Embarrassed about showing your psoriasis

Totally understand you I'm 63 and still get it when I need to put t-shirt and shorts on I use centraben frequently to moisture with it tends to stop the white scale look and just redden it and just ignore the looks hard I know but you do eventually get used to it

I haven't been swimming for years for the same reason. I've also only recently started wearing short sleeved shirts at work. It was just a gradual change of mindset for me, I didn't really focus on changing how I perceived my psoriasis I just sort of got past caring in a way. Like it was enough to just deal with the psoriasis without worrying about what people thought of it If its really bad then I can still feel conspicuous but I mean - it really doesn't matter what people think of it. You'll find most don't really care as they are too busy with their own problems to give it too much thought. That said, I'm still not ready to go swimming myself, maybe that'll just take a bit longer. But then again - when the skin is cracked and sore I don't really want any muck from the public pool getting on it anyway.

Hello all, I was just the same,so worried what people think but now I think if people don’t like what they see,don’t look at me.Its your skin,please don’t worry about other people.Fresh air is great for your skin too.Get all your skin out folks!! 👍🏻

I am 53 this year, and I can understand about being embarrassed. I have had psoriasis since 1988, and to be honest have gone through many different feelings about my skin. There were times when I just could not even go outside, because I was embarrassed, and yet again there were times I couldn't care less! You cant spend your life worrying about what other people think, they may have spots on their bum, or embarrassing tattoo's, do you really care about them? NO! look after yourself and those who care about you, remember your skin can improve, idiots who stare or say anything nasty are just not worth the effort!.

I really sympathise with these feelings, but at the same time, whenever I see someone with their psoriasis out I feel better about myself and also a little jealous of their confidence. I often speak to people about their skin if I can see some P showing (More of a 'Hey! Me too! What works for you?' chat than 'Oh my god, you're so brave, I could never show my skin off' ) and it turns out a lot of folk have just decided 'F*** it' and are sick of having the condition rule their lives. So with this in mind I try not to let my skin stop me from wearing certain clothes, doing certain activities. Be the change you want to see in the world! You want to be able to walk down the street in shorts without being stared at? The first step is DOING IT. If someone asks, you can educate them. If they stare, maybe they have flakes and patches under their clothes too and are inspired and jealous of your confidence. I've been single and dating around on tinder etc for 2 years, and had a terrible flare up in that time. No one I've dated has blinked an eye, none of them have said they don't want to see me again, no one has said anything mean or nasty. And yes, that includes the people who have seen me under my clothes ;) People are fundamentally kind, caring and non judgemental. And honestly, to paraphrase my darling mum 'who's looking at you anyway? Everyone is so wrapped up in themselves'. You don't want to reach your 70s or 80s and realise you didn't do all the things you wanted to do just because of some red skin. That's going to BREAK YOUR HEART!