Ladies and gentlemen, I love this forum because it gives us the chance to get support, get angry, get hurt, and vent about how emotionally painful acne is. However, lately I've noticed that the more positive posts I read, the better I feel and the more it becomes stuck in my brain. As someone whose acne has come back in full force after Accutane (and refuses to do another course) I understand how painful it is. My face physically HURTS so bad some days because of the deep cysts. I am oily all the time and I hate looking at people in the eye. I hate going out in full sunlight because it makes my acne more noticeable and am embarrassed to go out without full makeup.

But then I truly asked myself...WHY? Why on earth am I so emotionally tortured by this condition that I can't help? I see a dermatologist and am actively involved in treatment. I take care of my skin. Why am I embarrassed of something I can't control?

What changed when our skin starts to break out? Nothing except the texture of our skin. We still have our personalities, our unique skill sets, our intelligence, our bodies, and heck, our skin does a pretty darn good job taking care of us, even if it breaks out. As an example, when my acne begins to really effect my self confidence, I remind myself that I kick butt as a senior in college, I perform amazingly at my internship, I'm great at kickboxing, and my friends love being out with me. None of that has anything to do with my skin.

I highly recommend Traci Raftl's site, The Love Vitamin. Even though I am not on board with her system for clearing acne, her blog posts are positive, uplifting, and encouraging. I am so sick of us feeling like we have to tear ourselves down just because we have acne. Just because we have acne does not mean we can't be attractive or feel good about ourselves.

Another site I recommend is XOJane, which has a ton of articles that are encouraging to those of us with skin issues that make me feel empowered and gorgeous, even with my painful cysts that even makeup can't cover.

The last thing I want to mention is that I refuse to read magazines now etc because I know all the women are photoshopped, including their skin. They are virtually poreless yall and that's not natural or normal. You know what is normal? Acne. I'm tired of society showing in our face that it isn't normal or that it makes us ugly. No. Choose not to believe that.

I have transferred my emotions from feeling like I'm at war with my face to feeling like I need to take care and nurture my skin. I validate myself often when I start to feel down about it, and I let myself ONLY read the positive posts online now. Acne is just a apart of our skin and we can handle it. Every one of yall is a miracle as a human being. Don't lose sight of the big picture friends.