‘Scandal’ Actress Katie Lowes Is Done Hiding Her Battle With Psoriasis – SELF

In 2010, actress Katie Lowes was having an incredible year: She just booked her first major acting gig on a buzzy new drama called Scandal, and she got engaged to her boyfriend, Adam Shapiro. "I was the happiest Ive ever been in my life," Lowes tells SELF. But the year also proved stressful. "I was planning a wedding, and I was also working this job where all eyes were on me for the first time," she says. "The stress really triggered my skin to flare up." Her skin started to become itchy and scaly in spots, spreading from her scalp to behind her ears and eventually down to her back. "It was getting to a place where you definitely couldnt ignore it and pretend like this was something small," she says. That's when she saw her doctor, and she was diagnosed with psoriasis .

Psoriasis affects approximately 7.5 million people in the United States, according to the American Academy of Dermatology . It's a chronic autoimmune disease that speeds up the growth of skin cells. Several types of the disease exist, but the most common formwhich Lowes hasis plaque psoriasis. This type of psoriasis can cause patches of dry, raised red skin that's covered with silvery scales, the CDC reports. Plaque psoriasis can occur on any part of the body, and the affected areas can be itchy and even painful for people. The skin disease's unique appearance can also make people self-conscious. A common misunderstanding is that psoriasis is contagious, but it's not. The severity of psoriasis can vary from person to person and even from month to month, changing from affecting small discreet areas of the body to impacting large patches of skin.

Related: 5 Things People With Psoriasis Want You to Know

When Lowes found out she had the skin disease, she initially went into denial and didn't aggressively pursue treatment. "It brought out a lot of embarrassed and ashamed feelings. Theres such a pressure in Hollywood to feel perfect and feel like nothings wrong, and that was definitely not my case," she says. It affected her confidence on set, too. "I'd be sitting in the hair chair [on the set of Scandal ] and I'd say, Its just really bad this weekI cant have my hair up; I cant show anything back there,'" she says. "Luckily, there were a lot of days where Quinns hair is down."

Lowes finally got serious about treating her psoriasis in 2012 when the skin disease derailed her wedding plans. "I had an session booked to take photos with Adam to announce our engagement, and I actually canceled and didnt show up because I was having a terrible flare-up," she says. "I had nothing to wear, and I just felt so ugly. I canceled it and I said to myself, This has gone too far. Im actually canceling huge, awesome things in my life because of this disease, and I cant be alone in this.

After that incident, Lowes started working aggressively to find a dermatologist she could trust as well as a treatment that worked for her. Treatment for the disease can vary from person to person, with options including topical creams and ointments, light therapy, and oral or injected medicines, the Mayo Clinic reports. The goal of these treatments is to stop skin cells from growing rapidly and also to remove scales and smooth skinbut finding the right treatment can be challenging, since the disease manifests itself in unpredictable cycles. Lowes says it took a few years to find a treatment that worked for her, but she thankfully did.

Today, Lowes says she feels better than everand she's working as a psoriasis advocate to help others going through a similar experience. She's sharing her story for the first time as part of Janssen Biotech, Inc. and the National Psoriasis Foundation 's new campaign, Psoriasis: The Inside Story . The campaign's website features stories from people with psoriasis, and it aims to start a conversation and offer support to people in the psoriasis community. It's a mission Lowes can get behind.

"I feel like its taken me a long time to get to this place where I feel confident with myself again," she says. "I feel good in my own skin because I was able to find a doctor that I trusted and a treatment that has really helped me with my symptoms. It's important for me to tell people that they too can feel great and get to a place where their symptoms are under control."

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'Scandal' Actress Katie Lowes Is Done Hiding Her Battle With Psoriasis - SELF