August Has Me Thinking...

Every August, we recognize National Wellness Month, and this year I noticed that it's also Psoriasis Awareness Month.

Seeing those two observances side by side immediately took me back to a chapter of my life I haven't thought about in quite some time...

For years, I struggled with chronic psoriasis. I had red, scaly patches across my scalp and face, and little "guttate" spots all over my legs, torso and arms, as well. It was frustrating, uncomfortable, and something I spent a lot of years trying to prevent from itching and to hide. Like most people, I assumed it was simply a skin problem.

Looking back now, I'm not so sure.

We Treated My Skin...

Throughout my twenties and thirties, I saw dermatologist after dermatologist. I tried prescription creams, medicated shampoos, topical steroids, and just about every treatment that was available at the time. I even had one doctor prescribe a tanning bed (hmmm, not so sure that was a good idea), and years later my health insurance covered a full length "light wall" to give myself a daily dose of "good rays without the harmful ones."

Some things helped temporarily, but nothing ever seemed to address the underlying problem. As soon as I stopped using one treatment, the psoriasis always seemed to come back.

No one was intentionally doing anything wrong, and they were all treating exactly what they could see.

But in retrospect, no one ever asked me what was happening beneath the surface.

No one asked about my stress levels. No one asked about what I was eating. No one asked how much alcohol I was drinking or how well I was sleeping. No one wondered whether my body might be responding to something more systemic than what was happening on my skin.

At the time, I didn't ask those questions either.

The Changes I Made Weren't About Psoriasis

Years later, after being diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, and not finding the usual antibiotic treatment to be solving that health challenge, I made some significant changes to my lifestyle. I cleaned up my diet by reducing inflammatory foods, eliminated alcohol, paid more attention to my overall health, and started looking at my body as an interconnected system instead of a collection of separate parts.

Interestingly, I wasn't trying to heal my psoriasis. I was trying to heal my body. But, along the way, something unexpected happened. My psoriasis quietly disappeared.

Today, I don't have a single patch on my scalp, my face, or anywhere else on my body.

Can I tell you with certainty which change made the difference?

No.

Was it eliminating alcohol? Reducing inflammation? Changing my diet? Healing from Lyme disease? Better stress management? Some combination of all of those things?

I honestly don't know, and I think it's important to be honest about that.

The Bigger Lesson

What I do know is that my experiences with psoriasis and Lyme Disease completely changed the kinds of questions I ask.

Instead of only asking,"How do I get rid of this symptom?" I learned to become more curious about what my body might be trying to communicate.

That doesn't mean every symptom has one simple cause, and it certainly doesn't mean we should stop seeking good medical care. Modern medicine has done remarkable things, and I'm incredibly grateful for the physicians who've cared for me over the years.

But I also believe there's room for another question.

What if our bodies are trying to get our attention?

What if anxiety, poor sleep, fatigue, digestive issues, skin conditions, and even our relationship with alcohol aren't always isolated problems to solve, but invitations to become more curious about our overall health?

That's a very different conversation, and in my experience, it's often where real healing begins.

Curiosity Over Judgment

One of the things that is fundamental to my coaching is that I rarely encourage people to jump straight to conclusions. Instead, I encourage my clients to experiment.

I invite my clients to become scientists of their own lives. To start paying attention and to begin gathering data.

Collect information about how you sleep, how you feel, how you think, and how your body responds when you make small changes.

This is exactly how I began changing my own relationship with alcohol. Not because I defined myself as an alcoholic or even because I really saw it as a problem, but more because I became curious enough to ask whether it might be contributing to some of the things I had accepted as "normal."

That curiosity changed my life, and I truly believe it may be one of the healthiest tools any of us can develop.

Ready to Run Your Own Experiment?

If you've ever wondered whether alcohol might be affecting your sleep, your anxiety, your energy, your mood, your skin, or simply the way you feel in your own body, I'd love to invite you to try my free 7-Day Experiment.

It's not about labels, shame, or deciding what you'll do forever. It's simply an opportunity to get curious.

Because sometimes the answers we're looking for don't come from trying harder.

Sometimes they come from finally paying attention.