Today I will share with you what complaints stress factors cause in our skin, which is the largest organ of the body. While we are all in a rush of life, succumbing to time, our brain continues to work biochemically. The hormones and issues that our body secretes during financial rushes, work tension, family and children, and all the hustle and bustle that I haven’t mentioned yet, damage our purpose organs.
As you can argue, the most valuable disease associated with tension among skin diseases is Psoriasis. In addition, we often observe that tension is a factor in hair loss. Psychological reasons are among the causes of the disease called alopecia areata in our society. Urticaria, or hives, can visit us at our most vulnerable, most tense and sad moments. Among viral diseases, warts, especially on the hands and feet, are still a condition whose psychosomatic etiology is being investigated. The psychosomatic condition of the patient should be evaluated as a triggering factor in diseases such as pitriasis rose (rose disease) and lichen, which are seen in our body again.
Our people see and say very clearly; The sentence “This grief has finished him” is almost idiomatic. I am one of those who think that it is one of the most valuable reasons for the continuation and increase of the disease in attacks, even if it is not the primary cause of the disease, especially in individuals who are introverted and cannot reflect their contents. For this reason, I approach my patients as a therapist, not just as a dermatologist. The worry in the eyes of a small child, sometimes the indifference of his parents, sometimes the lack of communication with a friend or teacher at school, the presence of a new sibling, turns into a chronic disease with the privilege of parents. Sometimes, the repetition of the disease and its long duration can be a cause and a result, putting the person in a vicious circle.
I would like to share with you something that I have shared with my patients in particular. Skin diseases are the diseases that are most prominent in the showcase, that attract attention, that make you say “oh look what happened”. However, according to me, the skin is a flexible organ that reduces the tension of the body in many diseases that I have mentioned above. Of course, seeing it bothers you, but would it be better if this expression did not exist, if it damaged the invisible organs of our body and progressed rapidly???
Another problem is the emotional reactions to the disease, considering the appearance and body image of skin diseases. Individuals with skin disease may use more alcohol and cigarettes because of this problem. Events resulting in depression are common. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in inpatient and outpatient skin patients is higher than in the general population. These psychological factors are more prominent especially in hand-foot eczema, adult-type atopic eczema and seborrheic dermatitis.
Dermatologists know that distress and valuable life events worsen inflammatory skin disease. For this reason, they say that the patients who applied to us had seen a doctor before, and they said that tension triggers trouble. In the literature, it has been reported that diseases such as alopecia areata (hair breaker), idiopathic urticaria (hives), aphthae, rosacea, neurodermatitis are seen together with depressive symptoms.
In patients, the cause and outcome of the disease are often confused with each other. Here, the most valuable mission that falls to us physicians is to carefully investigate the cause and effect link. As some diseases can occur in place of depression and anxiety disorder, long duration of some diseases and visual disturbance may cause depression as a result.
Sometimes the skin findings are symbolized by the location of the lesions. Cellulite in a woman whose husband has lost interest in her, a rash on the penis in a man with impotence, itching on the buttocks of a sexually abused adolescent can localize tension.
In some skin diseases, the primary disease is indeed a psychiatric disease. The patient greatly exaggerates these skin findings. Even if there is no physical symptom, body perception may be impaired. Sometimes, it may have caused the itchy lesion or hair loss itself. Artifact dermatitis, parasitosis delusion, dysmorphophobia are some of these diseases.
I believe that when we doctors as well as patients change our point of view, we will see that these diseases can be treated more easily. There are many reasons in the middle of the causes and consequences of these diseases, but this reason is the most overlooked by both doctors and patients. Each person lives the World within himself. We can sometimes be spectators and sometimes guests from outside. In situations where we are involved, we must always look positively and overcome difficulties. When necessary, we should take the support of psychiatrists professionally, be aware of the chaos we are in, and then give our effort to get out of this situation.