18 Psoriasis Terms to Familiarize Yourself With After a Diagnosis: The ABC's of Psoriasis

09.11.2022 - 03:14 / glamour.com

can be overwhelming. Just when you’d managed to convince yourself that those angry patches of skin were just a passing inconvenience, and that giving up gluten and dairy was going to do the trick any day now, you find out you actually have a chronic autoimmune condition you’ll likely be dealing with for the rest of your life.

When you’re struggling with swaths of skin that are inflamed, scaly and itchy, often on very noticeable zones like your face or hands, it can be devastating to hear that there’s no cure—which there isn’t, when it comes to psoriasis. Thankfully, there are plenty of highly effective treatments available for even the most severe types of psoriasis, but it can take patience and trial-and-error to find the best combination of prescription medications, topical remedies, and that will keep your skin in the clear. But forget all that for now.

You might still be at the stage where you’re like, “Wait, back up a minute: What exactly is an autoimmune condition, anyway?” When you’re diagnosed with psoriasis, you might suddenly have to fully comprehend terms like this—ones you’ve heard a million times but never had a personal connection to/interest in. From words that refer to different psoriasis variants to names of various medications and treatments, it’s a lot to take in all at once.

And as someone who now officially has psoriasis, the last thing you want to do is stress out; that can easily cause your skin to flare-up worse. So here is a cheat sheet for all the terms you might hear your dermatologist drop: This quick glossary of frequently used psoriasis terms is the mini crash course you need to get up to speed on psoriasis lingo and start to see your path to relief and a clearer-skinned future.