The Emotional Effects of Acne
Posted on 31. Dec, 2008 by admin in Causes of Acne
A large number of us experience a tremendous amount of anticipation waiting on those ‘important days’ to finally arrive. It could be the birthday party of a special friend, an exciting interview for the job you have always wanted, or the date you have been waiting on for weeks. It never seems to fail, you look into the mirror to begin getting ready and there is a very noticeable breakout of acne staring right back at you.
This is a very common situation for numerous sufferers of acne all around the world. When you suffer from this well known condition it is quite common to experience continuous problems with stress and other issues that can cause low self-esteem. Many times a person experiencing acne vulgaris is looked at as simply being oversensitive because of the cosmetic nature of the condition.
All too often the way this condition makes a person feel is overlooked, and this is often more important to them as how acne makes them look. Very strong feelings of depression, feeling angry, dirty, and ugly are consistent emotions that are commonly dealt with by a large number of acne sufferers.
Is anything being done for these emotions?
A tremendous amount of money is being spent every single year on advancements made in the study of medical research concerning acne and its treatment. There are also large amounts of money being spent to further marketing and development of various remedies that are available without a prescription. Unfortunately, very little has been done to study the social and psychological effects that this widely known condition causes to its sufferers.
Take this statement into consideration that was published in an article in 1948 by Zaidems and Sulzberger. “There is no single condition which causes more psychic trauma, more maladjustment between parent and children, more general insecurity and feelings of inferiority and greater sums of psychic suffering than does acne vulgaris.” Numerous studies have in fact found that acne can cause a significant amount of emotional problems are comparable to those causing disabilities that are caused by skin conditions. Even though it is very clear that acne causes more damage people feel inside, it is still sadly being dismissed as more of a vanity issue.
How do you measure emotion?
Because such problems as depression, low self esteem, and anger that are commonly associated with acne can also be linked to various other issues such as stress on a job and problems in school, it is impossible to measure these conditions with psychological scales, which are commonly used to measure various other conditions of the mind. Surprisingly the only tool used today to help a person with acne that also has problems in these areas is the simple act of listening.
How much power is in a patient’s testimony?
Until there are further advancements made in the technology of science that will provide us with an scale of measurement that can be more accurate for these issues, we will need to rely on statements made by acne sufferers and the troublesome effects they have experienced. During a study taken in San Francisco in 1995 questions were asked of patients and they were encouraged to give detailed answers, with excerpts below.
“It has been many years since I have looked in a mirror. I comb my hair using a silhouette on the wall to show the outline of my head. I have not looked myself in the eyes in years, and that is painful to not be able to do that, and that is a direct result of acne.
When my acne got more severe, I began to really examine more things, become more aware of social norms, what is acceptable, what is attractive. That is when I began to have lower self-esteem; it made me become more of an introvert. It made me want to avoid certain occasions. ‘Ask her out? Well, maybe not. She won’t be interested because of how I look.
It’s associated with being dirty, and I hate that, because it’s not at all like that. I inherited it from my mother, and she is always telling me that she had the exact same thing, and that it will go away. I am mad that I inherited it from her. My dad makes me feel bad because he never had bad skin when he was younger, so he doesn’t understand.
My mother doesn’t know what she has done to hurt me. If I ate fatty foods, she would criticize. If I ate spicy food — which Thai food is, they are all spicy — she would say that because I ate spicy food, that was why I had pimples. She kept telling me how ugly my face was, and no one was going to marry me if I had bad-looking skin. And that really hurts me.
I know I am so insecure in this way — but if I go into a store, I won’t buy candy, even if I really want it. I think in my mind that people are looking at what I am buying, and thinking, ‘Oh, she eats junk. No wonder she has so many zits on her face. ”
As you can see the varying range of emotional impact that these individuals suffered was in their opinion, directly related to acne. Even though it is not easy to measure the levels of impact this condition has caused to numerous individuals, the testimonies provide a deep look into the significant amount of emotional suffering this condition has been known to cause.
Although this information is nothing new to acne sufferers, you may find some level of relief in knowing that you are not alone. New treatments are continuously becoming available, and one may be the perfect choice for you.
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