Acne prevention

acne prevention 

I was the only boy in my class that didn't have acne. It wasn't the usual blackheads, or whiteheads, or even just pimples and dark spots where they used to pop up during the day before school. But there were a few times, especially in high school, where I'd get very red bumps on my face. I'm not sure what exactly happened to them. Maybe it was the stress of trying to get into college. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Or maybe I just had an overactive thyroid gland and could really do with some help with my skin. Either way, my symptoms never disappeared. No matter what, I just kept getting more and more pimples, and more and more pustules popping out on my forehead. My friends started calling me "a freak," but it wasn't until I finally noticed a small patch forming on the base portion of my left eyebrow .

I was about fifteen years old, and had already been diagnosed with cystic acne for several months already. That's when I really started paying attention to the condition and the treatment options that were available. We were at a local drugstore, so we got our treatments straight from the source. After a month or so, my skin cleared out, and my forehead returned to being just normal skin. As a little kid, I had no idea what that would mean for my future. The same thing went for my parents, who thought it would be great for their children too. With that thought that came back to mind, I decided I was going to make myself as healthy as possible, and not start worrying about things like being able to take part in sports . For starters, I cut my hair down to four bars and shaved off any remaining stubble. Then, I tried out all the topical products that were recommended for treating cystic acne and tried to stick with one method for several weeks. Eventually. Just wanting to feel like a teenager again was enough motivation to keep me moving forward. You see it was quite easy to become depressed after your first blemish-induced experience; however, looking after your own skin was something different altogether. Especially if you're sensitive. Even after doing everything else just worked against this. Getting worse every time you went to bat for your skin. So, having said that, this is what I've learned from my cystic acne experience:

1. If you think that what happened will eventually clear up in itself, then don't focus on getting rid of anything related to your acne on a daily basis. Get on with your life in the meantime and spend more energy on yourself. This may sound silly, but it does work for me. If my skin didn't need extra moisture from time to time, it tended to calm down nicely. Without it, I found myself waking up every morning with irritated skin, not knowing why, and sometimes crying when I saw myself when leaving the house. Having cystic acne and always getting sick was bad enough. Now I know my body's natural way of balancing out the moisture is through sweat. My skin doesn't want to sweat as much as other people do, which means that my pores aren't able to expel the excess water at all, so the water ends up sitting in between layers in your skin itself, right under your nose. Which causes breakouts in places where I really don't want them to, and where they shouldn't be. In turn, this results in more breakouts.

2. Don't let jealousy get the better of you, because sometimes jealousy is the key to making your skin worse. I've noticed that jealousy can cause breakouts just by flaunting it. I've often experienced horrible breakouts when someone else posted about their breakouts online. And that seems to occur quite frequently. It can also interfere with your skin's ability to repair itself. Sometimes, when you post photos of yourself on social media, others do the exact opposite. They will show you pictures of themselves doing nothing at all, and they'll post about other celebrities doing whatever they're doing, and then they'll tag you. Which then puts envy right in front of you and makes you think you are also somehow imperfect. Not having any skin problems at all often makes things worse for both of you.

3. When you post something that isn't yours, whether it's for social media, to your friends, etc., make sure someone notices it. Take a picture with yourself, put it on social media, get some likes, and you'll get many comments. People will comment on the fact that you look like a weirdo with your bad acne. People can like your skin too. Also, if you post something that you didn't personally create, they'll comment, or get interested in what your skin does well: your ability to cover up marks, dry spots, sores, acne scars, etc. These responses can lead to a whole bunch of negative reactions. Let this happen to you, and find someone you admire to help correct you if you notice these kinds of toxic messages.

4. Make sure you actually care about your skin. I often see girls posting about their beautiful skin. But many of us don't realize that it takes years to build up our skin and have its natural ability to heal. So, you might as well start now. You need to give your skin the kind of love that it deserves. Once you build it up properly, it comes out. The best way to avoid having breakouts is to give your skin the attention or love it needs in order to get back on track with its healing process.

5. A lot of the time, you can choose a certain diet or lifestyle to follow in order to avoid having breakouts. However, this just ends up causing you to have an abundance of breakouts. Try to consider your skin and be patient with it and don't focus on forcing it to change. You will love it once you lose it, and that's okay. Because, like I said earlier, the sooner you accept to accept that your beauty is still this amazing thing, the shorter it'll be before you notice the lack of it and decide that it's time for a change. And we all know that changing is hard.