Psychological Experiment on my Acne

[JaneDoeOnAccutane 0]

I've always "thought" i had very severe acne. There were times (including now) that I would look at myself in the mirror like 20 times a day. Wash it constantly thinking it's dirty, etc.

Anyway. I did an experiment. For the past year or so I have been taking pictures of my face and my zits, etc from different angles.

(I was on accutane May 2005 to august 2005 and I was tracking my improvements through the pictures, I stopped after 8 weeks of accutane and my acne came back full blown but I didn't go on any medications since then)

So I had a pretty bad breakout a few weeks ago that is just healing. I was feeling still a bit self conscious just now... And thinking I'm completely ugly, etc. And hating myself for not going on accutane longer.

So I decided to look back at my old pictures (exactly a year ago when I was beginning ON accutane). And Whoa, I realized my face was NOT bad at all. I only had a few zits and I looked normal. But back then I thought i looked like a monster and BEGGED my doctor to give me accutane.

Anyway, 1 year later.. I then compare myself to the mirror once again after looking at myself-from-1-year ago, and then I realized, I really don't look as bad as I thought.

See? Sometimes it is all psychological. I think we THINK our acne is bad because we keep going back to it in our brains. Try it, it might (or might not) make you feel better. It's worth a try though. And perhaps when you look back at it 20-30 years from now, you'll wish you looked this way again!

[uglyassmofo 1]

maybe for you but a lot of us are truly ugly

[JaneDoeOnAccutane 0]

I just want to add that I have zits or pigmented scars all over my face and at times my cysts were so huge they are the size of a dime.

But unless you really have very severe severe acne that covers your entire face. Honestly even 10 cysts only make up a small portion of your face. You still have the rest of the skin that perhaps doesn't look all that bad at all.

People with acne just tend to concentrate on staring at those cysts/zits and neglect that our face also consists of our eyes, our nose, our mouth, face shape, and the other portion of the skin that is zitless.

Stop staring at your zits. They're honestly not as bad as you think 9 out of 10 times.

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Flawless skin is for wax models. Zits make us human because humans are imperfect!

[uksnowboarder 0]

good point

i think that it does have something to do with psychological er.. stuff. the more you think about it, then the worse you will think it is, and the worse it will become through stress.

if i have a breakout, i just think "well.. ive broken out. by by this time next week itll be gone if i look after it"

that normally stops me from pounding my fist into the mirror..

[Lunaire 0]

maybe for you but a lot of us are truly ugly

roflmao. true dat ^^

[Irish_Dewdrops 0]

But unless you really have very severe severe acne that covers your entire face. Honestly even 10 cysts only make up a small portion of your face. You still have the rest of the skin that perhaps doesn't look all that bad at all.

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Nope, doesn't work for me. I don't have acne anymore but the rest of my face is covered with deep dark blackheads, blaring red marks, and a red, blotchy, uneven skintone. So yeah. I don't even have acne but my face still causes people to recoil when I get to close (worse than before actually, damn this redness).

[172839794613 0]

its probably because the camera doesnt always catch everything in a picture that you would normally see when looking closely in a mirror....sometimes in pictures i look clear or you cant see my scars

[K-Fed 1]

yeah i really think you look better if you feel better or atleast to yourself you do.

[Guest No Pride]

maybe for you but a lot of us are truly ugly

Yeah, im part of this group. Doesnt matter what angle or what type of image you use, im ugly and nothing will change that.

Im glad a change in perception worked for the original poster though.