Kim Kardashian Shares Makeup-Free Selfie That Shows Severe Psoriasis On Her Face: See Pic

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Kim Kardashian’s getting very personal. The star shared a revealing, makeup-free selfie in a new post discussing her struggles with the disease and how she has coped over the years.

Kim Kardashian, 38, shared the selfie, along with a number of other shocking images, and her own personal testimony about dealing with psoriasis on her sister Kourtney Kardashian‘s lifestyle site, Poosh. In the close-up photo, Kim’s psoriasis is clearly visible, with red blemishes beneath her eye, on her cheek, and her chin. The images and her essay chronicle Kim’s journey with the condition and how she’s made changes in her life to manage the diagnosis. Other images she shared showcased how the disease has spread in scab-like blotches to her legs, in varying levels of severity. “Today I’m sharing with Poosh my journey with the autoimmune conditions psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, including what’s worked for me and how I’ve adjusted my life since being diagnosed,” Kim said in the post with the pictures (which can be seen here.)

“When I was 25, I had my first psoriasis flare-up,” she continued. “I got a common cold, and since psoriasis is an autoimmune condition, this triggered it. It was all over my stomach and legs.” While Kim’s first flare-up eventually went away, the condition and its side effects resurfaced in Kim’s early thirties. While attending an event in New York and wearing a ‘glitzy sequin dress,’ Kim noticed the flare-up. “At the time, I wasn’t sure it was psoriasis,” she wrote. “It seemed like it came out of nowhere, but I thought that my skin was just sensitive toward the dress’s material, so I didn’t think too much about it. And then I cam home to LA for Mason’s first birthday party and my mom looked at me and said it was definitely psoriasis.” Throughout her two pregnancies Kim’s psoriasis thankfully subsided. It was this year, however, that Kim saw the worst of her psoriasis. “Earlier this year is when it got extremely bad — it cover my whole face and a majority of my entire body,” the mom of four shared. Kim continued by recounting the excruciating pain she endured in her joints, and her frustration when creams weren’t working. But things turned positive by her personal essay’s conclusion. “If you have psoriasis, you can’t let it ruin your life or get the best of you. You have to do what you can to make sure you and comfortable but not let it take over.” This is just the latest way Kim has been vocal about her struggles.

The reality star has grown more and more candid about the disease over the years. In January of 2017, Kim was visibly emotional over the revelation that her psoriasis was spreading to her face with the entire ordeal documented on KUWTK. Back in July of 2015, Kim was also enduring psoriasis flare ups while she was pregnant. But recently on September 10, while appearing on Today, Kim shared with her fans how she’s been coping with her latest revelation given her history of dealing with the disease. “I didn’t realize I would be one of those people, but before I knew what it was and it was up in the air, you get in your head and you think of every worst possibility of what’s going to happen and how you’re going to live your life,” she explained. “You do get into a little depression for a minute. I got myself out of it, but it was really scary to have to go through that.”

On the recent September 15 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim learned the result of yet another  health ordeal. As Kim had been struggling with psoriasis for years, she learned that the disease had developed into psoriatic arthritis. Originally, Kim believed that she could have lupus, when her antibodies tested positive for the disease during a blood test. Fortunately, the results concluded that the pain Kim was suffering from in her joints was due to psoriatic arthritis and not lupus. While it was yet another hurdle for the reality star and mogul to deal with, she was relieved by the news, nonetheless. “The pain is going to come and go sometimes, but I can manage it, and this isn’t going to stop me,” she shared to the cameras.

With such an enormous platform, it’s great to see Kim using her platform to share her journey with psoriasis. Openly chronicling the road to handling this part of her health, she’s taken fans with her and opened up about a serious part of her life. As she shared at the end of her Poosh post, “I hope my story can help anyone else with an autoimmune disease feel confident that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”