Ever since middle school, I’ve always been preached to about acne this and acne that. The school nurse crammed information down my throat about the awkward years of puberty that would lead to changing hormones and angry blemishes covering my face. I never gave these talks a second thought because surely I was invincible and would not be affected by these nasty markings in my lifetime. Wrong.
Around the times of these talks, I started noticing the alarming effects of acne starting to display on my once beautiful, baby-clear skin. My acne started simply grazing small areas of my face, but it soon became something that took control away from me and made me feel disgusting. Over the years, I’ve spent so much time trying to understand my skin and clear it up once and for all. I’ve heard it all, and I’ve tried it all. All the homemade remedies, face masks, medications, topical creams, lotions, cleansers – nothing has completely worked on my skin.
Now, as a college student, my skin’s still not perfect and probably never will be. I’ve learned that there’s only one thing more frustrating than the actual acne itself: the stigma and struggles that we acne sufferers face on the daily basis. Here’s a list of these struggles and frustrations that I and many others could politely do without.
1. People saying to you, “All you need to do is wash your face more."
2. Trying every cleanser, toner and lotion in the book, but still waking up to a redder face than the day before.
3. Spending your nights cooking up concoctions and trying home remedies and face masks in desperate attempt to find the ultimate solution, only to have your hopes fall once again.
4. People telling you to just eat healthier and avoid pizza, chocolate and anything semi-enjoyable or tasty.
5. Never being able to leave the house without makeup on because you feel like an exposed zoo animal on display.
6. Having to constantly check your face throughout the day to make sure your makeup didn’t sweat off and reveal your red blotches.
7.People telling you to drink more water.
8. Understanding that makeup is only a temporary fix and will most likely lead to your face getting even worse (It’s an endless cycle).
9. Visiting the dermatologist and having them look at you under harsh lighting with their perfect skin, telling you everything you need to try while writing prescription after prescription.
10. Accidentally bumping your face when it is broken out badly and instantly feeling the physical pain that comes with it.
11. Being completely envious of everyone you see with clear skin, wondering how they are so lucky.
12. Getting endless, unsought advice on treatments to try and insight on why your face is so bad.
13. Getting told that you need to stress less because your face shows it.
14. People constantly nagging you not to touch your face.
15. Not being able to look people in the eye because you’re fearful that they will look at your face too closely.
16. Hiding your face with your hair because you’re uncomfortable that each little blemish is going to grow three sizes if people see it.
17. Going through the phase of slathering cover-up on your face, just to have it dry out your skin, create dry patches, make you look cakey and make your face worse.
18. Avoiding taking pictures with your friends whenever you're caught without your makeup safety blanket or whenever your face is particularly angry that day.
19. Dreading looking in the bathroom mirrors at school or in public because of the harsh, fluorescent lighting that does major injustice to your already painful-looking face.
20. Feeling as though all anyone notices when they look at you is your appearance and pimples.
