My Journey With Psoriasis

A personal story

I, like over 1.1 million others across the UK, have the chronic skin disease that takes a daily battle to manage.

My name is Michael and I’m the founder of Theralux. I first developed psoriasis in 2015, my trigger was an exhaust burn on my leg, which at first didn’t heal. A routine trip to the doctor had them prescribe some low potency steroid ointment. After a few days, the damaged skin had cleared up but it wasn’t long before my first symptoms of psoriasis started to appear. As a young male, I was concerned with how my skin was blemishing and was worried what others would think, little did I know at this stage, that this was the beginning of a life-long battle with the disease.

As I leant more, I tried various different ways of managing it, trying to eliminate parts of my diet or using steroid creams. I found like a lot of people, my main triggers are Alcohol and Stress. Two things which are engrained in daily life. So I continued to experiment and try different treatments, one of which was phototherapy.

I underwent my first course of phototherapy in Manchester, the course lasted around 10 weeks and it completely cleared my psoriasis, so much so that it didn’t return for a year. During that year, I was wondering if it was ever going to come back, but it did eventually. Since then, I have had phototherapy at St Thomas’s and 2 rounds of home treatment. The effect that phototherapy has had on me is life changing. While often the psoriasis comes back after a few months, it gives me a much needed respite from the disease and it comes back at a much more manageable level which I can keep on top of with ointments. As someone that is conscious of using steroid creams, having read about the cases of steroid dependancy, the reduction in usage gives me peace of mind.

I now live with the disease in symbiosis, it’s a disease which plays with your mind as much as your body. Seeing the disease unexpectedly change your body, such as the onset of nail pitting or a flare-up on the face, is a mental battle as much as a physical one.

I know what it feels like to have to wear trousers on a hot day, to wear a white t-shirt to hide the flakes or to put sticky ointments on before bed.

If you’re interested in hearing more about my journey, and why we founded Theralux, check out our About Us page here.