I’m super excited to hear your story about when you got vitiligo and when you were only one and a half years old and have been growing up with it. How has it been?
It has been challenging, but as I progressed and the minute I started accepting myself, things became much more manageable.
Do people understand what the condition is?
I don’t think many people do know. Maybe some do. It is an autoimmune disorder that affects skin color. That is the melanin that makes the melanocytes; the cells make your color.
It makes your color dark, or that’s why we’re having the white patches now. The essential thing you need to know is that don’t be in the sun directly.
It would be best to have sunscreen because you’ll get burned; melanin helps block you. So if you don’t have melanin, you’ll get burned.
One thing which is a major factor is that you can be affected psychologically because of the stairs and the comments of people and all these things, it affects us mentally.
You’ve talked about how people stare and how it might affect you psychologically. So how do you deal with strangers?
It starts with yourself. It would be best if you accepted that this is how you are and accepted it so that you can face people.
You keep it to yourself, and if anyone comments about the condition, you become annoyed or get pissed off.
You don’t want anyone to talk to you about it, so some people think you’ve been burned. It is a condition that people will talk about. The myths behind it are many! Like the one that thinks you had acid thrown in your face.
Those are the significant things and stress triggers, so to avoid stress, you need to find something to anchor or ground yourself and accept yourself for who you are.
It was challenging for me, but I decided to take up the challenge and face it because I want to be out there to create awareness about the condition.
It’s just putting out people with vitiligo and people with albinism so that people can understand the difference between those living with the condition and those with albinism. It’s not the same thing.
The main thing people think is that you start with vitiligo and then have albinism. That’s not the case when vitiligo is entirely different.
Your color can change, yes, and become like Michael Jackson. It usually starts as a small spot, and different types of vitiligo usually start as a small spot.
It spreads progressively with the different types until you reach universal vitiligo, which is what Michael Jackson had. People started branding Michael Jackson and stuff like that.
Vitiligo Natural Remedies