Living with Psoriatic Arthritis is an online patient support community that is powered by BensFriends.org, a network of patient support communities for rare diseases. Our mission at Ben’s Friends is to ensure that patients living with rare diseases or chronic illnesses, as well as their caregivers, family, and friends, have a safe and supportive place to connect with others like them.
Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) is a type of inflammatory arthritis which affects people who suffer from the chronic skin condition, psoriasis. Common symptoms of psoriatic arthritis include pain, swelling, or stiffness in one or more joints that are red or warm to the touch.
Persons with psoriatic arthritis also experience pain in and around the feet and ankles, especially tendonitis in the Achilles tendon or Plantar fasciitis in the sole of the foot and in the area of the Sacrum (the lower back, above the tailbone). Changes to the nails, such as pitting or separation from the nail bed also occurs.
LivingWithPsoriaticArthritis.org is a virtual peer-to-peer community intended to be a safe place for patients and family members as young as age 12, to visit for information, discussion, venting and mutual support. Members come from many backgrounds. Some have a strong religious faith, and others no faith; some are children and others adults, rich and poor, graduate educated or taught by life. Our common denominators are that we share a life journey, and we try to help each other.
How is Ben’s Friends Different from Social Media and Other Support Sites?
Our mission at Ben’s Friends is to ensure that patients living with rare diseases or chronic illnesses, as well as their caregivers, family, and friends, have a safe and supportive place to connect with others like them.
We’re interested in you as a person, and in your struggles as a rare disease patient. But we don’t want to know your name or where you live. We won’t even allow you to use your real name when you register for one of our communities. Because when it comes to medical things, anonymity is important in our googly universe. Your information is never shared, and your activity never tracked by adware.
When Ben’s Friends asks for the country and region you live in, that’s in case your fellow members can recommend local resources and help, and so everyone knows what kind of medical system there is where you live. That’s important when it comes to giving and getting support. Because we are all about support, and we’re all in this together..
Ben’s Friends: Safe and Supportive.
And anonymous to keep it that way.
Why create an account?
Posts on the different Ben’s Friends communities can be read by anyone on the internet. You can browse through the different topics and find most of the information you’re looking for but there are many things you won’t be able to do unless you create an account. These include:
Making your own posts. Although you’re able to find useful information just by reading other members’ posts, you might still have a lot of questions in your mind. Either you want to start a new topic to talk about them in detail or you want to reply to a comment on a thread. These won’t be possible unless you create a new user account.
Viewing other members’ profiles. Member profiles include information about the country or region they are from, whether they are a patient or a caregiver, and details about their disease and treatments. Maybe you came across an interesting post and you want to learn more about the member. Or maybe you’re looking for members who are from the same country as you. Having a user account allows you to see other member profiles and find information that may be relevant.
Sending private messages. Aside from being able to post publicly and commenting on a thread, having a user account also allows you to send private messages both to other members and moderators. In case you want to discuss a topic only with a specific person, this is possible by sending private messages when you have created your account.
Click here to create an account and join.
Latest Discussions
- Fear Motivated Complianceby Amos on August 9, 2025
I just want to put out a reminder to all who are perhaps new to this disease and pondering alternative therapies, self medicating or “natural” and special diets to control inflammation. Getting systemic inflammation under the best control possible is essential to slowing further health decline. I can handle all sorts of body pain but my greatest fear is that of losing my brain to PsA […]
- Diastolic Dysfunction of the heartby tamac on August 5, 2025
A month ago, a heart cath revealed that I am in the early stages of diastolic dysfunction (early heart failure, it is called). This is one where there is a pressure difference between the left and right chambers. I had told my cardiologist that I had been getting breathless very easily, even after the pacemaker was implanted a year ago. She went ahead and did the heart cath. Did find I have […]
- Travel into Canada with Prescriptionsby amielynn38 on July 30, 2025
Canadians or anyone who travels through Canada, I am entering Canada at the end of a cruise and I see on their website that I need to declare controlled medications. As anyone else dealt with this through customs? I have a few prescriptions to declare and was hoping the process is streamline. Thanks for any help. 2 posts – 2 participants Read full topic
- Beware of the unexpectedby Amos on July 30, 2025
Maybe this serves as a warning for others or just a wake up call for me. Last weekend I was on a boat at the lake with family. Some of my children and grand children wearing life jackets jumped off the boat to cool off. They talked g’pa into jumping in too. After much cheering I did a back flop into the lake. Because I can swim and had no intention of staying in the water I didn’t have a life […]
- DVT blood clotby Stoney on July 25, 2025
I started having calf pain yesterday and it got very bad very fast. I decided to wait till the morning and see if it was feeling any better after the overnight and it was not. It was especially bad when walking or standing. After looking and seeing that rinvoq can have the side effect of blood clots, I decided to call my doctor and then went to the emergency room. I have a blood clot in my calf. […]
