How Painful Can Psoriasis Be?

Psoriasis can not only be unsightly, embarrassing and itchy, but it can also be rather painful.

Depending on how severe your psoriasis is will depend on how painful it is and if that pain bothers you or not. For me, my psoriasis at the moment isn’t very painful at it. Yes, it’s itchy, embarrassing and looks rather unsightly, but it doesn’t feel very painful.

Though it hasn’t always been this way. When I suffered with psoriasis, when it covered large swathes of my body from the scalp to my feet, it was very painful.

Managing psoriasis pain

Why was this? Because when I scratched a lesion, it would bleed and that blood would seep onto my clothes. There’s also the cracking of the lesion, which can happen out of the blue. The pain from this made washing, day-to-day activities and even getting out of bed rather difficult.

Would I say the pain is the worst thing about the condition for me? No. For me, the itchiness of this condition is worse than the pain. Yes, when my psoriasis was bad it was pretty painful, but the constant, incessant need to itch was by far more burdensome. In fact, coupled with the pain, it was physically and emotionally draining.

To deal with the pain, I mentioned it at my medical appointments. I made clear to my treatment team that not only was the condition very itchy, it was also very painful. While treatments helped, they never really got rid of the pain problem, so I tried other things myself.

Oils and creams soothed it, lifting both the itch and pain, but it never totally eradicated it. And sometimes I would apply plasters to my lesions in an attempt to stop the pain when the patches rubbed against my clothes or stopped me doing day-to-day activities.

Is pain the worst part of psoriasis?

I have heard from other people suffering with psoriasis that for them the pain is the worst thing about the condition. For them, it feels like a never ending battle. Many say, like me, it comes and goes in severity, but they just want relief. That can be the hardest thing with this condition. Getting relief quickly can feel impossible when you stop-start treatments and go off treatments and onto others. It can take time for the treatments to ease the psoriasis symptoms, including any pain, but there’s a desire to ease that burden as quickly as possible.

So yes, psoriasis can be painful and for some people the pain can be the worst part of having this chronic condition. But I have to instil hope in you because things will change. And your battle will improve.

I know, if you’re experiencing bad pain at the moment, that it can feel like climbing Mount Everest. But as I’ve said, your battle will improve. You will have days when the pain is bad and days when the pain is much, much better. It does feel challenging at the moment, but with perseverance you can get through it. I did, and I know you can too.