Humor and a positive attitude are tools that can help reduce the stress caused by psoriasis, which would help patients cope with this chronic disease.

Laughter, good humor, and facing life and its inevitable adversities with a positive attitude are incredibly healthy. In some illnesses, these non-prescription remedies can also be part of the therapy. Psoriasis is one of them. The red, scaly patches that appear on the knees, elbows, or scalp are incurable, but the flare-ups can be reduced, and the disease can even go into remission. Treatments to control the symptoms are crucial, and it’s also essential to quit certain habits, such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, as well as use strategies to manage stress, one of the risk factors that contributes to flare-ups.

Luis Gutiérrez Rojas, a psychiatrist at the San Cecilio Clinical Hospital in Granada and a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Granada, specializes in providing people with tools to effectively cope with their problems in various settings. One of these resources is humor. He participated in the Comedy Club and his monologues are highly acclaimed at medical conferences. Humor plays a central role in Gutiérrez-Rojas’s talks. With it, he persuades his audience of its value. “Humor offers a relaxed perspective on reality; a positive outlook helps us to downplay the things that happen to us and put into perspective the negative impact that a disease like psoriasis we believe it has on others.”

To illustrate the importance of humor, in his first monologue he began by laughing at his difficulty pronouncing the letter ‘r’, a flaw that was magnified when he had to say his full name, with ‘r’s in both his surnames. This problem, which gave him a certain insecurity and would have led others to avoid public speaking, not only vanished thanks to humor, but also allowed him to earn money. Now he refers to it in many of his talks. Dr. Gutiérrez Rojas no longer cares about that French-pronounced ‘r’ and has found that it didn’t bother others either.

How to cope with anxiety

When a person has a chronic illness that affects their appearance, it can easily take a toll on their mental health. Research conducted by public hospitals in Granada and the University of Granada, published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, concludes that “higher scores for anxiety and depression and a lower quality of life are common in psoriasis, especially among women, and those with generalized or joint lesions.”

Anxiety is a warning sign, which is why the same study recommends that dermatologists “pay special attention to this subgroup of people with psoriasis to prevent future mental health issues.” What should you do when anxiety takes hold? The key is to put things in perspective. According to the psychiatrist at the San Cecilio University Hospital, putting things into perspective is a fundamental concept in psychotherapy.

Some psoriasis patients believe that others will only notice their lesions. According to Gutiérrez Rojas, humor is very effective against this kind of dramatic thinking, “because it highlights the cognitive distortions we fall into when we think that others will judge us solely on our appearance. That’s something we have in our heads, but perhaps others don’t think about it or aren’t affected by it.” But what if they do care and make it known? In those cases, it’s important to understand that personal happiness cannot be left in someone else’s hands. “Mature and happy people take charge of their lives,” Gutiérrez Rojas points out.

Humor is a driving force for change

Dolors Pascual has had psoriasis almost her entire life, and her experience with the disease began with difficulty. She worked as a saleswoman for baby clothes for thirty years, and at first, she tried to hide the signs of psoriasis on her hands by wearing gloves. She was also the first to buy artificial nails when they first appeared to conceal the marks of the disease. “But one day I heard a spokesperson from the Psoriasis Action Association on the radio, and I said, ‘That’s it. Either you face what it is and accept it a little, or you’re not going to live.’” Optimistic by nature, Dolors has swum, done gymnastics, danced Sevillanas, and participated in country dance competitions all over Spain. “I’ve lost my shame, and I’ve helped others lose theirs. If I see someone with psoriasis who is suffering, I go up to them and touch them to share my experience and to tell them that I know they won’t infect me.” The disease doesn’t stop her from doing anything, not even playing Santa Claus at her local supermarket. She is so popular that her husband, Antonio, is already known as ‘Mrs. Claus’s husband’

“To change, you have to be determined; you can face psoriasis with a positive attitude,” Gutiérrez Rojas reminds us. Dolors did so to help lower her stress levels. She used humor as a driving force for change, a potential that Gutiérrez Rojas emphasizes. In her experience as a psychotherapist, she has found that psychological suffering has less to do with the severity of the disease than with one’s attitude toward it. “There are cases of people with mild psoriasis who are greatly affected by it, while others with more severe cases manage it very well.”

To paint reality white

One of the recommendations Gutiérrez Rojas gives to people with high levels of anxiety caused by a health problem is to listen to themselves, analyze their inner dialogue, and, if it’s negative, try to change it. “You can get stuck in existential angst and say, ‘What I’ve been through is the worst thing in the world,’ or you can think that it’s normal, that it happens to a lot of people, and that you can lead a normal life.” The language we use with others and with ourselves, in our thoughts, shapes reality, and from that discourse emerges a reality that is either more positive or more negative.

Psoriasis, or any other illness, is not desirable, “but if you have it, the positive aspect can be the acceptance that the world is imperfect,” Gutiérrez Rojas points out. Facing it head-on, without dramatizing it, with humor and optimism, “can help you accept your own limitations, which is the best way to become tolerant and understanding of the limitations of others. Using humor is an optimistic, mature, and intelligent way to manage psoriasis.”

Panels that have bridges

Sometimes, what makes illnesses more or less bearable, besides medical treatments, are the reactions they provoke in others. But a lack of understanding prevails between the patient and those around them. The campaign by the Acción Psoriasis and Janssen associations, in which the illustrator Moderna de Pueblo participated, sought to remedy this. Through cartoons, a tool inherent to humor, it aimed to reflect the different attitudes, both positive and negative, that can arise from seeing a patch on an elbow or flaky skin on the scalp.

Source:  El País