Flakey skin leads to having a thick skin

I have read various comments from other people with prp on a dedicated Facebook group. For many of them, the most debilitating part of this disease is what other people think or say about it. It has been a large part of why some of them have had to take time off work or even quit their jobs.  I can totally understand how the opinions of others would have this effect and how it adds to the almost debilitating level of self disgust that can come with this disease.   I want to try and explain how I have dealt with these feelings so far. I want to make it clear that these are my personal coping strategies and I am not judging how others are coping. 

Having said that I haven't really had any nasty comments about my skin. Quite a few people have said something like "been anywhere nice? You've obviously caught the sun". That's not offensive so I don't take offence. Other than that the only comment I can think of is when I went to the gp one day just after being covered in emollient. Some kids looked at me and one shouted out "Oi mate, why are you all wet?"  I could have taken this to be confrontational, aggressive, humiliating but I made a conscious decision to be naive and treat it as a genuinely curiosity. I just shouted back "long story" and carried on. 

So as far as what people have actually said, it's been easy. The hard bit is dealing with what you assume people are thinking. I am looking out at the world from the epicentre of this continuous cloud of flakes. So when a flake falls down across my field of vision it looks relatively large and important. It can therefore be inconceivable to think that others haven't even noticed. The same applies to the white flakes that appear on a black tablecloth where I am sitting or the greasy emollient stains that appear at my desk. Just because it's all I see, doesn't mean it's all everyone else sees.  So how do I deal with these situations?  Well I could continuously apologise to virtually everyone I meet for leaving a disgusting trail of flakes and grease everywhere I go or, what I try to do is assume they don't notice or care. If it's that bad, wait for them to say something. This requires developing a thick skin and is easier said than done. Last week I was staying in a hotel for work and I had a really bad flaky night. By the next morning it seemed to me that every surface of my hotel room was covered in a thick layer of skin and grease. My self disgust went into overdrive and i had visions of the cleaning staff screaming as soon as they opened the door. I definitely expected an angry phone call from the hotel. Of course this hasn't happened (yet) but it can be difficult to control that self disgust and realise it might not look as bad or as important to other people. 

So it's all about dealing with the self-disgust. This can really build up from small insignificant incidents. I have found that blogging about these incidents, like stopping at a service station to get the vacuum out on the car seat, is quite liberating because I am saying this is something that is happening to me, rather than something I am doing. I don't want to come across as a victim but more importantly I don't want to feel shame at something I cant control.