Acne sufferers?

[CrumbsInTheBed]

Originally Posted by copper

That was Bart Stupak's son. He represents the district I live in.

What's your take on that whole incident?

[flapjacker]

Just don't pick at them. What if it clears up one day, but you are left with scars?

[WintersTale]

I had severe acne on my face in high school, but my skin is clear now. The most I suffer from now is dry skin from time to time.

[Halcyon Daze]

I've had bad skin since I was 11, but it started to get worse over the last couple of years. It really wreaks havoc on already poor self esteem.

Proactiv did not work that good for me. I went to the dermatologist this year and got a sulfur mask called Plexion SCT. It's expensive but it worked.
I still have oily shiny skin, but it stopped the acne completely.

Originally Posted by snowfly

BTW what will clear up your skin to a certain degree and make it softer is apple cider vinegar. I'm not even kidding. Put that on your face every night before you go to bed and you will see a difference within a few days

I wouldn't be surprised. My grandma uses that stuff for everything. It's her cure all, lol, but it is a bit smelly.

[Zero From Outer Space]

ugh... I used to have a fairly bad case of acne in high school. I worked hard to control it but that crap was ALWAYS popping up. It made me very self-conscious during those years. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. My right cheek was especially bad for some reason.

It finally started to clear up when I was 19 and you can't really tell I ever had it now, but to this day I'm still paranoid about touching my face. And I still check the mirror every time I go to the bathroom. Even after 5+ years of relative clearness.

I really feel for anyone who is going through this. Go to a dermatologist if you haven't - I never did and regret that I didn't at least try.

[Jayseph]

Sorry to bump a thread that's getting on a bit but I guess it's a topic that'll always be relevant.

I actually blame my SA on it completely. I was always a shy person from being bullied but I could overcome my shyness when I needed to, but then developing acne was like the final nail in the coffin and my shyness nose dived right into SA. I have it still now but I'm 3months into a course of isotretinoin (accutane). It's dried my skin up totally, in a good way. I'm still having breakouts though, but there's still more time for the meds to work and I kinda blame the breakouts on stress, I don't seem to stop stressing these days.

I think acne is so underestimated, it's a horrible thing to suffer. Visually it's not pretty, physically it can be painful and uncomfortable...the relentlessness of it can be soul destroying at times. I too hate that a lot of people put it down to hygiene, that's why i find it so hard to feel good about myself in any way these days, cuz I know people automatically think of you as being dirty when they see it, which isn't true!

[alex999]

You'll outgrow it eventually. I had really BAD acne on my back/chest (thankfully not on my face). I tried medication and everything when i was 17/18 and it never worked. Although you could not see it with my shirt on it still affected me psychologically (and physically, it hurt).

This year I turned 20 and it has suddenly cleared up considerably, almost to the point of being completely gone. Must be a sign puberty is ending. However, it has left some really bad red scarring which I'm concerned about, since scars will be on your skin forever. My dad is 51 and still has scars on his back from his acne days.

I still get very minor breakouts on certain places on my face, usually places I touch too much or lay my head on when I'm sleeping. But they go away within a day or two.

[eagleheart]

Sigh... hey, I'm 23 and my skin is still horrible, and with scars. I hate it. It's not as bad as it was ten years ago - I was on Accutane then - and I'm a GIRL - but still...

[mooncake]

I have scarring all over my face (body too, though that I'm not concerned about as much seeing as I can hide it and it not being too severe anyway). What I find difficult to accept is that, unlike with acne, I can't tell myself that I'll outgrow these scars or that they'll clear up with the right product/regimen. I'm simply stuck with skin I can't bear to look at for the rest of my life, and that's what I find hard to deal with. I still suffer from breakouts too, although they're nowhere near as severe as before I took accutane. However, all these scars I have that make my skin take on a severe 'orange peel' texture really sap my confidence. I think that if I could only get over my appearance of if scars weren't an issue for me, I'd be in a much better place to make progress with my social anxiety - in fact it wouldn't be anywhere near as much of an issue as it is now, if that were the case. Admitting it is hard but my skin is on my mind every second of the day, despite me continually trying to 'get over it' and accept that life must go on.

I cannot bear to be looked at, to go in bright (or any other than the dimmest possible) lighting or to even go out a lot of the time because I just feel so hideously grotesque. I think a lot of people are extremely ignorant about skin conditions (just wash your face... use proactiv/clearasil, etc... ) and/or greatly misunderestimate the emotional impact it can have.

[A SAD Finn]

How about having a big pimple in your penis? They are always pretty, would I say, nasty to pop and clean.

On a more serious note, I would like to comment about diet in controlling acne. A couple posters identified sugar as a factor for making their acne worse. This possible connection has been investigated recently, but I think it still is more like a hypothesis rather than an accepted theory. Evidence supporting the hypothesis has been gathered from communities that still live in primitive conditions and eat according to a non-western diet. These people are observed to have pretty much no acne, however, when they are exposed to a western diet they do suffer from it. These people typically eat few simple carbohydrates. At the same time the ratio of carbohydrate:fat -intake varies a lot from Greenland to tropical islands so fats and complex carbs probably are not the explanation. Therefore it may be beneficial to try to reduce your intake of sugars and starch, except for a moderate amount of whole wheat products; a low-carb forum is probably a good place for finding more information and personal stories. As for me, I have noticed that when I take most of my daily energy from fats, I don't tend to have any skin problems, but when I eat lots of sweeties I do get a few pimples. Even if I did eat a diet based on simple carbohydrates, I am not so sure that it would affect my skin too much anymore because the most severe acne seems to be gone. It is however interesting to think about having been able to test the hypothesis a few years ago.

[pxedge]

I've had acne since I was 12. Visited a dermatologist and he gave me benzol peroxide. Did the Oxy10 thing eversince till I developed sensitivity. Went for facials and microdermabrasion... they do help, esp with the acne scars. But there's still the breakouts and my face still seem so oily even with makeup. Then I signed up for this acnevolution.com and the massages did well with reducing oil on my face. I no longer need to blot every 2 hr or so.. it's quite a relief. All in all took about 10 years to get my acne under control. Some effort and lots of patience...

[saillias]

Oh yes. Definitely one of my main sources of shyness.

I have a bad tendency to develop the large red ones that you can't pop right on the edges of my lip... What the hell do you think that looks like? Herpes. Don't worry people I'm not even sexually active.

Originally Posted by Want2Bconfident

I can see why you feel the way you do, but don't worry trying to read too much into it, I mean its really unlikely that that girl would have gone out of her way to spend money buying some of this product just for you when she doesn't really know you, almost certainly she had some of that product and maybe doesn't need it and so she won't be thinking really bad or nasty things if she had spots too. Its probably a nice gesture and she understands how much it sucks to have bad skin.

I used to get a lot of spots when I was in my late teens, I hated it so much, I felt so awkward and uncomfortable face to face with people as I hated people looking at my spots. I stopped eating chocolate and bought a sun lamp and that worked wonders, it really dried out my skin and gave me a bit of a tan and the spots went, I've hardly had a spot since. Maybe its coincidence about the sun lamp, but I'd definitely recommend it just incase it wasn't.

Sun lamp was definitely not a coincidence. Last summer I had a job where I worked on a boat, I tanned my friggin face off, and my skin cleared up completely for the first time in about 9 years. Yup, 20 now and I've been fighting acne since I was 10 and in grade 5.