All I Really Want

I am dedicating Alanis Morisette's "All I really Want" to living with psoriasis. When I was in high school, I would blast Alanis ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. I love her! Her lyrics speak to everyone. Even when I was having a bad day, I would turn her on and sing my heart out. For whatever reason, I felt so much better. And still to this day, whenever they play her on the radio or I listen to her on Pandora, I'm crankin' it and singin' it out loud.

There are several lines from this song, that really speak to me especially about living with psoriasis.
Even the first paragrah:

Do I stress you out
My sweater is on backwards and inside out
And you say how appropriate
I don't want to dissect everything today
I don't mean to pick you apart you see
But I can't help it

Yes, I do get stressed out and no I can't help it. It doesn't help that stress—like many other things—can cause a flare up so we have to learn how to keep our stress levels down.

And all I really want is some patience
A way to calm the angry voice

What I can tell from being a psoriasis mentor is that all we do want is just some patience and way to deal with something we weren't given a choice about. We want to deal with those angry voices who banned us from pools, gave us weird looks, said we couldn't play with their kids and didn't even talk to us because we didn't have perfect skin.

What I wouldn't give to find a soul mate
Someone else to catch this drift

We just want someone who understands us and what we are going through. We shouldn't have to feel bad about something we can't help. Trust us, we are doing everything in our power to try to get rid of this monkey off our back. But right now, we're doing the best we can. So try to understand.

Why are you so petrified of silence
Here can you handle this?
Did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines
Or when you think you're gonna die

Just like you, we have everything else in the world to worry about. But on top of that we also have to live with psoriasis. Next time you're playing "Woe is me" Just stop for a second, and be grateful that you actually have a job to pay those pills and deadlines to work for.

All I really want is some peace man
a place to find a common ground
And all I really want is a wavelength
All I really want is some comfort
A way to get my hands untied
And all I really want is some justice...

This last paragraph really just hits it all for me. I just want to find some peace while living with this itchy disease. Find some common ground with others and see what has worked for them and advise them as much as I can. I just want comfort! We all want justice and answers to our questions. But for now, we have to live with the cards life has given us.

Thank you Alanis, for making it a little easier as I'm singing your songs and forgetting for about the itch, medications, topicals and tar baths that consume our lives.

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J