Ugh, Peeled Off Psoriasis Scales Again

I’m sure this topic has come up several times over the years but I have been living with psoriasis for 60 years and for me, it never gets old. Recently, I had to stop a biologic for a year. Of course, I had a bad flare.

How can we resist the urge to pick?

I am here to share something very common among our community - that irresistible urge to pick the psoriasis scales, which always end up making our skin worse. It is not unusual, and I guess everyone, including me, faces this uncanny need to scratch the scaly plaques. But we also know that it does not bring any good and makes it more sensitive.

Well, this is the story of every fighter, you are not alone in this. We all have made this mistake many times until we learned the lesson, the hard way. Today we will talk about what to do to make those scales less attractive from scratching and more attractive for healing.

I had this habit of picking my psoriasis scales, especially whenever I was stressed. I would also scratch my legs and make piles of scales. The bad part was that I was always bleeding and stiff. It was becoming a never-ending cycle of trying to heal and then giving in to the urge to scratch and pick a bit more.

Breaking the cycle

To break the cycle, I started by just doing two things as a holy ritual. Number one is keeping my affected areas moist all the time. Moist skin gave me less need to scratch off the dried scales. I used oils, creams, lotions, anything that worked for me and moisturized my skin with it. It actually curbed my irresistible scratching spree.

The second thing which I did and loved was soaking myself in an Epsom salt bath every 5 to 10 days. More than relieving my psoriasis scales, this soaking helped me with my stress and mind relaxation. I soak myself in lukewarm Epsom Salt water for like 20 minutes and release everything that is stressing me out and I would come out more relaxed and in tune with myself. This soaking not only helped me distress and it automatically softened my scales and sped up the healing as well. I don’t know if the salt did the healing or was it distressing. But one thing is very clear and that is, that both are interlinked.

Seeing results

Everything became more functional, my ointments, and my diet was showing better results because I was not messing with my scales anymore. I was giving them what was needed, I was keeping them soft, moisturized, well-maintained, and taken care of. The rest became easier by using salicylic acid to exfoliate the scales to give them a breather and better space to heal rather than fighting those build-up layers of skin.

One thing I made sure of while doing all of this, was really knowing my skin. I knew my skin is sensitive, so I chose products that were not harsh on my skin and treated it gently. Scratching can lead to infections. Epsom salt was a good choice, and the rest was done naturally.

Talk to your doctor if the itch is unbearable. We are all different, so not every treatment will work for anyone. I hope this helps you all. Stay healthy.