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The Traumas Of Acne

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(@banana-fly)

Posted : 08/31/2013 6:25 am

How has acne affected you emotionally? Even after you've cleared up/ gotten better?

 

I had/have mild acne, it is under control now but I'm still on the journey toward getting clear skin.

 

Ever since it started six months ago (I quit birth control, I'm 22 years old) I've been completely depressed because of my acne. It completely controls my life. On a bad day... I do nothing but look in the mirror and feel shitty because of my face. I cry and I'm paralyzed, I can't do anything productive.

 

My acne was never severe but I had nightmares at night that my face was completely covered in red, angry zits that destroyed my skin. I'd be so scared when I woke up.

 

I'm completely scarred for life. I know my skin is ok now, but whenever I find a shift in my skin tone somewhere on my face I will break down in tears, thinking the "spot" will develop into a cystlike pimple. The next morning I wake up and it's all fine. It was all in my head. I have no faith in my skin whatsoever.

 

I will always search other people's faces for spots, impurities. I never find them to be as "bad" as mine.

 

My biggest fear is developing severe acne.

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(@rolileisztner)

Posted : 08/31/2013 7:19 am

yes i think many of us have same feelings, ma acne came back after half year in better form then before but its driving me crazy twice more because i tasted feeling of clear skin. iam scarred too, every pimple i think will grow in cyst, iam scared what i will see next morning. and if i would wake up some day with 10 huge pimples on my face i would jump straight out of window. acne is worst disease on the world for me.

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(@salinas)

Posted : 08/31/2013 8:07 am

Mirrors are a curse for people with acne. Medication like retinoids do work, but very slowly. Literately with the speed of skin shedding. But we do not have the patience to wait, and look in the mirror several times a day.

It might be best to take drastic action: remove all mirrors in the house. But I have to admit that I failed to do this myself. I tried, but bought new ones the next week, or started to look in shiny objects. Nevertheless I think it would be best: simply throw away all mirrors and don't look at your face anymore, let the medication do its work.

on the bright side: it made me a stronger person and appreciate the good things of life more. You may be jealous of people without acne, but they will have other problems at some point on their life. And if you never have experienced suffering before, life will be tough.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

Furthermore, I am a bit older, and I can tell that when you're young, you are emotionally less stable. That sucks, but just accept it as a fact of life. You will get better at this in time.

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(@carwinns)

Posted : 08/31/2013 10:03 am

My skin teases me in the worst ways. I get clear, and I have no active pimple for a good while, and I start to think I'm at the end of the tunnel. But then another breakout gets me. All I can think is "What did I do this time?" And acne scares me so much, I stay away from certain foods/drinks. I've developed some sort of phobia for pop.

When I'm clear, I like to hang out with my friends and go places and stuff, but then I'll randomly break out and everyone will think I fell off the earth because I'll be hiding in my room until I'm confident enough to go back out. It dictates my life pretty much, and it sucks.

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(@banana-fly)

Posted : 08/31/2013 10:34 am

Not looking in the mirror is hard...

 

Since I stopped picking my skin I feel a little less depressed though, because I don't get the anxiety I usually get after I've went mad and popped everything on my face. I wasn't really a compulsive picker but I still thought if I could just squeeze the stuff out it would help...

 

So to feel less depressed about acne, try to stop picking/ touching your face, I know it's hard though!

 

Also exercise and eating good healthy food makes my self esteem better although I know it's easy to develop unhealthy behavior in those departments as well (anorexia etc) because you're being really restrictive, thinking acne is caused by the tiniest bit of bread etc...

 

I hate it so much. I hate myself more for obsessing over it than I hate the actual acne. It's only spots on your face. It's not cancer. But to go from almost perfect skin to a spotty complexion in a few months just SUCKS.

 

My main goal is to feel HAPPY again. I don't even care about the zits anymore. I just wish my obsession would go away!

 

And as a response to Salinas, I am sure that we who are going through this crap now will come out stronger on the other side... Maybe be more grateful for things in life. I don't know. But I do hope there is some kind of purpose with this shit...

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(@rolileisztner)

Posted : 08/31/2013 11:18 am

Not looking in the mirror is hard...

Since I stopped picking my skin I feel a little less depressed though, because I don't get the anxiety I usually get after I've went mad and popped everything on my face. I wasn't really a compulsive picker but I still thought if I could just squeeze the stuff out it would help...

So to feel less depressed about acne, try to stop picking/ touching your face, I know it's hard though!

Also exercise and eating good healthy food makes my self esteem better although I know it's easy to develop unhealthy behavior in those departments as well (anorexia etc) because you're being really restrictive, thinking acne is caused by the tiniest bit of bread etc...

I hate it so much. I hate myself more for obsessing over it than I hate the actual acne. It's only spots on your face. It's not cancer. But to go from almost perfect skin to a spotty complexion in a few months just SUCKS.

My main goal is to feel HAPPY again. I don't even care about the zits anymore. I just wish my obsession would go away! And as a response to Salinas, I am sure that we who are going through this crap now will come out stronger on the other side... Maybe be more grateful for things in life. I don't know. But I do hope there is some kind of purpose with this shit...

well said, the fear of acne is much worse then actual acne, unless you have moderate to severe acne i dont think that mild acne has effect on other people but i still hate it so much..

mirror is deadly. iam addicted to look at my skin through a day. if i dont have mirror i use some glass if i dont gave glass i use .. ehh.. front camera of iphone.... ;(

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(@redcapz)

Posted : 09/01/2013 8:14 pm

I know how u feel .. I had perfect skin until a two months ago when I quit birth control !

 

And then my whole face just went into bump mode :(

I haven't been out anywhere for the past two months!!

First thing i do when I wake up is heck my face to see if I have a new zit .

 

But you know what there are worse things in life .. All we have to do is remain strong till the drugs start working . I keep telling myself that after five months ill be clear . Just hang in there .:)

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(@broken-promise)

Posted : 09/02/2013 6:54 pm

Too bad guys cant take birth control. I think looking in the mirror a lot less helps. Because then, the mental image of what you look like is from the last time you didn't have acne. If you keep looking into the mirror every hour. you're gonna get depressed and stuff.

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(@rheks)

Posted : 09/03/2013 3:24 pm

 

I am pretty much the same way. I mean my skin isn't too bad anymore, but I am still battling everyday with my skin, I am on birth control, it doesn't seem to have helped so far, not sure if it has or not.

My life has been pretty much ruined because of my obsession with my skin and how I can't feel confident unless I feel like my skin is perfect or next to it.

I can't stand it, everything I do is because I am scared about my skin, I won't ever touch it or put my face on anything which makes sleeping uncomfortable, my boyfriend can't touch my face even though I wish he could without me freaking out, because he wants to be able to, you know intimacy. It's just ruined my life, I almost never go out, I just stay in with my boyfriend in my dark room because I know that he loves me and I can feel comfortable with him, but I still can't even open my curtains entirely because my skin looks gross is broad daylight.

So yeah, you can say my skin has ruined my social life and life in general, I constantly on edge, and pray that it get's better, but it doesn't, or it does very slowly, then get's bad again. So I am constantly in a battle. I dread going back to college knowing I have to confront people and feel uncomfortable. I try to not let it get me down as much because I know it's not severe, but it still bothers me like no other.

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