The Older We Get, the More We Lose

So many things can impact us when living with psoriatic arthritis. It seems like it doesn’t take much to cause a flare.

In my case, stress is a big trigger when it comes to making my psoriasis and even my psoriatic arthritis flare. This week has seen my stress level relatively high. My husband and I found out a good friend of his passed away this week. It has been a huge blow to us both, especially to my husband.

He has been very upset, which I totally understand. They had been friends for many years. Tension in our home has been almost overwhelming. Death is not something we talk about affecting our psoriatic arthritis.

However, I always share what is happening in my life that causes my arthritis to flare. It’s a heavy topic, but it needs to be discussed.

When loss triggers emotional and physical pain

In the last two years, it feels like we have lost so much. A friend told me once that the older we get, we are the age to start losing people important to us. Those words have never been truer.

For me, it was the loss of my mother. For my husband, it is the loss of his friend.

There is no way to prepare for it. You just have to take each day as it comes.

Your emotions are raw, which can lead to you being short-tempered. It’s like a bomb going off in your mind and body.

When that bomb goes off, it detonates the psoriatic arthritis that has invaded your body. You find yourself in pain in more ways than one. The tension in your body makes the psoriatic arthritis awaken like a beast waiting to devour.

Grief and its impact on psoriatic arthritis

Then comes the time you have to say goodbye. Funerals bring a whole level of tension that again affects your body.

Today, my husband and I will say goodbye to his friend. My body feels like I have a jackhammer dancing up and down on my shoulders. It feels like there is a construction worker using a jackhammer to break up concrete.

The psoriatic arthritis is flaring and will continue to do so until things settle down. However, that could be a while since there is no time frame for grief.

I just have to ride out the storm of the tension and my arthritis flaring. There is not much other choice I have.

Managing stress and flares

That is the statement that keeps resonating in my head. We all face loss at some point. That’s just a fact.

It is going to impact your body, which in turn will impact your psoriatic arthritis. I wish there was a way around it, but I don’t know any other way.

All I know to do is take some time to try to do things that bring me some peace. Things that help me to destress in hopes that it will calm the psoriatic arthritis raging in my body.

For me, that means listening to music, reading a good book, soaking in a tub, and then using a heating pad.

Life happens, stress comes, and the arthritis flares. I have made it through flares before and will again.