More than 8 million Americans live with psoriasis, an autoimmune disorder that affects the skin, and singer LeAnn Rimes is one of them, who has recently shared personal images revealing her psoriasis on Instagram.
She wrote in the caption, “This is finally my time to be unabashedly honest about what psoriasis is and what it looks like.”
In the Instagram images, Rimes has completely exposed her skin. She wrote, “I’m tired of hiding. When you’re hiding your physical body, there’s so much that rolls over into your emotional and spiritual mental health. You feel like you’re holding yourself back—like you’ve been caged in.”
The 38-year-old actor also wrote an essay for Glamour, revealing that she received the diagnosis of psoriasis when she was only two years old.
“By the time I was six, about 80% of my body was covered in painful red spots—everything but my hands, feet, and face,” Rimes wrote, which was in the 1980s, and psoriasis was not openly talked about.
“In the world we lived in, our ‘flaws’ were not invited to the forefront,” she added.
“Underneath my shirt, my whole stomach would be covered in thick scales that would hurt and bleed,” the singer wrote. “For so much of my life, I felt like I had to hide.”
In her 20s, Rimes finally revealed that she underwent psoriasis treatment that helped keep her skin clear. She does not give the name of the medication, but she does reveal getting shots.
“All hell broke loose in the world—and inside of me, as I’m sure it did for so many other people amid this pandemic,” Rimes wrote. “With so much uncertainty happening, my flare-ups came right back.”
Dr. Mark Lebwohl, chairman of the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF), previously told Health, “There are some people for whom stress is clearly a trigger [for psoriasis outbreaks].”
Celebrity dermatologist Dr. Ava Shamban recommends meditation and relaxation breathing exercises to treat psoriasis. She previously told Health, “Have a calming bath with oatmeal but make it quick. Go for shorter and more tepid showers and baths.”
Rimes wrote, “When I first revealed it, it was a big deal for me to come out and say, ‘I deal with this.’ But so many people responded, ‘Oh my God, your skin is so clear!. Because, yeah, I was speaking about it only when my skin was clear. I think people thought I was making it up because they’ve never seen me with a flare-up.”
Rimes went on to say that the photos are “a sigh of relief” that she desperately needed.
“It’s one thing to see yourself and judge yourself in the mirror; I thought it would be even harder in a photo, which is why in the past I never let people take pictures of me during flare-ups,” she wrote in Glamour. “Being in our own bodies, we judge ourselves so harshly. But when I look at these photos, I see so much more than my skin.” The article originally appeared on Health.
