Book Review: Psoraisis By Jennifer Martin

Psoriasis is a memoir-type book that every arthritis sufferer should read and purchase so that they could refer to it over and over again. It is well-written, engaging, and brutally honest. It is certainly a book that I will be reading and rereading. Jennifer Martin is among the 2.2 percent of the population who as psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease that attacks the skin and is marked by red, itchy, scaly patches. It was very hard for Jennifer Martin to deal with the onset of this disease. There doesn’t seem to be anything that to tailor the symptoms. It grated on her self-esteem and made her feel hopeless. Jennifer went through all of these issues and more. Imagine being covered with inflamed, swollen skin lesions with silver white scales? This occurs when the immune system is mistakenly triggered causing skin cells to grow too fast. Jennifer tried everything she could get her hands on: Enbrel, methotrexate, and gold treatments, just to name a few. The side effects from these medications were so bad that at one point Jennifer had all the symptoms of MS. How heartbreaking that all arthritis sufferers become so desperate that they would take anything to get a bit of relief. I can totally relate to that, as I will share below. Jennifer even tried Eastern remedies and treatments and prayer and meditation. She even enlisted the help of psychics. All of these things didn’t help much. Jennifer had to turn away from looking from things that were outside of her to things that are within her control: her perspective and thoughts. It is only when Jennifer realized this that things turned around for her. In other words, Jennifer had to stop looking at her disease from the view of negativity and how it was impacting the quality of her life. Instead, she tried to look at the disease from a position of love and self-acceptance. She had to create a lifestyle which is in alignment with who she truly is. That is, Jennifer had to learn to love herself, despite her illness. It is only then that she went into remission. What a GREAT story! If only we all learned how to do that. I have had Osteoarthritis for over fifteen years now. My life has been an uphill battle too, as I struggle every day with pain and debilitating fatigue. Jennifer’s story has inspired me to start loving myself, despite of the nodes on my hands and legs, and my constant pain and fatigue. I urge all individuals who have any kind of arthritis to read this book.