Hi- I recently went to an herbalist to help the KP on my upper arms. I also suffer from depression on and off (which both causes and is a result of KP) and the herbalist was CONVINCED that the KP was my body's way of respondiong to difficult childgood/depressionn. Now I know KP affects white people more than people of color and Asians, middle class people more than poor, so her theory doesn't mak sense since people of all classes and races suffer from depression, so we should see it pretty evenly across groups. But just out of curiosity, how many of us suffer from emotional issues as well or had much stress during childgood (this said, I know people who has very stressful childhoods who have perfect skin).
The herbalist's theory is that people respond to stress differently, and if you have the gene for KP, and you are sensitive, your KP gene will "turn on."
I know that my KP began after a terrible heartbreak, which lends credence to the stress connection. Of course, it doesn't explain how babies get it . . .

im the same way with my KP and depression. I would say that highschool was the hardest for me, and it has since gotten worse. But things werent so bad before highschool...

I've had KP since I was a baby, but I'm not sure how spread out it was... I think I only had it a bit on my arms. But yea, KP has caused a lot of depression for me! Especially during my early teenage. It might be one of the reasons it has been spreding?
Usually the sunlight causes me to calm down, and take things easier. That's why I'm not really stressed during summer. At least I don't worry about my skin as much. And my skin is better than ever.. I think there's so many causes involved with 'developing' KP, that we can't go through them all. But I reckon stress is something that matters too..

for me, the sunlight makes me anxious. I'd rather it be night-time all the time. I love nature but I am so gaurded about my skin, i'd rather it was always dark out.

Well now when I think about it, I used to be more worried about my skin during summer..some years ago. But I recently spent a year in Australia and found my skin better there, probably because of the stronger sunlight. It made me feel so much happier.. But now I'm back in Finland.. where it's cold and dark all the time during winter....not so nice.

I don't think that depression caused my KP, it's more like the other way around. I mean I don't really suffer from severe depression but when I was a kid I was teased a lot because of my KP, I didn't have very many friends and so in turn I was kind of depressed for a while. But I developed KP when I was very young, and I was always happy when I was around that age.