For a little over two years now I have been battling a strange skin condition. In the beginning I thought it was a rash but it's not ever itchy. It started on my back and then appeared on my stomach, over the past year it showed up on my chest. As of three days ago I've noticed it at the top of my right arm. I thought I was having a problem with dry skin but this seems out of control. The skin patches are slightly darker than my usual skin color but they start off as small round skin patches and grow in size. They don't ever itch, they almost look velvety or soft but if I scratch them then they flake. They don't ever turn into sores and they're never any color but a very light tan or brown color. Sometimes if I scratch them they will turn purple but almost immediately afterwards it doesn't look like I had touched them at all. They don't seem to effect my health but now it's getting embarrassing to wear some shirts and especially my bathing suit.

This showed up immediately after I went through a divorce January 2005. My skin condition started around that February or March of 2005. I lost about 40 pounds over a three month period due to stress from the divorce and extreme loss of appetite. I also had a bleeding ulcer as a result from the stress associated with the divorce but that has since been treated. I'm listing these because they all happened around the same time and I'm wondering if any of these other things might be associated with this weird skin problem.