Coping with a Rash During the Holidays and Summer
It is Memorial Day weekend and one of my psychotherapy clients was very discouraged due to the fact that her 17 year old daughter has been itching for three days and is very unhappy. They are having family over from out of town and will be engaged in picnics and barbecues. Her daughter just wants to stay in her room due to feeling in a low mood. She is worried that it may be there for he prom and that she will have to wear long sleeves. She has had asthma and eczema over the years, though she is not sure if the current rash is due to sweating in the sun last week wearing a tight nylon shirt.
Whatever the source of the rash, psychologically you can’t let it beat you or anyone in your family. As a counselor I’ve seen people face some very traumatic situations from abuse, death in the family and return from war. When we are in the midst of something, we forget that anything that isn’t endangering our lives isn’t a calamity. This doesn’t mean that it can’t cause hurt and suffering inside. But, we think everyone is staring at us often when they aren’t. I have seen clients who told me
that they had their braces removed, changed their hair color or cut their hair and no one seemed to see it. This shows how much we forget that most people are preoccupied with their own issues.
This doesn’t mean you should be in a passive mode about getting rash treatment. See a doctor, improve sleep habits, cut out foods that are unhealthy and replace them with nutritious ones to aid your body. But, don’t let your mind bully you into thinking you don’t deserve to be at the gathering or party. If your doctor has determined that you don’t have a contagious rash, then you should go and interact. Take lotions for moisturizing the rash and an antihistamine to relieve the itching. Run in the bathroom if you need to and apply a damp cool cloth to the areas.
Memorial Day weekend only occurs once a year and these memories won’t be repeated. You also will be a shining example to others that you aren’t going to let some red bumps and itching get you down and ruin your weekend. You are bigger than that and your beauty shows in your grace and how you handle situations. Sometimes a physical problem helps us to look deeper inside to examine our true identity and separate it from our surface identity. It helps to think about what you want to be remembered for. Is it your skin and hair? Or is it your kindness and patience?
This is good timing because monday we have a picnic and I just got a huge cold sore on my lip. I am really not happy because it is starting to blow up bad. If you ever had this you know that there are a few days where it cracks and bleeds while it scabs. I am seeing my mother-in-law and know that she will stare at me but I will just keep humming to myself and look at the pretty trees.
Tomorrow we have a family thing and I have red bumps on my shoulder and people will see them because there is a pool there. I think it could be because my seat belt was right over that part and it was really hot yesterday. It is only on one shoulder but some are really red looking. I hope chlorine won’t make the rash worse.
Wow, we were tortured by mosquitos yesterday at the picnic and now my daughter is in freak out mode because she had 2 dots on her stomach before the picnic and can’t tell if it’s mosquito bites or a different rash. Her college friend had scabies but they were in different dorms. Please tell us it is mosquito bites.
We had graduation this weekend and a party for my 17 year old. She was so tortured by a rash on her legs. Her brother from college said that some kids in his dorm had scabies so now she thinks that’s what she has. I think it’s not likely but I know it is contagious. That would be awful because she is going to summer school starting next week and I don’t know what will happen.