4 replies to this topic

[frederic]

First of all let me introduce myself. I am 17 years old and I have had mild acne for a couple of years now. It's nothing too bad but I am very vain so I have been trying some things to get completely rid of it.
I was prescribed this gel called Clindoxyl which had very good effects for me and almost cleared me up completely but when I ran out of it my acne started coming back. So I asked my doctor for it a few more times, and every time I had equally good results.
So, there was a time when I had run out of Clindoxyl and my acne started to come back. At the time I had just finished a book about Noetic science and I found it very interesting that some people were suggesting that they could subtly change physical objects just by wanting it or thinking about it. So it occured to me - could I think away my acne?
I started meditating for approximately 10 minutes a day where I would visualize my face and imagine my acne was disappearing, and almost immediately I stopped breaking out. I tried to imagine that my acne scars would go away, but that didn't seem to help.
So what are your thoughts on this?
Was I possibly changing my physical appearance through the power of thoughts? Or was it merely placebo?
According to psychosomatic medicine, the mind and body are tied closely together and the well-being of the one affects the other - meaning the fear or expectation of getting sick (or breaking out for that matter) can actually cause you to get sick - also called nocebo (latin for I will harm). But it also works the other way around; positive thinking and the expectation of getting well (or not breaking out) could make it happen, according to these theories. If you may call it theories, as I think both placebo and nocebo have been scientifically proven as important factors in disease and treatment. So could it possibly be that because I expected this meditation to work, it did - simply because of the expectation and positive thinking?

I myself am quite positive that the good results was due to a placebo effect, which made me wonder - how often is (severe) acne caused by a nocebo effect? In my experience, when I expect my acne to get worse i.e after shaving it most of the times does. And stress, I think, has been proven to cause acne as well. So if stress and negative expectations can cause it - what's to say positive expectations can't cure it? Can we cure ourselves?
I know this question doesn't limit to acne, but I think that acne is one of the most 'self-inflicted' diseases, dare I use that word. Because whether it's there or not affects one's confidence and general well-being so much that people often speculate enormously into what could affect their acne in which direction (this forum is a proof of that). And because acne can be so troubling to suffer from I could imagine that it's likely that the subconscious part of the mind might be troubled by and deal a lot more with this issue than with - for instance - back pain or other things possibly caused by a nocebo effect.

What do you think? I would very much like to hear your thoughts on this and perhaps about any personal experiences.

Lastly I would like to apologize for any misspellings, grammatical mistakes or bad wording as English isn't my native language.

[Timehealsall]

ive heard about this before.

i guess if you keep thinking that you are going to break out, you are stressing yourself, and some people break out when they stress.

I wonder if this applies to scarring as well, i.e., if you think your acne will scar (indented scar), than you will indeed scar

[tim12]

I believe that one can do wonders for their health by changing their outlook on things, acne included! There's a free E-Book called "Skin Deep" by Harvard Psychologist Dr.Ted Grossbart, I'm about 50 pages in or so, and I think it's worth a read as far as getting a good introduction to how deeply our skin and mental wellness is linked. There's also some studies out there that found individuals with acne have more substance p receptors in our skin, which is an inflammatory chemical that is triggered by stress, and more things that I can't quite remember. Many people report breaking out around times of great stress, like before a big exam (this has happened to me for sure!). Also, think about how we blush when shy/nervous. Here's the link to the website if anyone is interested in reading it!

Understanding how the placebo and nocebo effects work, I think positive envisionment is a great way to help treat one's skin in the same way that those two things work. The mind is a very, very powerful thing! Also, when you encourage yourself constantly, it'll really help you to start seeing things in a much more positive way, and I found that I didn't stress out over new pimples as much, and they began to come in less and less numbers. Couple this up with other effective regimens (topical, diet, lifestyle & what have you), and you've got yourself a nice treatment!

[maimy]

This is soo interesting! It's very true that how you percieve a situation affects the outcome. Countless times I've stressed over things and they've ended up going badly, because I subconsciously MADE them that way. To be able to clear my skin just using my mind would be amazing not to mention waaay cheaper than more creams and drugs and stuff.

[MarijaGre]

Hi,
When I went to a one holistic doctor he said: "Don't think that much about those pimples, because when you say to yourself: "Oh no, these pimples are coming again!" You send signals to plexus solaris (eng. celiac plexus) that sends signals to other body parts to "fight-it-non-stop", so the body gets really stressed. You have to think: "Another pimple? Hm.., never mind, it isn't the end of the world", so that way your body will be more realxed and could fight with acne in it's own way." And I started to thinking that way and though it does not look that way on my skin yet, but I feel more confident and calmer. So yes, I agree with you all that psychology can cure every disease - even pessimism.