How to Care for Psoriasis Patients

If a member of your family or one of your friends has psoriasis, then you must have seen the effect of the disease on the sufferer's quality of life. Psoriasis affects not only the persons with the diagnosis, but also the people around them. It is even more painful to see your loved-one slowly avoiding his or her friends and choosing to live in isolation because of the condition.

Below are some of the things that you can do to help your friend or loved-one cope with disease.

• Understand the condition. The first thing that you can do is to understand psoriasis. With the advent of the internet, it is now much easier to find information about the condition. Make sure that you have a good idea on how a person acquires the disease, its symptoms and the available psoriasis treatments whether conventional or natural treatments.

• Minimize stress in your surroundings. It has already been established that stress triggers the flare-ups of the disease. While it is not possible to completely eradicate stress in the households these days, you can help reduce it. You can ask your loved-one the things that might lessen his or her stress. It might help if you offer to do on some days the chores that the patient usually does. Or, if he or she is not keen to unload the chore, you can ask to swap some heavier duties with a lighter one. Avoid being pushy, however, as it may upset your loved-one. Sympathize, if you wish, but do not patronize.

• Ask, don't assume. While your intention of helping your loved-one is good, it is always better to ask his or her needs. Do not try to make assumptions, because what you think might not be what your loved-one wants or needs. Will it be okay to go to the doctor's office with him or her? Does he or she want his or her friends to visit in the house?

• Know your own limits. Your loved-one may need all the support he or she can get from his or her family because of the condition. It does not mean, however, that you have to own up all the responsibilities for your loved-one, especially when the latter is already an adult. Your role is to help him or her take care of himself or herself. It is never to make him or her dependent on you.

• Make sure you look out for yourself, too. It's not only psoriasis sufferers who become emotionally drained when battling with the condition. Caregivers can feel the same way, too. Hence, you must not forget to take care of yourself and live your own life. Do things that you want to do and give yourself a break sometimes. You would not want to end up worn out with the experience.

Stressed Out? Be Ready for Psoriasis Flare-Ups

Do you still remember the time when you first noticed that you had psoriasis flare-ups? Were you not living stressful days at that time? While there is still some controversy about the role that the stress of daily living contributes to the flare-up of psoriasis, most, if not all, of us (psoriasis patients) agree that whenever a series of stressful events occurs in our lives, or even a single but particularly intense event, we would notice our psoriasis start to flare-up.

A Vicious Cycle
If stress is not the primary trigger, it can surely get psoriasis in a much worse condition. There can be a vicious cycle when we have a flare-up. The mere fact that we have the condition can be the cause of our stress. Because we worry about our condition, it aggravates the flare-up, which again causes another bout of stress. If we do not do anything about it, the cycle keeps on repeating over and over again. To stop this vicious cycle, effective psoriasis treatment is very important.

Reducing the Levels of Stress
There are many ways of reducing the levels of stress. What applies to me may not necessarily be applicable in your situation, but we can surely find a common ground. Some of the strategies that are generally applicable to psoriasis patients include:

• Rest. No matter how busy we are in our daily lives, it is of utmost importance that we find time to rest to keep psoriasis under control. Rest may be in the form of having sufficient sleep, or asking someone else to apply those topical creams and ointments to our skin.

•Engaging in activities that make us feel good. These activities may include playing your favorite sport, having a relaxing massage, doing a sunbath, attending yoga and meditation classes, and sharing your experiences with a support group, such as the Psoriasis Philippines Online Support Group.

These are just some ways that help minimize the levels of stress. You may want to share what works on you, too.

Photo credit: kortini (flickr.com)