Hey, my name’s Keith and I am one of the 125 million people in the world living with Psoriasis.
When I was first diagnosed at the age of 18 I had no idea that a seemingly simple skin condition could (and would) impact every facet of my life going forward.
I’ve struggled with my mental health, I’ve dealt with severe anxiety, depression and battled addiction dealing with my skin. For the longest time I blamed myself, something had to be wrong with me as a person.
Only recently have we started learning about how extensively psoriasis negatively impacts a persons mental health. I knew that constantly itching all the time and feeling like I need to hide my flakes and scales had to be bringing me down, but never realized that having psoriasis could increase a persons risk for anxiety and depression.
Psoriasis has given me itchy skin, mental health struggles, painful joints and an increased risk of having a lot of health problems but it has also been the catalyst for teaching me to ask for help, taking greater care of my mind and body, and creating connections with other warriors going through the same thing.
Psoriasis goes so much deeper than skin…but Thankfully none of us have to endure it alone . Knowing that a community of kind hearted and understanding fellow psoriasis warriors exists has helped me more than I could say. Thank You to all my friends and family who have loved me when I couldn’t love myself and for being cool about my flakes falling all over the place , and to anyone that’s shown me love, I couldn’t get to this place of understanding in my journey without you.
All any of us really want and need in this life is to feel like we’re being seen and heard. To anyone suffering from any medical or mental condition I hope this post reminds you, that you are seen, you are heard, and that you’re not alone.
Psoriasis Association South Africa
