Positive Psychology and Psoriasis
07/10/2016 - By Dr. Catherine O'Leary
Telling someone to cheer up because things could be worse never helps.
You know logically there are far worse things to have than psoriasis.
A glance at the evening news will tell you there are hideous things happening to millions of people across the world at every moment. But someone telling you that having psoriasis is not so bad by comparison does not make you want to put on your dancing shoes and throw a celebratory party. It makes you want to throttle them. And then put on your dancing shoes to kick them when they’re down on the floor.
There’s an exciting field of psychology devoted to helping people feel positive and happy whatever their circumstances.
If you think of a scale with misery at one end and ecstasy on the other, traditionally a psychologist would aim to help someone move from the depression end to somewhere in the middle of the scale; a neutral point.
Recently psychologists have begun to focus on helping people move towards the happiness end of the scale instead of just aiming for an absence of low mood.
Positive psychology therapy involves techniques such as learning to savour the moment and connecting with other people and there is good scientific evidence that these strategies can help with clinical depression. You can read more about these simple yet powerful techniques on the Action for Happiness website.
It would seem that being happy has more benefits than the simple joy it brings.
In the 1930s, a large group of Catholic nuns were required to write a 2-3 page autobiography before entering the convent and then went on to live very similarly structured lives. Many years later psychologists discovered and analysed these autobiographies rating the nuns’ cheerfulness. They discovered that the positive nuns lived longer by 10 years. A whopping 54% of cheerful nuns reached the age of 94 years compared with only 15% of the least cheerful ones. Evidence that it’s not only nice to be happy, it’s good for you too.
Living with psoriasis is not easy. Yes, it could be worse and yes, it could be better. Positive psychology techniques might help you live well in spite of your psoriasis.