I really havent had a clue where to vent about my feelings and frustrations towards acne.
Im a 19 year old male who's been dealing with acne on and off for the past 4 years. I dont know about anyone else but i strongly beleive that acne has taken "the best years" of my life. Acne has stolen my confidence, self- esteem, motivation, and overall happiness. The amount of worrying and stress that it has caused me may as well be equivolent to taking 5 years off my lifetime. but it feels much harsher. Who deserves to feel the way they do when acne has made them hide from the world? It became a life style for me; trying to keep my acne hidden has become the one thing thats consuming my time. im so fucking sick of having to worry about how i look when im talking to another human being. Acne has stolen my soul. Im a great person with a greater heart, i know i dont deserve this cruel torture. its just not fair when i see all my friends with completely clear skin, most of them not even having the slightest idea of what even having one pimple feels like. Literally acne has taken my happy soul and made me depressed. every single day, my acne prevents me from doing something productive. all of the new experiences ive turned down to hide from societies judgement and pitty. i cant take this anymore, which im starting my accutane regiment tomrrow. hopefully this will be the start of a new chapter in my life, one where i wont need to hide my beautiful face from the world. im trying so hard not to lose hope.
I feel you man. I'm in the same boat. I've decided to simply stop obsessing over my face in great detail. All it ends up doing is depressing me. I see the slightests new pimple starting to form and my heart just drops.
I think what you and I need to do is start finding things to do to avoid thinking about it constantly. Its hard, but everytime you start to feel depressed about your face, try to squash the thought right away.
Just gotta take it day by day my man. No worries. Hold your head high, keep confident and no one will care about looks..
Also, try to read less on the internet, that always ends up depressing me further.
I absolutely have been where you are right now, and I know what you want to hear: "Don't worry! One day you'll grow out of it and there will be nothing wrong!" That's a very false piece of advice, however. In fact, I've found that over the years I've grown more comfortable with being "that guy with acne" sometimes. There's a sense of strength in being able to kick your own ass into gear, and proving to people that you're still awesome despite your facial infliction (which, let's face it, completely relies on a cultural construct which tells people that if your skin isn't perfect, you aren't worth anybody's time. That's just a lie.)
I've actually thought about this in several different ways. Sometimes I like to think that my spots are kind of like constellations! If I feel more comfortable with them, I forget they're there sometimes, and my lack of stress will actually help them go away faster. I also have grown to think that it's only very shallow/uninformed people who judge, so fuck them. Not worth your time to care about. You need to do something you're proud of to regain your confidence. For me, playing the piano was a great way to do this. I started playing alone at home. I got pretty good, and was able to "train" without any judgement...and then when I played for people they loved it! Obviously your task doesn't need to be as public, but finding something you can do alone and keep your mind off acne will definitely help.