Stress-induced?

I do believe stress has an awful lot to do with it. My first infliction with P was at 22 just after the very prolonged death of my father in a hospital 60 odd miles away from where I was living, so the stress of nightly visits for about 3 months must have been a major influence of my first all-over flare. It put me off work for 2 months just after his funeral and that was just to start the recovery process with hydrocortisone lotion; fortunately my employer kept me on the payroll.

I think so too, I have had deaths to deal with in the last few years plus losing a good job. My psoriasis has slowly crept up on me in the last 2 years and I now think its a factor. I didn't realise before just always had itchy hands, scalp and ears. Now diagnosed I can see how it flares sometimes.

Thank you all for sharing! I very much agree: stress seems to be THE primary trigger to my ps flare-ups. Money worries, for example, can bring on significant outbreaks. What I find really interesting is not just the general outbreak and cause over a longish period, but how the severity of ps changes on an almost moment by moment basis. Thus, if my mind is actively 'out of sorts' ('but' this, 'if' that, 'but' something else) I'll feel really itching, even stinging from my ps which will flare up red. But within only a few minutes sometimes, if I can get myself into a calmer state of mind (e.g. using some form of mindfulness or meditation or, in my case Reiki healing), then I'll feel the pain reduce to a gentle throb them disappear and the skin return to an almost normal colour.

If stress was a factor then I would have this year round. So no, I don;t think is the cause, but I am sure it can contribute. This time I tested positive for strep G which I think brought it on.

Thanks Lynno. Fair point . . . and often it is a build up of many factors. Perhaps it's a sort of chaos theory or catastrophe theory effect: a few extra stresses here, another condition there gradually building up with no apparent sign and then WHAM, the ps flares up, apparently all of a sudden. There's also many forms of stress, some of which have become so normal and routine that we've almost come to terms with them such that they don't affect us too much. And others that we've learnt to manage, for example through some sort of mindfulness or meditation exercise (or taking regular walks in nature, or doing something creative). So when I talk about stress, I'm not really talking about the outer circumstances, I'm thinking of our personal, here and now response to it. Thus, for example, at the moment, I have on-going uncertainties of work and money, very much high-stress situations. But at times, when I'm actively doing something positive about those situations or have been able to get myself (through above practices and, in my case, Reiki healing) into a calm, peaceful frame of mind, then the ps is also calm: less red, less itchy. But in those periods (it can change within minutes, I've found) where I allow my fearful mind to take control, when the doubts and worries rush in, so the ps flares up and becomes excruciating. I certainly see a definite correlation between the severity of my ps and my state of mind in any given moment. It takes a conscious effort to step back (mentally) to observe this, but it does, I've found, offer a useful insight into triggers and possible self-management of the condition.