That was the AI program for this platform that you offered the "thank you" to. I'm only pointing that out in case you didn't realize it is an AI-generated response. If you don't want the AI system here to respond to future questions, there is a check box there you can uncheck that will prevent it from happening. Anyway, it's safe to say the AI program didn't really acknowledge your "thank you" message.☺️

Now the good news is that I'm one of your team members, not an AI program. So, I'm here to offer you my own response to your question.

I actually went through something very similar. So yes, what you’re describing definitely rang a bell for me.

In my case, once the flaking stopped, some areas (especially the outer arms) entered what felt like a leathery or “armored” phase. The skin felt thick, stiff, and different from normal skin, but it wasn’t actively scaling or flaking anymore, or at least not for a period of time.

For me it didn’t keep thickening indefinitely and more or less plateaued, then slowly softened and thinned out over time as healing continued. Then as it softened and thinned out, flaking actually did resume but was actually those extra layers of dead skin finally peeling off. And from there the new, clear skin began showing through.

Clinically, what you’re describing sounds a lot like what is called "lichenification," which is basically skin thickening caused by long-standing inflammation. You could run that term by your doctor to see if he/she is familiar with it.

In the case of lichenification, even when the active psoriasis calms down, the skin can remain red and thick because the deeper layers are still remodeling collagen. You can think of it as the skin having built extra layers for protection during the inflammatory phase, and it may just takes time to undo that.

What helped me mentally was realizing for myself that:

~ flaking stopping is usually a good sign

~ thickness doesn’t automatically mean worsening disease

~ this stage can be part of the transition from active inflammation to recovery

At least for me, once things reached that leathery/plateau stage, the skin gradually normalized without flaring again. And at this point, I no longer have any signs of that. I also haven't experienced a new outbreak in more than 5 months.

It wasn’t dramatic or fast for me, but more like a slow, steady reversal. And obviously everyone’s timeline is different. But based on my own experience, what you’re describing doesn’t sound abnormal or alarming. Or at least I was not alarmed by it and was glad that the flaking had diminished when it did.

So from my perspective, it sounds like skin that’s maybe still inflamed at a low level and structurally “catching up” after months of stress.

So you’re definitely not alone in this phase. And you might even be do something right...✅️

Hi, Shannell. When you start writing a question, you will see a little box just below that is automatically checked. ✅️ So just tap that box to remove the checkmark and that's it...🤗

Thank you Jim. I'll untick the AI box 😁. Thank you as well for the clarification. My skin does feel leathery on the hand. I'll just ignore it and see how it goes. It has been months now and I have used some stellar but steroids doesnt help, otherwise my skin is clearing up apart from these two patches.

thank you. It doesn't look like plague psoriais as it is just skin. I see my skin, its just way thicker than it was. if you look at my hand, then you can't see the pso, only the skin. It is red sometimes and it doesn't flake like I said.

Try dovonex cream. It's not steroidal and it's very useful with psoriasis patches. It's by prescription only. A dermatologist would give it. It's a synthetic vitamin d based product. I can relate to just the red look on skin, I don't know what it is but this winter that seems the effect. I'll get a little flaking but then it's just stays red and thicker. Yucky