疗法”。https://www.psoriasis.org/phototherapy/
PSO触发：国家牛皮癣基金会。(2021.) “Causes and Triggers."https://www.psoriasis.org/causes/
