If acne affects you emotionally, and you do not work towards self esteem improvement, you risk seriously damaging your psychological well-being, even if it doesn't hurt your general heath or your overall well being.
Building a healthy self-esteem is very important, but many people are still misinformed about the many myths about acne, especially regarding diet and hygiene.
Many parents and older siblings are stuck in the attitude of past generations that nothing can really be done but to let acne run its course.
Making matters worse, there is confusion among people with acne and their families about what works and what doesn't. They are often frustrated by products that promise to clear skin but that don't work for them.
As a result, acne has gone on to affect more than just a person?s physical appearance, and brought about damage to a person?s self esteem as well. The task of improving low self esteem has thus become more difficult.
Recent studies have detected the following as common among people with acne:
? Social withdrawal
? Decreased self-esteem
? Reduced self-confidence
? Poor body image
? Embarrassment
? Feelings of depression
? Anger
? Preoccupation
? Frustration
? Higher rate of unemployment
The effects listed above are often interrelated, with one effect leading to another and another, only to make the first effect worse.
These negative psychosocial effects can have a crippling impact, discouraging patients from pursuing life's opportunities--socially, on the job, or at school.
"There is no single disease which causes more psychic trauma, more maladjustment between parents and children, more general insecurity and feelings of inferiority and greater sums of psychic suffering than does acne vulgaris." -- Sulzberger & Zaldems, 1948
That's why self esteem improvement is very important in dealing with emotional trauma as a result of acne.
The truth of the matter is, acne affects us at an emotional level only as much as we allow it to. While most people with acne are concerned about their appearance and how other people look at them, they don?t realize that these ?other people? don?t really care in the first place!
Of course, this doesn?t mean that we should leave acne alone and forget about it altogether. What I?m saying is that improving low self esteem is simply a matter of understanding that it is not our fault that we get acne, and acne can happen to anybody.
What we can do is to understand that our personal standards and values are not completely dependent on the approval of others, and then take appropriate steps to resolve our acne problems, and actively engage in self esteem improvement measures.
Once we shift our focus from the problem, to the solution, we won?t be so affected emotionally, and self esteem improvement kicks in.
If you know you are doing everything in your power to take care of your acne, give yourself a break! Give your self esteem a pat on the back since you're doing the best you can to get through this.
Lim Zheng Yang used to suffer from acne and has spent countless hours researching on this skin condition and the best ways to treat it. You can read more about his works at his main site Acne and Wrinkle Treatments Guide and Blog. And for his collection of acne resources, you can visit his sub-site Acne Treatment for All | |
