Thinking/Worrying about your acne

[acnesoldier 0]

Anyone else here find there might be a psychosomatic component to the severity of your acne? I haven't really tested this, but it seems like the more I think about acne the worse it actually gets. I'm probably sounding like a freak here--maybe it's just totally in my head. I find this happens a lot when I'm about to go out to dinner (where a nice greasy meal coupled with alcohol is sure to do me good.yeah). The only things I've found to seriously affect my acne are really greasy foods, high fat (or sugary) dairy products, intense sun exposure, and foods loaded with sugar. Thoughts?

Thanks

[Guest Grow_To_Overthrow]

I agree that the more i think about my acne, the worse it seems to get. And i'm not talking worse in terms of believing it's worse, i mean that it actually tends to flare up.

I'm not sure if it's the stress related with obsessing over it, or if it's some sort anger thing. A friend once told me of this theory that Acne can be worsened by a self hatred, apparently it fuels the fire so to speak. Maybe, on a Medical level, we are talking about hormonal fluctuations due to stress and anxiety.

[Guest Tenshi]

When someone is stressed apparently there's a stress response in yourbody that starts off at the top in the brain and sends out hormones thru the body into your adrenal glands near the kidneys...if your stress reactions pile up on each other your body doesn't have a chance to recover and can cause skin problems aswell as other problems, immune sytem etc..

basically a healthy diet and relaxing a bit, not focusing in the mirror or overdoing it to your skin with products would probably help. i always get better looking skin when my mind is elsewhere..

[medic 0]

Acne doesn't get worse because of you thinking about it, but the more you focus on it the worse you see it.

For example, if I am in a good mood I may not even notice some pimples, but when I'm slightly depressed I notice every last one of them.

[Guest Tenshi]

Acne doesn't get worse because of you thinking about it, but the more you focus on it the worse you see it.

For example, if I am in a good mood I may not even notice some pimples, but when I'm slightly depressed I notice every last one of them.

there is a physical reaction to stress..so focusing on ur skin is not good..i think everybody knows their skin..if it looks good or bad on certain days..even if we are our own worst critics. i think evreyone is different, and we have to listen and learn from our own bodies.

[Miss Josette 0]

Thinking and worrying about acne probably makes my acne worse. I know for certain that stress affects my face, so I wouldn't doubt that constantly scrutinizing it and thinking about it could have the same result.

I have days where my face looks good and when it does, I'm in a very good mood and am able to put it out of my head.

[rainbow 0]

Hi there,

Tenshi was correct! When we are stressed, the brain releases chemicals which send a message to the adrenal gland which in turn releases a substance called corticosteroids. Corticosteroids inhibit the ability of the body's white blood cells to work effectivively - which is bad because WBC help in the healing process.

Rainbow xoxo

[Guest Akira]

Anyone else here find there might be a psychosomatic component to the severity of your acne? I haven't really tested this, but it seems like the more I think about acne the worse it actually gets. I'm probably sounding like a freak here--maybe it's just totally in my head. I find this happens a lot when I'm about to go out to dinner (where a nice greasy meal coupled with alcohol is sure to do me good.yeah). The only things I've found to seriously affect my acne are really greasy foods, high fat (or sugary) dairy products, intense sun exposure, and foods loaded with sugar. Thoughts?

Thanks

I have contemplated this hypothesis (jeez i sound like Boris Johnson) and i'm not sure about stress directly causing acne to deterioate. Maybe something like :

Stress = Less Sleep = Less repairation = More acne

Something like that.

Maybe the stress is just another form of dysmorphia, looking at your skin might upset you but it may look worse than it really is, the human brain is a powerful enemy; it can conjure up many disturbing images.