Hey everyone. I have been dealing with acne for about 9 years. While my acne is very minimal, it has still brought a lot of pain and suffering through my short-lived life. I was just wondering if anyone ever wondered what their life would be like without their acne? I know I would be a totally different person, I would be a lot more confident,(maybe to confident though) and I would go out and experience a lot more things that my peers are doing. For instance, I have never gotten drunk, mainly in fear that it will cause me to break out. I also won't let myself get close to anyone, I am seeing this one guy in particular but I will only see him a few times a month in fear that I might fall in love with him (I think it is to late). I just feel like I am not mentally stable to have a relationship with him. Does anyone ever not go out because they feel to embarrassed? I actually quit college because I couldn't concentrate and I also quit working for a little bit. I have gotten better since then and have been working for a year now but I know if I didn't have this acne my life would be so different. What about everyone else?
I've been dealing with acne for 7 years now and while at first I never really cared, but these last three years I've been more self-consciece about it.
I was on tetracycline for a while and at first it cleared me up like magic and I loved it, but then a few months later my acne just came back and I kept taking the medication. And now my back is just a mess again and yeah my face is better(with many scars, some are fading though), along with the regular pimples that form I get these huge underneath the skin ones on the forehead that just has a little red bump, but bulges out the size of a nickel(must be a lot of that oil junk).
Well anyways, acne ruined some parts of my life and when I had the clear skin(while on oral meds), it felt great and I now know how great it felt not to have acne than to have it.
Originally posted by jenguard82: Hey everyone. I have been dealing with acne for about 9 years. While my acne is very minimal, it has still brought a lot of pain and suffering through my short-lived life. I was just wondering if anyone ever wondered what their life would be like without their acne? I know I would be a totally different person, I would be a lot more confident,(maybe to confident though) and I would go out and experience a lot more things that my peers are doing. For instance, I have never gotten drunk, mainly in fear that it will cause me to break out. I also won't let myself get close to anyone, I am seeing this one guy in particular but I will only see him a few times a month in fear that I might fall in love with him (I think it is to late). I just feel like I am not mentally stable to have a relationship with him. Does anyone ever not go out because they feel to embarrassed? I actually quit college because I couldn't concentrate and I also quit working for a little bit. I have gotten better since then and have been working for a year now but I know if I didn't have this acne my life would be so different. What about everyone else?
i know how u feel, i too wonder what my life would have been if i didn't have acne. I pretty much wasted my high school years and i regret it. I also had trouble getting close to anyone(i just didn't want to) and i really had a hard time concentrating in college (so hard to study when all you can feel is sore pimples on your face and knowing you have to show your face tomorrow in class). But i didn't give up, my face is ok now and only now i feel like i'm building my lost confidence, acne has really traumatized my mind. I used to always feel like he/she is looking at my face. But the main thing is, u have people who still love u, friends and family. I've thought of suicide many times, but I didn't want to go down as a weak person.
Theres no point me thinking what life would be like without Acne. I've had it 4 soooo long, so i can't really say. One thing i know is i've lost all hope http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/tired.gif i'll never b acne free...
B5 made me acne free finally at 49, but it's not like you're suddenly transformed like you think. You just start worrying about other deficiencies and knock that one off your list. Sure, it's a big load off my mind, but true confidence comes from within--just look at people who have multiple handicaps or are fat, ladened with acne, and ugly, yet believe in themselves and don't let it stop them. We all have hurdles and obstacles, some are just more obvious than others. The winners are the people who concentrate on what they have to give from within, despite the changes on the outside.
Poreoilyme, you are SOOO right. I could not have said it better.
I had acne for 7 years. For the first 3 years, I was really young and the acne didn't bother me at all. But once I hit 15, I started getting huge pimples all over my cheeks and chin, ones that hurt me and left me with scars that are still fading today. I completely withdrew from the whole world. I never bothered to fix any aspect of my appearance because I thought "No matter what I do to look good I'll still be ugly because of the acne, so whats the point." So my hair was always messy, my clothes grungey, and my skin caked with heavy foundation, making it look even worse.
To make a LOOOONG story short, I tried EVERYTHING to get rid of it. Proactiv completely destroyed my face for good. It kept getting worse and worse.
Then about 2 months ago I discovered Yasmin when I went to seek treatment for irregular periods and my ob/gyn suggested what I suspected all along: my acne may be hormonal. Now I am virtually clear, not 100% but to the point where I rarely think about my skin now. My scars (mild to moderate) are slowly clearing with a cream called Elicina but I still have to wear makeup to cover them- but it's a LOT less makeup than I used to wear.
I'm still not free of skin woes. I still get edgy about wearing my hair back because of the scars on the sides of my face, and I only let my family and best friend see me without makeup. But I don't think about my face during the day anymore, I can go swimming and put my head in the water, I can go out and not stare at the floor the whole time. And yeah, it is pretty nice, but only when you actually think about it.
Beig acne free is good, but the floodgates of other problems burst open. For instance, my hair is always frizzy no matter what I use on it, but I never worried about that when I had acne. Now it bugs me to death and I'm constantly comparing my hair to everyone else's. And I've always been much smaller than everyone else, never bothered me before- but now I'm constantly wishing I had curves and long legs like my friends. Maybe acne has made me a stronger person, but geting rid of it does NOT make life perfect. I always thought it would. It hasn't.
life without acne? 
