Skin Care

Open Your Eyes to the Facts. Though we've all heard the warnings about the dangers of sunbathing and the importance of sunblock, the consequences of sun damage (aside from the temporary sting of sunburn) are initially invisible and are sometimes hard to comprehend. The truth is, as much as 90 percent of wrinkles, brown spots, and sagging skinwhat we usually think of as agingcan be attributed to sun damage, says the American Skin Association, a national organization for education on skin health. What's worse, skin cancer is now the most common cancer, striking more than 800,000 Americans each year, according to the American Cancer Society If you're still tempted to head out the door without sun protection, stop to consider what's going to happen to your skin. Melanin, the protective pigment found in the epidermis, defends the skin against sun damage by absorbing the sun's rays and dissipating the energy as heat. The more sun exposure, the more melanin the skin

No doubt that skin is an indicator to your overall health. If you're not healthy, your complexion will show that clearly . But that doesn't mean you should ignore your skin if you feel fine. Always wear a moisturized sunscreen when outdoors, winter and summer. The sun's rays can burn you even if the air feels cool, and sunlight reflected off water or snow can be particularly powerful. No matter what your skin type is, use a protective sunscreen when you are in the sun; don't expose your skin for more than 15 minutes. Don't forget to use sunscreen on your face and the back of your hands because these are constantly exposed to the sun's rays. Always remove your makeup before going to bed. If you usually wear makeup, give your skin a chance to breathe one day a week by going without. If your face tends to be puffy in the mornings, keep skin freshener, astringent, and cotton pads for your eyelids in the refrigerator for a quick pick-me-up. Rub moisturizing lotion on

Another techniquewhich can be useful in copingwith changes in your appearance is thinking of, and listing, positive aspects of your appearance. So much emphasis may have been placed on your skin condition that it becomes all that you see when you look in the mirror. You may ignore the fact that prior to the onset of the condition you liked certain things about the way you looked. You may find yourself focusing only on the skin disease and minimising the importance of other bodily features, or indeed the importance of your body as something more than just an aesthetic object. If this is the case, you need to try and ‘look past the skin disease’ and identify what parts of your appearance you are happy with. Doing this can help remind you that you are more than your skin problem and that your appearance may be attractive in other ways. Graded exposure The fear and apprehension that a person feels about themselves and others may dominate all aspects of their life. In the same way that a pe

Another technique that you can use to control anxiety due to negative thoughts is through the use of distraction. This technique is useful when you find yourself becoming anxious or distressed in a particular situation. If, for example, you begin to feel anxious while on a bus because you are worried that others can see your psoriasis lesions, then you may use distraction as a means to help divert your attention from the anxiety-provoking thought. There are several ways that this can be done.

After you have learned to identify negative thoughts you will need to learn to change. If you are working with a therapist you will find that he or she uses questions to help you to challenge your beliefs. She will encourage you to think through alternatives to your beliefs or responses rather than holding on to your negative thoughts. For example, a therapistmight ask a patient who is worried about other people noticing her eczema: Counsellor: What is the worst thing that you could imagine if someone was to see the patches on your arms? Patient: That they would stare at me and wonder what was wrong with my skin. Counsellor: Well, let’s assume that that’s what would happen.Why would that be such a terrible thing? Patient: I don’t know, I guess I just hate the idea of people staring atme. Itmakes me feel uncomfortable, I never know what to do. Counsellor: Perhaps if we could work on some practical coping strategies together such asmaking eye contact with the person that is staring, or di

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)was developed by Aaron Beck in the 1960s to help treat depression. Beck believed that the way people thought about their lives and the events around themwould affect the way they felt. If a person had positive or rational beliefs they would feel fine; if they had negative or irrational beliefs they would feel emotionally unhappy. The beliefs that you have about your condition can influence how you cope with it.Negative or irrational beliefs such as, ‘I have done something bad to deserve this illness’, or ‘Everything in my life is ruined now’, will inevitably make you feel low and upset. More positive beliefs on the other hand, such as, ‘The illness is only a small part of me and I will cope with it’, will make you feel more positive about your condition. Negative or irrational thoughts are often the result of ‘errors in processing’ wherebyexperiencesandinterpretationsaredistorted(Beck,1976).Such‘cognitive errors’ include: l Selective abstraction – atten

A common problem that arises when with counselling in medical settings is that your counsellormaymake assumptions about the nature of your condition and the way that it affects you, unless you are able to clearly express your feelings to him or her.In order to know how you understand the problem, the counsellormay ask for information about certain key areas regarding your illness experience. It’s often a good idea to think about this beforehand. For example, you may want to consider what the skin condition is, its course, duration and possible treatments that might be associated with it, Also how the condition affects you psychologically, coping with the condition, its effect on daily activities and on your perception of yourself? It is important to address these issues. Lack of understanding about your concerns by the counsellor can lead to problems in the therapeutic relationship and delay the benefits that you can reap from counselling.