Mia's Story

Mia has been living with psoriasis since just after her 18th birthday. Find out how she dealt with the daunting prospect of moving away from home for university whilst managing her psoriasis.

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I'm Mia and I am 21 years old. Growing up I had no problems with psoriasis, with the skin condition only showing itself shortly after my 18th birthday.

I had just left home for the first time and moved to Leeds to start university, everything about the experience was daunting but shortly after moving I settled in. After a month of living away, I started to notice a rash on my arms. I presumed this was just caused by the stress of moving and decided to ignore it, hoping it would disappear. A week down the line, the rash was still on my arms and spreading on my legs. Before I knew it, all my arms and legs were covered in sore, red, flaky plaques.

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I had numerous trips to doctors and received numerous different creams/steroids to try and help but none of them did. The condition has made a huge impact on my mental health. I was living in a city with new people, now with what I saw as awful skin. I presumed people would want to stay away from me because of this condition. I have suffered from both depression and anxiety since my skin began to flare. I know my psoriasis was a huge factor in the development of these mental health problems.

After living with the condition for three and a half years I am starting to accept it will always be there. I have recently undergone 8 weeks of UVB treatment which helped for as little as a month before my psoriasis came back.

I accept my skin as part of myself now. There will always be days I struggle with the condition and my outlook of it but I can now deal with that. I have luckily had the most supportive friends and family around me while I have been dealing with the mental side of the condition, who are there to pick me up on the days it gets me down.

Read more real-life stories from young people living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.