Hey everyone. I am making this post so that we can help each other cope with the challenges that we face everyday due to acne. I for example miss out on a lot of things because of acne, because I am embarrassed and choose to hibernate in my room. I've read many peoples forums and we can all relate; acne is really really really depressing.
But I realize that I am giving up on life, and I don't want acne to control my life anymore

SO INSTEAD OF POSTING NEGATIVE FEELINGS TOWARDS ACNE, I WANT FOR A CHANGE TO SEE SOME POSITIVE POSTS ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOUR ACNE.


what are some challenges/fears from acne that you have overcome? How did it make you feel? Is it something that you were able to continue to overcome?

For example: I went out with a large cyst today. I woke up in the morning. depressed, didnt want to look in the mirror sat there examining my face. Normally i would not go out at all, just hibernate in my room, or go out wearing a hat (which in the end makes my forehead break out more). I got the courage to just say screw it, im going out to face the public and took a walk on a main street. It felt good just to walk and not care what other people might think. Im just starting to make little changes like this. cuz in the end, i think we really do analyze our skin more than other people. we are our worst critic.

I wanna challenge myself to not look in the mirror all the time, or to distract my attention away from my acne; or to go out with friends etc. I will keep you updated to let you know how i do.

this guy said to me the other day, its not what happens in life that important, its what you make of it. so true.

This messageboard is not a substitute for professional help if you need it. Please see below for some good resources. Thanks to Sparty who first posted this in the Lounge.

Nowadays, we all live in a very busy and stressful world even during the holiday! Here are some useful information that might help you and your friends deal with stress, anxiety, depression, eating disorder...etc.

UK phone directory:
http://www.ne-mh.nhs.uk/services_directory...lm_national.htm Collection of 29 different organization in UK; for example Depression Alliance, Anxiety Care, SANELINE -(Schizophrenia A National Emergency)...

Australia phone directory:
http://www.relationships.com.au/utilities/links.asp several important phone number: kid helpline, parents helpline...etc

http://www.kidshelp.com.au/INFO7/contents.htm Info on bullying.

USA and Canada links and information: Several useful links full of information for everyone.
http://www.kidshealth.org/index.html has separate areas for kids, teens, and parents - each with its own design, age-appropriate content, and tone. There are literally thousands of in-depth features, articles, animations, games, and resources - all original and all developed by experts in the health of children and teens.

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/ One section from kidshealth.org This link just talk about teen related issues.

http://teenadvice.about.com/library/weekly...y/aa070500a.htm Helpline phone number for Canada and United States.

http://hopeline.com/ National hopeline network for suicide prevention in teens.

http://suicidehotlines.com/newyork.html Crisis and suicide helpline for NY. (both NYC and upstate)

http://www.edmontonandareacfsa.gov.ab.ca/t...m?pg=Depression Useful info about depression and how to deal with it. (canadian website)

http://www.youthsource.cc/links/ Tons of useful links so you can get additional help through various organizations and people.

http://www.christians-in-recovery.com/reso...s/hotlines.html The largest collection of Telephone hotline from several countries: US, UK, Australia, Canada, Norway, Finland, Israel and South Africa.

For me it is my cousin. She is like an older sister to me (China only allow 1 child a family so we cousins are very close). She has perfect flawless skin herself but she understands my suffering! She has seen my skin from all angles and under all kinds of light but she has never once questioned me about my skin. When I am with her I feel I have normal skin! I dont know how but she understands that I feel embaressed when people talk about my skin, she has saved me from embaressment many times. Whenever people ask about my skin she quickly changes the topic.

Who is your person?

acne has let me see the real me and makes feel better now that i know the real me

Okay... I'm not really sure what I wanna say.. So I'll just say this...

I feel like if I didn't have acne, I would be a lot prettier... Like ... I would be the kind of person who wouldn't have any confidence issues, wouldn't be "not good enough" for anyone... I'd be absolutely fine.. I feel that if my skin was clear ALL the rest of my problems were resolved. Anyone else feel this way? How do you cope?

Also ... I've become so sensitive to people talking about skin at all... If they say ANYTHING about anyone's skin, I always try to change the subject... Whether I mean to or not.. And if anyone says the words "acne, pimple, zit" or anything.. I want to crawl in a hole and die.. Ha.. y'know what I mean?

Hooooow do you cope?!?!! If I didn't have acne... My life would be 100% perfect... So I think... Please share your own thoughts on this or anything related...

Anyone want to post their pic?
I figured it would be a good way to get to know everyone since this place seems to be a pretty close knit community.
Lets get to know eachother!
Why not

ps.
Feel free to photoshop your photos, it doesn't really matter.
Just be comfortable.




feel free to add
your age
your nationality/race
your side of the world
An interesting fact about yourself.

Im 20
asian
USA
I play guitar

i want to know how many people have acne runing their lifes

I only feel comfortable going out at night..
I dread going out during the day.
I hate the stares from everyone..
Especially if your driving and you have passengers. I feel distracted because I feel as though my passengers are staring at my face.

Does anyone else feel like this??

You know those days you have when looking in the mirror is just an all too painful ordeal? Where you want to grab the nearest pair of scissors and just remove your face so maybe some clever surgeons can masterfully create you a new better one?

Well you guessed it, today just so happens to be one of those days for me, actually if I were to be honest, it's been one of those weeks.

My skin has been looking like crap recently, dry, red and tired looking, I look and feel terrible. The sad part is I haven't felt like this in a long time, atleast 6 months I would say, to come crashing down again like this is truly devastating. I wish I could just say it was only my skin aswell that was bothering me, except it's not. I've gained a lot of weight recently (not sure why as i've never been heavier than 150 ibs - 6ft tall btw) but now i'm getting bigger and i'm beginning to feel unhappy about it.

My confidence has totally gone downhill, I used to be so much more active and social, these days though all I want to do is just be alone. My girlfriend tries to help but I push her away because she cannot help the way I feel, we stopped having sex a while ago and now I don't even want to be touched by her or anyone else.

Wouldn't it be nice to be beautiful.

not sure if this belong in this section


Short Summary:Well, 2 years ago I took Accutane for my acne. If I could describe my acne its between mild to moderate but bad enough for my dermatologist to prescribe me Accutane. I had to stop taking Accutane after 4 months(due to my derm being on vacation and my bloodwork results) As a whole, I was disappointed because I really wanted a clear skin, which I haven't had since I was 12 years old. (puberty sucks )


Fast-Forward to now: I have been suffering from depression and I sometimes (before i used to constantly) have suicidal thoughts. I have days when I'm really depressed about a small minuscule thing. (e.g pimples on my face, red marks, etc...the list goes on and on) When I was taking Accutane, I thought nothing of the signs, which I should have taken more seriously but I desperately wanted my acne to go away so I've ignore it (yes I'm extremely stupid ) I don't really have a good relationship with my parents so it makes it harder for me to talk about my acne because they think that it will go away on its own. They told me to wash my face everyday with warm water, don't eat junk foods, drink more water, etc...stuff that most parents, who haven't suffered from acne, say to their kids. I've been avoiding my friends because I didn't want them to constantly listen to my problems and I don't want my negativity to rub off on them. (i've been told that give off bad vibes to people, making them feel sad or whatever and that's the last thing I want to happen) This inevitably resulted of me losing a couple of friends.

I don't think some of my problems has to do with acne but moreso on my body image as a whole. My parents have always told me to lose some weight even though I didn't think I needed to. I mean I asked some people at my school if they think I'm fat and their answers were always a resounding No. So as a result, I dropped 10 pounds to please my parents so they would stop saying those hurtful comments about my body. As a naive person, I expected them to be happy but even after losing some weight they still say that I'm fat. (if anyone is curious my weight as of right now is 115..idk anymore) Everytime I look into the mirror, I see a FAT person.

I've became so obsessive with my appearance that I have to constantly check the mirror every minute. (I feel like a loser D;) I've taken some pictures but everytime I do, I don't see the imperfection that I see when I look into the mirror (my camera is tricking me into believing I have perfect skin) I even asked my friends and other people in my class, and they say I look fine. (i cant help but think they're just saying it to not hurt my feelings =/) I also hate getting compliments from my friends, family in law and strangers because I believe that their eyes are deceiving them. I just feel depressed over how I look, and just seeing a person who is outright ugly in my eyes.

I just feel sad that my skin will never be clear. I have red marks and minor scarring due to picking and even then I can't completely cover them with makeup. Everytime I wake up, the first thing I do is go to the washroom so I can look at my skin. There have been days where I stayed there for an hour scrutinizing my face.

I would post pictures but the camera serves no justice since they don't show what I see in the mirror.

I'm really sorry if my post sounded conceited or if I somehow offended some people since there are people who has it worse than me. I just needed to let it all out since i can't really talk about it with my parents nor my friends. (I've told my 2 of my friends of what I was going through and they didn't seem to want to listen to it..i don't blame them )

Be truthful. Would you ever date a person with acne? Ever since I got acne, I never ever judge anyone with any sort of problem now, I think it's made me a better person. I would definitely date a person with acne, I wouldn't even notice it. Isn't it weird, no matter how much acne someone has, you always think you have it worse? I can't imagine a clear faced person dating an acne ridden person.

Are people with acne at the bottom of the totem pole in terms of appearance? The only person with acne in media that I could think of is that one contestant on American Inventor show who invented the two-person bike.

Why is it this way? (

I'm going to die.

Ok, so in an attempt to get a positive vibe going, I want to know: What do you like about yourself?

Here are the rules--you can't mention acne. None of this, "Well, I've got one less zit today" nonsense. Wait wait, I'm going to make it even more strict. You can't talk about any aspect of your physical appearance.

WHY?

Because at some point in time our hair will either fall out or go gray. Our bodies will shrivel up. What once was up, will now be sagging and hair will be growing out of places that we didn't even know housed hair follicles. Heck, that pretty smile you've got may rot out and your dentures may get lost. So now what? Well, if we get dementia none of this matters, BUT if our sanity remains WHAT do we have as a fall back?

What remains will be our personality, our talents, and anything else that physical appearances cover up.

So tell me, what do you like about yourself?



Oh, and if I read any complaints, I will virtually smack you with this dancing banana...

i like girls with acne they r human no means not to like them

so, up until a few days ago i was seriously having problems with blackheads and closed comedones, but it's clearing up nicely with mandelic acid and bp. anyways, last night i had a dream that my face was covered in closed comedones. i ran my hands along my face and i could feel them literally all over. i went to my sink and grabbed my st. ives and started scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing. even with all the st. ives i had slathered on i could still feel them everywhere. i scrubbed and scrubbed until my whole face was bleeding. then i woke up.

yep, finally got called up from the waiting list. moving day is in less than a week.
i'm just really worried about the other girls seeing me without my makeup.
my face isn't bad anymore, but still, in addition to multiple zits every once in a while, i also have scars.
plus, something really weird happened yesterday.
i was just chillin, watching tv, and all of a sudden i felt something dripping down my face.
i go to the mirror and realized that a cyst i had on my forehead BURST completely on its own.
i hadn't even been touching it.
how gross is that?
i don't want that happening when i'm living with a bunch of strange girls and them thinking it's disgusting.
how do you guys deal?
i'm thinking about going makeup-free on move in day so that when i wash my makeup off after class it's not like a surprise or anything.

I'm starting this thread so people can put down what the meanist thing that was said to them concerning there acne. Here is a few of mine.

"You drink beer huh? That's why you got so many pimples"

"You look like a pizza" That is definatley a personal favorite

"Whats wrong with your face"

I rarely post, i mostly read. I read a lot of topics in this sub forum, but I don't remember starting one. I figured it was time to.

I'm in highschool. I have moderate acne. I guess that's what you call those white things that aren't really whiteheads by definition and red spots and general redness in some areas. I'm not religious. Far from that. I consider myself a rational person. Sometimes, emotions do get involved, and do get in the way. Now is that time.

Have you... have you noticed, how none of the good people get acne? yeah, yeah, eighty five percent get some sort of acne during their life.. yadda yadda... i know. but i'm not talking about "oh my fucking god there's one pimple the size of a helium atom, my life's over" kind of acne... i'm talking moderate/severe... you know what i'm saying? It's never the easy-going guy, it's never the pretty girl, it's never the talkative dude, it's never the person that has his emotions together... don't you? don't you notice that? is it just me trying to find correlations where there are none?.. i know, it'sa stupid topic... maybe i shouldn't have started the thread... but still... you know the feeling? maybe.. i'm a bad person?..

I want to have good skin. The first year of school was fine. I started of by having some pimples, none on my chest, none on my back. I was happy, and perfectly fine. But when the summer of 2008 came, I started seing my acne as a problem. I looked away when people looked at me, I hided my pimples etc. I've always been a very sensetive boy, yet I always get comment on my good look. I have a lot of girls that obviously like me, I just can't see to know why. I guess I'm so concerned about my own look that I think people think bad thoughts about me all the time.

So just a week or two before christmas this year, hell broke lose.

It started with the pulse in September. I easy got a high pulse, from talking loud or in some situations, even when playing computer. I guess I got nervous. I think it's all from the regimen, because I thought people would see my red face, see the flaky skin or whatever. I always wished for a mirror to see that no of my skin was falling off.

Then I started blushing AND getting a high pulse. I could not understand why this happened to me. Luckily I have SUCH great friends and family to take care of me. The top was reached when I would start blushing, getting a high pulse and even getting nocious when sitting still in the classroom. I googled a lot, and to my concerne, I found out I might have developed social phobia.

I cried myself to sleep, for the first time in 5 years, since my beloved grandfather passed away. I feel so sad right now, I hate going to school, I hate social gatherings with to much people. And if they all look at me, even worse. I blush from nothing.

The reason why I posted this here, is to say; I blame it on the regimen. Dear Dan and all. I hoped that some day I could write my very own success story. I waited for my face to be clear. It is clear, indeed. But the only time im happy now, ist when i hang out with 3 people or less, or if im alone.

Ive always been a popular and outgoing boy. And I think that maybe, just MAYBE, (not to be religous or anything) this is gods way of punishing me, for not being happy as who I was. God, I've had enough! Stop it...

And one more thing is.. I hate talking about this because, i REALLY feel like some spoiled kid, when I think of the worse problems in the world.. I wish I was just a poor lonely black kid. I want to change my life with some poor colored kid from Kenya or whatever. I don't deserve this "perfect" life when I don't even live it! Help me live it!

I also posted this to get some compassion. I need some social support. Someone tell me this will all be fine. I want to get in touch with people in some what similar situations.

2 years ago i spent all day alone, playing computer, running in the mountains. I was still popular, but I had a scar on my stomach that mad me uncomfortable.

My happy thoughts these days all go to thinking about travelling far away, around in Europe alone, seing stuff, meeting new people, being myself. Living with nature.

Dear god, please give me wings so I can fly away for now.

Help me live my life again!!

Love from Norway

I know that girls can take birth control and stuff. what can guys take?

I have noticed an increase in the number of threads asking people to please rate them in attractiveness, and I have also noticed an increase in the number of flippant and mean replies. I would like to remind people that this is "Acne.org" - This is board that provides support for acne sufferers. All acne sufferers. There is no sign on the front page that says "ONLY FOR THOSE WITH REAL/SEVERE/PERSISTENT/WHATEVER ACNE."

It simply says "ACNE.ORG." Some of us do have very mild acne, and as such, "should" not be affected as much as those who have moderate or severe acne. Unfortunatly, human pain, insecurity, fear, and upset isn't limited to what others think we "should" or "shouldn't" feel. I'm sure all of you have run into this in your own life at some point or another and have been frustrated with it yourselves.

I know it can get frustrating for some of us to feel like people are fishing for compliments, but let's be honest, why are any of us here to begin with? Because we are having problems with the way we look. All of us. None of us would be here if we weren't at least a little insecure about what is going on with our bodies, and I would ask each of you to please respect that in others and respond with kindness. If you find you are having a bad day (and that's okay, all of us have those, even me) then I would ask you to simply move on to the next thread until you can respond with support and care.

We are a community here, and I think a rather damn good one. I'm very proud of the people and the family that we've developed here, and I think that's worth treating with respect.

Thank you all for listening and please, keep sharing - we are listening.

Seriously guys, please don't ban me again. It's been like, 2.5 years and I haven't bothered anyone. Forgive and forget? Or is the mere posting of this going to get me banned?

I'm not a plague. I know my main account's ban isn't up until 2034, but you seriously can't expect me to sit around that long. Is 2.5 years enough punishment, or am I about to get banhammered?

On another topic, holler. I'm back.


Alex

i know i belive in it cause i am a nice guy just look past the acne

But where the hell do i find people like you at school?

Sorry i dont mean to be judgemental, but it seems Everyone who has acne at my school except for a select few are "losers" so i really dont talk to them (not because they have acne,..because they like...pokemon or some stupid shit)

The people on the forums (including the girls) look like people i would hang out with everyday...all my friends in real life have no acne..except me..


wtf?

I want friends with acne -_-

(i just realized how stupid that sounds, but i never discuss skin problems face to face with anyone)

I have endured 4 years of it.
I know in comparison to others its nothing but recently it's got me so down.

New Years Eve, My skin was relatively good and i was looking forward to seeing this girl at my party in the evening.

Then i spend like an hour talking to her about an 'us' happening 5 minutes later she walks into my toilet saying 'brb' and gets off with the clear skin guy.

This is the only forum that has made me feel good about myself, others just say "Just kill yourself" and "You don't deserve a place on this earth"

After new years eve it went downhill....
Lost the girl of my dreams, lost my relatively decent skin (alcohol causes break outs), lost my best friend (she has clear skin, i think she's embarassed to be with me now).

Just tell me everything will be alright. It's all i need to hear.

Hey guys, first off happy new year everyone!

This year one of my new years resolutions is to make new friends and not let anything like acne stop me from doing so.

We read everyday about people who's lives are effected by acne(myself included) I just thought it would be really cool if we made new friends in our local areas from the org.

I was wondering if anyone would be down for local meet up's around your area. I think it would be a pretty cool way to really get to know one another and also help each other out, and most of all make new friends.

I am just throwing this idea out there, let me know what you guys think!

I HATE MY SELF FOR HAVING ACNE... I LOOK AT IT EVERYDAY AND I CAN'T GO OUT CUZ IM SO SELF CONCSIOUS ABOUT IT... IM SO MAD AT MY SELF........ FUCK, id have a girlfriend if it wasnt for fuckign acne. how is their no DAM cure for this.. my diet is perfect

thanks to all who had nice wrods to say to me when she first had cancer