Question: I'm feeling really depressed about my skin. What can I do?

Answer:

Tell me about it. I’ve definitely been there.

I've had days where I would stay cooped up inside the house, declining movie and dinner invites one after another. I would spend every second wishing, praying, and hoping for my breakouts to clear up before the start of next week, because if my skin had behaved, I could then treat myself to a good night out.

I convinced myself that it was okay to be a hermit because I would have lots of fun and make up for the isolation after my skin cleared. Of course, acne doesn't just disappear in a week or even a month. I was antisocial for a very long time because of my skin.

But locking myself inside the house to prevent the monstrosity that was my face from showing in public made my mood much, much worse. I had nothing better to do than mope about my crappy skin and then mope some more about how I was missing out on spending time with my friends. All it turned into was moping, moping, and more moping.

As bad as you think your skin is, try not to beat yourself up about it. Yes, having acne does suck, but don't let it take priority of your life. There is so much more to you than your skin. I regret my social aloofness because I definitely missed out on making a lot of potential happy memories.

When you are feeling down about how you look, keep yourself busy and do other things. Don't even give yourself a chance to beat yourself up. Play video games, read a book, draw, or even cry. Cry and wail like a little girl if you will.

Crying will help you feel better because it really is a cathartic release. It may sound pretty pathetic to cry over acne, but I've done it and I'm not ashamed. It's not for anyone to judge what you do when they haven't been in the same shoes. That's not to say you should keep crying and feeling depressed forever. Cry, get all the "life is so unfair!" stuff out of your system, pick yourself up, and keep going forward.

You can also write everything down, all of your anger and all of your gripes. Vent it out in a non-violent way because keeping your frustration (and possible depression) bottled up will just make you feel worse.

Most importantly, realize that your skin probably isn’t as bad as you think it is.

A lot of times, wherever you go, you think everyone is looking at your skin, but you really are your own worst critic. Yes, people will notice if you have bad acne, but that's not the only thing they will notice about you. They will notice how polite you are, your conversations, how you're witty, etc. You have acne, but you can't let acne become you.

With my skin at its worst, I had a really hard time looking at people when I was talking to them. I felt like if I looked at them, I'd be making the first move to invite them to stare at me, so I always felt really uncomfortable. However, here’s a trick I discovered: If you have to talk to someone face to face but you are having the worst breakout of your life, look at the person straight in their eyes. I mean, intensely look at them eye to eye.

When they are looking into your eyes, they won’t be able to notice other things, such as your skin or mismatched socks. You can even try this on yourself in your mirror. Look into your eyes only and you’ll realize that when you make eye contact with yourself, you don’t look anywhere else on your face but your eyes.

If your skin really is that bad, keep your head up. You're not the only one out there with bad skin. What makes you think you're so unique that no one else has skin like you? =P

The human body is an amazing healing organism. All it takes is time. So don't give up. Acne doesn't make you a worse person unless you let it.

*Sending good skin vibes*

Last updated: September 23, 2012

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