Emerging from the fog
A diagnosis of a chronic condition like psoriasis may take over your life at first and leave you distracted and preoccupied. The information you have to process—from your doctor, your pharmacist, or any other member of your health-care team—can be complex and intimidating, not to mention that it may seem to come all at once. Denial may begin to set in as you spend more and more time searching for any information you can find about psoriasis.
You may even feel embarrassed about your skin condition and reluctant to seek out or accept the help of your family or friends. Other feelings you may be struggling to overcome might include:
- Being overwhelmed
- Confusion
- Disjointedness
- Isolation
- Relief that you finally have a name for your condition
In the early days and weeks following your diagnosis, you may find your mix of emotions difficult to untangle and control. Try to remember that knowing what’s wrong and working with your doctor to find ways to ease your symptoms will help inject hope into that emotional knot.
What you can do
- Do your best to find out as much as you can about psoriasis.
- Keep your doctor’s appointments.
- Take notes when you are seeing a health-care professional and consider taking someone along with you.
- Explore the handy tools in the Psoriasis Toolkit, which can help you keep
- track of your symptoms and print records to bring to your appointments.
- Learn about the strong emotions associated with psoriasis and how to cope with them if necessary.
