The Social Impact of Psoriasis

So I learned I had psoriasis after about nine or 10 years of suffering through what I thought were eczema symptoms. I was 19 at the time. It was the beginning of my sophomore year of college. It was November 2012, and I remember I had the worst breakout/flare-up I'd ever had in my life. I'm talking from scalp to about my chest.

Extremely scaly, uncomfortable to wash my face, to talk-- it was so bad. And during that time, probably from the beginning of my sophomore year until November, I probably saw three or four dermatologists and just started routine after routine, and none of it was working. And finally I went to the last dermatologist, and that's when we figured out what it actually was.

I would say it impacted my self-esteem at times. I obviously was in college, and my friends would want to go out and do all this. And I'm like, guys, I'm going to stay in the bell tower like Quasimodo because I don't want people to see me like this. I literally would go to class, and I had glasses on. I wish we wore masks at the time. Like I probably would have felt better than to--

I never really wanted to go anywhere or do anything. I was genuinely uncomfortable. And not only in the way that I looked at the time because my skin was very scaly but it was physically uncomfortable too. So I would prefer to just hang out in my dorm room and just chill to myself.

Granted, I would never take a lot of pictures during that time frame. Or if I did, I had makeup on, and it looks flaky or caked up because you could see the different layers of my skin. So I think finally seeing it cleared up and consistently cleared up and just-- like my support system has been great to this day. If I'm stressing about something, my best friend will be like, girl, you literally can not afford to do that because we don't need any skin layer-ups or any issues or anything.

That's one thing I've always appreciated about my friends. They were really supportive. And even though I didn't feel like I should be going out or I look the best, they always motivated me and said the same thing. Like those guys said like, oh, you look great. You look great, Jasmine. Or, you look fine. You're still beautiful, blah, blah, blah.

It took me a while to genuinely feel that way after my skin finally cleared up. But eventually, I got to that place.