I have been here too. Now imagine this.....you have this bad acne + stutter. That's how I developed social anxiety in deepest levels. I locked myself in my room just like you. Parties were off limits to me. I was scared to talk, I basically swallowed all of my emotions. At this moment - like years later - I still have stutter (I learned to control it, more or less), I still have acne outbreaks (stress is my biggest trigger). Through years I learned that people doesn't care about your problems (with exceptions of course). And you need be open to the world. Living in your room definitely doesn't help. I read in one book that it is you who is creating your illness. With acne it's dissatisfaction with yourself, your appearance. Like with you now. You hate how you look, you lock yourself away etc.

You are still young. Go out, enjoy life. Learn to love yourself again (The hardest part). Family is a big thing and will support you. Do young people things I hope you see where I'm going with this.

Hi megan,

Reading your post, I thought that your acne is not as bad as me. I am suffering acne for 4 years and i have lots of big cys with no head spread over my face. I'm still struggling with it and it seems to be a long way. So, you are not alone girl

Im 23 years old and have been suffering from acne for 10 years already . It sucks . It really does.

Acne is so emotionally painful that sometimes you have no choice to break down because the pain is so unbarable . When I was a teenager I was in the same

boat as you. I never wanted to go out or go to school because people would make fun of me everyday . Even my own family ! It ruined relationships , friendships, and made me extremely depressed. Everytime I would talk to someone they would look at my acne and not at ME .

You have to stay strong and not let acne dictate your life. I have accepted it and do everything I my power to keep it under control . Just because I have acne I'm not going to let it get in the way of my dreams or whatever I desire in life. Yea, people are going to talk or make fun of you , but who cares about them ? They don't know what you are going through . Don't let it get to you. You are not alone and there's millions of people that are going through the same thing. But If you need someone to talk to just message me ! I'm here for emotional support !

Good luck !

Hi im 24 and suffering from severe acne..u can see my pics, mine might much worse than yours. It is more depressing in my part since i have to face hundreds of students a day(i work as a teacher).. and coworkers keep on noticing me.. im on 3rd week and breaking out even more..however i want my self back to life thus keeping all faith..i dont care what might people say...i go to school without any make up cause i think it will get worse with make up on. its good thing cause they will going to see me transform after 7 months or so haha im so positive about it even though i cry hard at home when i got to see how horrible my face was.

Just be strong and dont let acne take your life.

This is totally normal and I think that anyone who suffers from a sudden and terrible outbreak of acne has felt the same way and has gone through the same experience. I'm also 16 and I have felt exactly the way you feel right now. To be honest I'm still not thrilled about my reflection and I have been avoiding mirrors for over a year now. I went through severe depression and anxiety and I'm still working on it. Because of my problem, it has caused things to be different with my family and they no longer respect who I am believing that I'm this person who went insane. They can believe what they want but I am not insane. I went through a horrible, traumatizing experience and instead of being there for me, they would lecture/yell me all the time for being depressed and isolated all the time which only made matters worse and was really unnecessary. My parents always make me feel like I'm never good enough in fact a lot people do but I find ways to cope and ignore it.

I guess what I'm just trying to say is that yes everyone goes through a difficult time when making that transition from having flawless skin to feeling like they've suddenly become this ugly person but you're really the only person who can help yourself during a difficult time like this by just understanding that they're things that happen in everyday life and really the only thing you're grieving for is your vanity which we can still live without.

Honestly, acne helps you become a better person in the end and helps you to realize that not everything in your life is going to be perfect. Try surrounding yourself with positive people and maybe try talking about it with someone. Dress up, put makeup on and make your eyes stand out!! As long as you are confident (or try to act at least) no one will ever notice and they will probably still see you as this amazing person because you're skin shouldn't define who you are as a person. Remember that your attitude towards this is everything.

Right now you're just barely starting to go through a hard time and might still be in denial but I garentee that things eventually calm down and you learn to stop caring. As far as self-confidence, I still really need to work on that because I also hate my appearance and it becomes hard sometimes when you realize that you're this person that you don't want to be at times.

Then again, just remember we are our worst critics and I'm sure you're still beautiful with or without acne. Everyone has something they don't like about themselves. We're still young and you never know, things can totally change in a heartbeat because we still have our whole lives ahead of us. Hoping you feel better soon! Hang in there!!!) We are here trying to overcome the same thing together, going step by step, you are not alone.