Skin flare ups seemingly caused by stress

[Guest Posts]

Hello,
My son 18-year-old son, Jack had eczema as a baby and was subsequently diagnosed by the doctor (from a photograph during the first Covid-19 lock-down) with psoriasis.
I always try to ensure that Jack is careful about what he uses on his skin and generally Jack now only has skin flare ups when stressed, and then his skin turns red, sore and dry.
Jack’s skin can be soothed by use of the rights creams and the issues disappear as soon as the cause of his stress is resolved.
However, please would you ask if there anything that can be done to help avoid this because (as a biased mum) he is a beautiful, handsome man who gets highly self-conscious when these skin problems occur, which may exacerbate the flare ups and inevitably all life’s stresses cannot be avoided.
Thank you.

[Dr Alexandra Mizara]

Thank you for your question. My advice will be to encourage your son to seek psychology referral via his GP to address his feelings and relationship with his skin disease but also get coping strategies for stress.
The combined approach has shown benefits for well-being and skin disease.

[professor andrew r thompson]

As Dr Mizara suggests, psychological talking therapies can help with skin conditions, so always useful to suggest talking to your GP. General stress management techniques can also help and there are now lots of apps including those providing access to mindfulness based stress reduction and other tried and tested techniques. It is also possible to self-refer for NHS talking therapy assistance see - https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/menta ... s-service/. Thank you for sharing this on the talk health clinic site, best wishes, Andrew (Prof Thompson)