the incurable boy. psoriasis and now maybe GW

hello doctor,

I am a 19 year old male. I feel I have opened Pandora's box, or even several Pandora's boxes.

After graduating high school i traveled abroad for a year. I had such a great time experiencing so many new things and meeting such interesting people. I felt so glad to be alive every minute of every day.

I've been home for several months now and feel my last drop of childhood innocence is gone. I feel like i don't relate to my old friends or people my own age anymore, things like smoking pot and getting drunk every weekend seem juvenile, repetitive and boring to me. I feel like I have become a boring person because of this.

I have had mild to moderate psoriasis since childhood, it has affected my self confidence greatly at times, but I know I'm a likable guy, with plenty of friends and have even had a few girls willing to date and be intimate with me despite the appearance of my legs and elbows. These few, although very few,
have apparently been too many; I have recently noticed what I'm quite certain is a genital condyloma. I've made myself extremely knowledgeable about the virus and its prevalence, along with other sti's, I wish I had had this knowledge before becoming sexually active, but now it is too late.

Having spent my whole life telling people i'm not contagious, it has been unbelievably hard accepting that I am.

I worry I will never find love again, I worried about it enough with my psoriasis (it being unattractive, the possibility of it becoming much worse one day, and the possibility of passing it on to my children)

but now this too? I feel like I can hardly function, this is affecting my studies, my self worth, and my outlook on life.

What can I do to make things better for myself?

[Jason Greenberg, Ph.D.]

Have you consulted a urologist regarding your genital issue?  Before getting into the emotional issues, you may want to see a urologist first if you haven't yet.

[responsiblemale]

thank you doctor, I have seen the nurse practitioner on campus multiple times, originally i found a "bump" on a girl i had been involved with and went to talk to the nurse about it. I then educated myself about HPV, and confronted the girl and asked her to get checked. she never got back to me, days went by until i approached her directly, she said that everything was fine and it had turned out not to be anything that wasn't normal. i had a hard time believing her, and was just coming around to being able to, when i noticed my own bump. I will get it examined but I almost don't want to hear what they will say.

I don't know how to deal with the stress of this on top of the stress of exam week, I feel terrible all of the time and can't get my mind off of it.

[Jason Greenberg, Ph.D.]

At many colleges there is a campus counseling center that offers short-term or medium-term counseling to its students.  If this is an option for you, I would recommend that you seek this out as a way of dealing with all the stress you're facing right now.