Living with psoriasis

30 Oct 2023

By Vicky Islaia

I am Vicky, an Indonesian university student.

I am a psoriasis warrior, I have lived side by side with psoriasis for more than 8 years. Before I entered university, I was still feeling the type of skin disease I was experiencing, I went to many hospitals with specialist doctors who didn't realize and stated that I had psoriasis, until several doctors gave me the wrong medicine which made the itching in my body become generalized, which was initially fungus, infection, eczema, genetics etc. Finally, at the last meeting with a specialist doctor, he told me that, yes, this is psoriasis. I admit & realize that living with psoriasis is not easy & expensive. Why isn't it easy? First, I told my parents, they were shocked by the information I gave them about psoriasis, there was gossip that my psoriasis was a shaman's witchcraft disease, don't approach it or it will spread, etc. The first and second years with psoriasis were very difficult full of statements of, why me? why does it come out a lot on the skin of the body? why, why etc? In fact, in that year psoriasis on the skin exploded, it could be said that it was almost 70%, crying, stress, staying up late, this is one of the triggers for psoriasis that can't be calmed down, not to mention that psoriasis treatment is not cheap, it really drains the budget, with moisturizing creams that shouldn't be skipped, soap. & herbal shampoo that is psoriasis friendly, clothing & clothing that does not cause irritation if it comes into contact with body skin that has psoriasis flare-ups, etc. As time went by, days, weeks, even years, I started to make peace with psoriasis, accepting that psoriasis is part of me, it's my body's alarm if I eat wrongly, over study, over work, stay up late, & overthinking causes stress to appear on the spot. the unexpected. To stop psoriasis, I just need to be happy every time psoriasis comes, cut off people who make me uncomfortable to reduce stress, increase work activities, exercise, work out and stay rested before the psoriasis alarm goes off.