In the same vein as "Is there a P personality thread" my own experience of living with P has led me to the conclusion that we may not just have an over-reactive skin/immune system but an over-reactive personality too.
What do I mean by an over-reactive personality?
Reacting to stress/situations by bottling up anger, fear, tension and going over it in your mind again and again, A difficulty letting go of emotion over an issue, keeping it all inside and not showing/releasing emotion/tension on a regular basis.
A sensitivity to others stress/tension and a strong desire to solve their probs so their tension/stress doesn't become ours.
Ending up with a short fused temper and a tendency to get overwound.
In myself I came to recognise that I was holding on to tension and anger so long it left me unhappy and suppressing my emotions ( I'm not showing it hurts) so much it showed in things like grinding my teeth and muscles remaining too tense for to long and hurting.
It was not until years later when someone described how our bodies react to anger/tension/adrenaline/fear, that I understood that our bodies produce a different set of chemicals when we are unhappy to when we are happy, so much so that it is clearly much better to try and stay happier as we stay healthier longer that way. With the help of yoga, acupuncture and with the support of friends and my wife I have come to a point where I can generally stay "relaxed" and not as reactive as I used to be. But it's still there almost as if dormant or waiting for me to give in, which brings me to my point.
Since joining the forum and meeting you all so to speak, after over 30yrs of never talking to another P sufferer, I have come to realise it's not just me. I think the way in which having P affects our personalities gives us a tendency to over react in a sort of emotional version of what's going on with our skin. It's almost as if it's "hard wired" into us and if we don't release the emotion/tension/pain and bottle it up we suffer and so do those around us.
Because Medical science looks at symptoms to treat first instead of looking at the person as a whole and considering the balance of mind and body in our health, too much emphasis has been put on treating the spots instead of the person. So I think in working out how best to treat ourselves for our P ( I belive we should do our best to manage our own treatment informed by the medical establishment's expertise not in obedience to it) we need to take into account more than just the spots.
The issues of Confidence, Loneliness, How we cope with emotion/tension, How others around us respond to us and P and I am sure other things I haven't thought of, can affect us just as much if not more than the eruption of spots on our skin.
What do you think?
Tim
