How to Talk to Your Friends About Your Psoriasis

Talking to your friends about your chronic illness can be surprisingly difficult. You might struggle to find the best way to convey what a significant role psoriasis plays in your life. Or you might find yourself downplaying it, as we are often hesitant to express our vulnerabilities, even with the people we love. But in the long run, open and honest communication strengthens friendships and provides more room for understanding. This advice from mental health professionals may help.

Lay Out the Facts

If you’ve been living with psoriasis for some time, you probably know a whole lot about it by now. So it can come as a surprise when close friends don’t even have a basic understanding of what the condition is—especially if you feel like you’ve explained the basics to them before. In these situations, it’s important not to let your emotions get the better of you. Instead, rely on good, hard facts.

“One of the best ways to communicate about the severity of a chronic disease is to have a few science-based facts available to share,” says Carla Marie Manly, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in California. “Interestingly, many people tend to respond to facts and hard data when it comes to chronic disease.”