The Path to Acceptance
With acceptance, you can avoid these negative ramifications of psoriasis. Feelings of stress, depression and anxiety will become relics of the past. Acceptance means rising above hate, intolerance and ignorance to be comfortable in your own skin. Acceptance means being happy to be you.
The process of acceptance involves aspects of grief and mourning. Any chronic medical condition diagnosis is a loss. It is the loss of the “old you.” To truly accept the new you, you must say goodbye to the way you formerly perceived yourself. You must let go of feeling of what is fair. Holding on to this outdated version of you only creates tension and inconsistency between what there used to be and what there is currently.
A model for grief and loss works really well in this instance. The model is widely known for addressing death but translates well to the experience of psoriasis. Want to find the acceptance that has eluded you? You will need to move through the five stages. Here’s how:
Denial
Chances are good that if you endure high levels of depression or anxiety triggers by your psoriasis, there is some level of denial that exists. This is natural and normal but unwanted at the same time.
Denial is clinging on to the former version of you, but this version is no longer realistic. To move from denial, begin spending more time in front of a mirror. The process will be uncomfortable at first, but the benefit outweighs the risk. Think about or say aloud what you see. How is your psoriasis today? Have you had recent flares?
Talk with trusted friends and family members more honestly about your symptoms and perceptions of the symptoms. Banish the idea that your psoriasis is a “touchy subject.”
Anger
When denial is addressed, anger is a likely reaction. Again, this feeling is natural, normal and even beneficial. Forget the flawed notion that anger is a bad thing or an unwanted feeling. Anger has a bad reputation because people tend to suppress their feelings for too long leading to an explosive burst of anger later. Avoid this by finding healthy coping skills to funnel the anger out.
Exercise and physical activity are the best because they reduce physical and emotional anger while providing antidepressive and antianxiety properties. If sports are not for you, find ways to release anger through art, journaling or breaking things.
Think about who or what you are angry at. Is it God for letting you down, the doctor for the news or your body for failing you? Finding an outlet for anger is another step towards acceptance.
Depression
Some will move from anger to depression while others will move from depression to anger. The stages are experienced in random order and may even be experienced multiple times. Like with anger, decide what thoughts or situations are fueling the depression.
Do you think that you are flawed or broken because you have psoriasis? Do you think that no one will ever love you or your loved ones will stop? Once you identify as many depression-fueled thoughts as possible, you can review them to look for errors in thinking.
These are called cognitive distortions. Depression uses them to make you feel more depressed by making you believe illogical things. Debate and challenge these errors to arrive at conclusions that make sense and will add to happiness.
