depressed over scars : very sad - Share Your Acne Story Message Board

kdlws37 · 10-29-2007, 09:19 AM

I had severe acne throughout my teen years. some left scars...like around 4.
People tell me that I look good and my family says that the scars are not that visible only really upclose and that I still have a nice face........

But somehow for the past year , these scars have really started bothering me
even though it's been sometime since I got them......

every time i look in the mirror and especially without makeup..I feel so depressed......I even wonder who would marry me with these scars...

My family tells me such strong emotions over these scars are irrational and I have even started taking an anti-depressant for them........but somehow I just can't get myself to be less upset over this even though there are plenty of other things to focus on.......and get busy with.........

i just hate my feelings and don't understand why the scars should start bothering me after all these years but they do .....Part of the reason maybe that I am more self-conscious about my appearance as I move through the adult world of jobs, dating etc.......

Any way , I feel really upset over them as I can't reverse the scarring..I have been to a few skin docs and cosmetic surgeons who have said that my best bet would be lasers. But that at best laser might help 40% , and with my skin tone, the procedure is risky. I won't get any surgery done for this as what I have researched indicates that the outcome is very unpredictable . I have tried various creams and natural products but they have not helped as the scars are too deep for that type of solution...

I blame myself for causing these scars as I probably did not "nurse" the pimples properly when I had them but I know that at the time I received no info or guidance on how to deal with them as this was right before the internet era and the docs I saw were not very helpful..........

all the same I just can't seem to get over feeling badly

kind1 · 10-31-2007, 12:12 AM

Perhaps you can talk with a therapist who practices cognitive-behavioral therapy (cbt). I saw dr. phil the other day and a guest on the show had 'body dysmorphic disorder' which is similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd) and the person obsessing and becoming preoccupied with having a perceived defect or magnification of a minor flaw. You may or may not have that and perhaps can talk with someone about it. If it turns out that you may still want to do something cosmetically, perhaps look into a medium depth (tca) chemical peel (Not the blue peel which may not be as effective). It's not a panacea, a cure-all but perhaps it can help to soften the scars. I read somewhere else where former patients who'd received the laser were unhappy with the results. Please go to a board-certified dermatologist if or when deciding to discuss other ways to improve one's appearance. Please don't be so harsh on yourself about not being more vigilant with the acne as a youngster. Acne can be very tricky to treat from what I've heard and it's a skin condition that may have been out of control.

TeraTastic · 10-31-2007, 01:11 AM

My doctor does laser treatments for scars and she has showed me before and after pictures of some patients that she took on her camera and it looked like it worked very well. Also I have met one of the people she is currently treating and his skin looks so much better than before he started his treatments. It's about 4 total treatments, 1 treatment every 2 weeks. And each treatment is about $300. It's kinda exspensive but honestly from what I have seen it looks well worth the money.

kdlws37 · 10-31-2007, 05:48 AM

Thank you so much for your replies...........It is definitely appreciated !

I would love to go to a dermatologist/cosmetic surgeon who I can trust.........
you see , a while ago when I first started feeling "tortured" over the scars, I did do alot of internet research about different possible options and I did see atleast 4-5 different specialists . Well, they all suggested different stuff.....from "fat fillers" to inject beneath the scars to plump out the skin, to laser, dermabrasion, a cocktail of exfoliators and even scar excision surgery.........

So that didn't leave me feeling very confident about any one approach.....
The surgery and the dermabrasion options seemed way to risky..there is the chance of additional scars or the existing ones becoming worse. the fat fillers will not last...the exfoliators I have tried..they did improve my overall complexion but did only so much for the scarring . so that left me with lasers. Well I talked to some people who had gotten it done and they were not unanimous in its support....
and one doc cautioned me that lasers just were not suited to my skin type......

So I asked my friends and family what they thought.....they said I should just live with it since alot of people had some mark or the other on their faces through scars or injury etc....

I dunno what to do....even the mirrors don't tell me how much I should worry, since all the mirrors seem to reflect the problem to a different extent of severity..in some mirrors, the problem looks minor enough whereas in others it looks much more....

I just feel lame about all this and wish I could get my mind to unwrap itself from this...........

Once again, thank you to those who wrote back.

kind1 · 10-31-2007, 11:26 AM

I'm, of course, not advocating getting a procedure done, however, perhaps you can talk with a board-certified derm that teaches dermatology to medical students at the local university. That may give you some answers that will sway you one way or the other. The tca peel, btw, can have a downtime of about a week while the peeling process takes place. Perhaps you can talk with a derm's past patients about whichever procedure that you were looking into and ask for 'before and after' photos. Just fyi, people that get the microdermabrasion (not dermabrasion) do not typically see dramatic results and I even read somewhere else where the person was regretful that they had gotten the microderm. Wishing you the best of luck and great happiness.