How are skin diseases and mental illnesses related?

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How are skin diseases and mental illnesses related? The nature of their relationship can divided into three groups.

1. Those who already have skin diseases, but mental illnesses cause skin diseases to flare up.

Such as acne, alopecia areata, atopic dermatitis, herpes, excessive sweating, itching, psoriasis, lichen simplex chronicus, hives, and warts.   

2. Skin diseases are a factor that causes mental illness.

It has been found that skin diseases that have an unsightly or disgusting appearance, such as severe acne, psoriasis, vitiligo, and herpes, cause patients to feel embarrassed, lose self-confidence, and become stressed.

3. Group of mental illnesses with skin symptoms

It has been found that some skin disorders are direct symptoms of mental illnesses, such as hair-pulling disorder, delusional disorder that there are parasites or insects crawling on the skin, and dissatisfaction with one’s own appearance.

How does stress affect your skin?

When stressed, the body releases the stress hormone cortisol, which causes the sebaceous glands to work more, resulting in oily skin, acne, and other skin diseases. 

Stress also lowers the body’s immune system, making the skin more susceptible to skin infections, recurring herpes, shingles, slow-healing wounds, and increased skin cancer. 

Some people bite their nails when they are stressed. Stress also causes the facial muscles to tense up, resulting in deep wrinkles on the face, such as on the forehead and eyebrows.

Skin delusional disorder

Delusional disorder is characterized by ufabet https://ufabet999.app patients being able to live a normal life with others, unable to distinguish them. They can speak coherently and do everything like normal people. Since patients do not think they are sick, most do not seek treatment. In terms of skin diseases, skin delusional disorder is also found, such as:

  • Delusional psychosis with parasites on the skin.  Patients report feeling parasites or insects crawling, tunneling, or biting their skin.
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder in which  people with this disorder obsessively believe that fibers or other materials are embedded in or protruding from the skin.
  • I am not pretty and delusional psychosis of body odor.  Patients will be anxious about body odor, bad breath, or vaginal odor, causing patients to avoid socializing. Patients will shower and change clothes more frequently than usual.   

My disease is not pretty 

Patients with this disease think that they have abnormal skin or disproportionate body parts. Some people worry about thinning hair, excessive hair, and enlarged pores. This disease is called body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).  Patients like to compare the body parts that they think are abnormal with others. They like to put on makeup and do their hair for a long time. They like to ruminate about their appearance. Severe depression is often found.  If this disease occurs in adults, symptoms may be in the form of severe fear of aging.  BDD usually begins at a young age, around 16-17 years old, and is chronic.                                                                                        

Agingphobia in the brain

Dorian Gray syndrome, or BDD, is named after the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which the main character, Dorian Gray, is so afraid of aging that he asks for a painting to age on his behalf. Patients with this syndrome have BDD along with abnormal mental development. Patients also have a history of using at least two types of drugs or techniques that improve their quality of life, including hair growth drugs, lipid-lowering drugs, sexual enhancement drugs, and antidepressants, to treat their skin for cosmetic purposes (such as laser resurfacing) and to undergo cosmetic surgery (such as facelifts and liposuction).