Where's the Most Unusual Place on Your Body You've Had a Flare-up?

There are a lot of things about having psoriasis that irritate and frustrate me.

Imagine you’re walking down the street and its a sunny, hot day. You decide in the morning that you’re going to be brave and wear something you want to, so choose a dark color because usually you’ll avoid these sorts of colors. It may not fit in with the brightness of summer, but you’re not bothered about that.

You walk down the street and a stranger nearby cannot stop looking at your psoriasis. You realize its everywhere. On your arms, which are there for all to see, and your legs, because today you’re wearing shorts. Even your toenails have it, exposed by the fact you’re wearing a pair of sandals. The stranger looks and looks and looks, and it completely ruins your day.

People might stare

Now, don’t get me wrong, I get people might look. Psoriasis presents as red, scaly patches which may mean some people take a second glance when spotting you with it down the street. But constantly looking? Staring? Is that really necessary?

This sort of thing happened to me plenty of times many years ago. I was covered almost completely in psoriasis patches, and I was worried about the toll it would take on my mental health, as well as the stress of trying to deal with a condition which appeared so relentless.

Psoriasis can appear anywhere on the body. The weirdest or most unusual places I’ve experienced a breakout on include inside my belly button and around my eyelids. But there are people who’ve experienced it in much more intrusive areas.

Generally, my psoriasis, apart from when it broke out widely, affects my scalp, arms, legs, chest and around my face and neck. Perhaps not unusual, but I often get bad flare-ups on my neck and it really irritates me.

Be prepared for psoriasis to appear anywhere on your body

There’s the fact it’s visible and you get people behaving like the story I just told you. But you’ve also got the annoyance of the top of clothes, particularly T-shirts, rubbing against it, making it worse. Sometimes it would bleed and grow larger; other times, it was just a total frustration because of the non-stop itchy feeling.

What I am getting at then is to say if you have psoriasis, be prepared for it to flare-up in places you might not want it to. As I’ve said, I’ve had a few peculiar areas of the body affected by this condition, but it’s treatable and you should mention it if it happens to you when you next see your healthcare team.

Whether that’s in your belly button, eyelids, toenails or anywhere else, it’s always best to seek help because while psoriasis cannot be cured, there are plenty of medications which can help.

At the moment, I don’t have psoriasis in my belly button or on my eyelids, but I make sure I check regularly for any new patches and anything unusual. If lesions do appear in odd areas of my body, I will make sure to let my doctors. That way, I can make sure it causes me as few problems as possible.