Fae's Story

Fae found strength in reading other people's experiences of living with psoriasis following her first flare-up of guttate psoriasis. Now, she is sharing her story to help others.

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Hi, my names Fae, I’m 20 and I’ve got guttate psoriasis. At the start of February, I woke up one morning and I had a few random red spots on my chest and back. I didn’t think too much of it as I have always had bad, dry skin. However, a week later the red patches had spread and began to cover a lot of my chest, stomach, arms, and upper back. This continued over the following weeks, and I had a pretty bad time with the doctors, trying to figure out what going on with my skin. I want to share my story because the only reason I realised I have guttate psoriasis was through the Psoriasis Association Instagram page and seeing other people sharing their stories and pictures.

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I have quite a mild case of guttate psoriasis, but it’s been quite difficult to come to terms with. I still don’t really know what triggered it and I think that’s why I’ve struggled so much to accept it because I don’t really understand why it’s happening. Having psoriasis is so frustrating because you have no control over it. Some days I wake up and barely notice it whilst others I have to moisturise everywhere several times a day because it so dry and sore. Now it’s pretty much all over my back, stomach and boobs and It’s beginning to spread to my legs. I’m in my first year of university and it’s really affected my confidence, I’m meeting new people constantly and it’s made me very self-conscious when going out and sometimes I’ve just avoided going out altogether if it’s been especially bad. I love swimming too, but when I started getting the red patches I stopped going as much as I was really self-conscious about wearing a swimming costume because you could see so much of my psoriasis.

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When I went home for Easter I went back to the doctors, and they couldn’t tell me if it would stop spreading or how long it would last, and I realised that I need to begin to accept my psoriasis because it could be around for a while, I can’t let it stop me doing the things I enjoy. For anyone struggling with any skin conditions, I urge you to talk to someone about it. I spent weeks cooped up incredibly stressed about what was happening to my skin, without any help, and that definitely didn’t help. I couldn’t have gotten through these last few months without my mum (who has honestly listened to me go on endlessly about it) or without seeing others sharing their stories, I can’t put into words how much they’ve given me some confidence back. I’m looking forward to Summer and hoping that the sun does some magic for my skin – but even if it doesn’t, I’m realising that that’s okay too.

Read more real-life stories from people living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.