Meet Tony

My name is Tony. I live in Woodland Hills, California. I’m married to my beautiful wife, Lee, and I have a, almost three-year-old son, Zack, that, is just the love of my life. I sell hair care products for a living. And, I’ve been doing that for about 18 years. Love that… love the industry.

Being diagnosed with psoriasis

When I was first diagnosed with psoriasis, I actually thought it was something else. I thought I had a rash and, went to the doctor and, they took a biopsy of it, and when it came back, the doctor said you have psoriasis and I said, okay, so, you know, then give me a pill or a shot or whatever, and he said, "Well, it’s hereditary and it’s incurable."

Impact on my relationships and social life

Psoriasis greatly affected my social life and interaction with other people. I was constantly thinking about what other people thought, you know, I was always trying to cover it up. So I really, probably did a lot less activities. I know I did. Unless I felt really comfortable with, like, family members or close friends, I didn’t go to events because of my psoriasis.

Before I was married of course I dated and, that was always a very uncomfortable situation. Even from the beginning, you know, I concealed it very well, so, a lot of times I was able to meet someone, but, if I was going to become intimate with them possibly, that was always on my mind. I kept thinking, you know, when am I going to have to talk to them about that, is it going to make them not want to see me anymore, and, honestly, if somebody stopped seeing me, I thought… in my mind, thought it was because of my psoriasis.

Impact on my job

As a hair care salesman, of course, you know, I’m in the beauty industry so I deal with people that… if you see somebody with a scalp condition like I had… I didn’t have a shaved head then because I had this redness and flakiness on my scalp. So I would actually do things to kind of conceal that. I used makeup around my hairline. And I would comb the hair over. I was worried that, because I was in the beauty industry that I might lose my job—that they, you know, the people that owned the company might think, well, we don’t really want somebody like that representing us.

Overwhelming emotions

Psoriasis affected me emotionally, probably at least as much as it did physically. I went to a therapist at one point, and, I was with him for about 6 months, and he was asking me questions, and really, I was just doing all the talking. And at about 6 months he stopped me. He goes, "You think that your family, your friends, your employer… that everybody thinks of you just around your psoriasis." I mean, I had a lot of things that, of course, in life did make me happy like my family and friends and things that I enjoyed, but, I was thinking about it so much, it really was kind of a dark period for me.

Feeling like the real me again

You know, I think back to before I had psoriasis, and I was 23 years old when I got diagnosed with it, and I had a very normal, happy life, and people got to know me just for me. And then things changed. When I got my psoriasis, it wasn’t like that anymore. I felt that I was really more judged on my disease, and I really used to kind of hope and dream that I could be like that again—that I could be like I was before I had psoriasis.

Looking forward

Thinking about my family, I love sports, and, hopefully my son will love them as well. So, my thoughts for the future would be… I would love to be his coach, you know, be the dad on the sideline, even if I’m not his coach just be there cheering him on, encouraging him in my shorts, in my short-sleeved shirt… you know, wearing whatever I feel like wearing because I don’t have to worry about or think about my psoriasis anymore.