The 92,000 TikTok viewers who follow Stephen Nothum, 35, of Eugene, OR, are there to gobble up his high-energy reviews on the movies and TV they’re watching. Should The Studio have won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series? He has thoughts. His viewers might even be there because they’ve read and loved his collection of short stories on dystopian themes. Most of them probably have no idea he lives with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). “The fatigue is invisible to other people,” Nothum says, “and if you set high expectations for yourself, it can even be invisible to you.” But even when he’s feeling great, his PsA is always there.
Stress & Symptoms
Life Stress and Odd Symptoms
Nothum’s earliest symptoms appeared shortly after a seven-month stretch of hard life events. “I was rejected for the second year in a row for my grad program, my dad passed away, we lost a baby, we moved [from Missouri to Oregon], and I changed jobs,” he recalls.
Around the same time, he was treated for a stubborn toenail fungus with terbinafine, a synthetic antifungal that can sometimes trigger or worsen psoriasis, a skin condition that often occurs with PsA. Soon after, small patches of dry skin appeared on his forehead, followed by fatigue, mid-back and spinal pain, and abdominal and chest tightness…