Years of skin rashes - sob!!!

[PrincessN]

Hi

I have suffered with skin rashes on/off for 40+ years. From age of 5+ have generally been prescribed strong steroid creams which have ruined my skin - non caucasian skin which is scarred/prone to lichenification. I don't even know what causes these rashes - no confirmed allergies via blood test, but hoping to get a referral for skin prick test after begging GP.

Currently, they are predominantly on forearms, neck & recently ankles (when a child, they were always in creases of arms, back of knees). Rashes seem to vary during the year between looking like eczema, and sometimes looking like psoriasis (1 arm can sometimes look to have a different rash to the other).

Trying to keep a journal & track mood/diet etc but getting increasingly agitated about this, which doesn't help stress levels !!! Have tried Chinese TCM & acupunture which helped over the summer, but very expensive, so have had to cease.

Coming round to thinking that gut health might be an issue. How do I get GP's to take more seriously & get help? I know these things can be difficult to diagnose but I do feel as if I'm being fobbed off. I'm actually looking forward to the colder weather so that I can cover up my skin without people staring !!!!

[professor andrew r thompson]

Thank you for sharing your post. I don't think you are alone in being upset by your skin condition, and it's helpful to other people as well as yourself to share that skin conditions can be stressful.

Having lack of clarity about the diagnosis is understandably worrying, and it is important to keep pressing for a referral to a dermatologist so that they can get to the bottom of what the condition is.

Regardless as to whether or not stress is playing a triggering role, it certainly sounds from your post that you are (understandably) finding it difficult at times to cope with the condition. Consequently, I would also encourage you to seek support from primary care psychological services (usually accessible via self-referral or GP - if in England search for IAPT in your geographical region). Many NHS psychological support services have people with expertise in supporting people with long-term health conditions and some may also have people with specific expertise in managing stress related to skin conditions.

If you do get to see a dermatologist it is also worth sharing your feelings with them as they may also be able to refer you to support, perhaps to a practitioner psychologist working into their clinic or a hospital based health psychology service. It can be helpful to prepare for your appointment by making a note of your key symptoms and the key impacts - so your diary keeping sounds like it will be very useful to an assessing clinician.

Finally, there are self-help resources out there for managing skin related distress (see www.skinsupport.org) and appearance related charities that offer advice and support for managing not only your own feelings but also can help with managing staring (see changing faces.org.uk). Mindfulness based cognitive therapy and mindfulness based stress reduction techniques and therapies are also showing promise in reducing skin related distress, and there are lots of mindfulness based exercises feeling available on the internet and on app stores. One site worth checking is free mindfulness.org.

I wish you all the best in finding out more about your condition and in trying techniques to reduce the stress associated with it.

Kind regards,

Andrew

[PrincessN]

Thank you for your response & support Dr Thompson.

I will look into the resources you cited & endeavour to post some updates in the coming months. As you mentioned, might be helpful for others.