Breaking the surface: Unveiling the new fears over the impact of acne on mental health

“Acne made my life 10 times harder because I was having to meet new people, and that was scary enough, but when you’re feeling self-conscious about the way you look it’s not easy because you just don’t feel like yourself.”

She believes her experience at college was ruined because of her acne, and the memories stay with her to this day.

“Acne also just really affected my mental health because I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the house, if I did, I wanted to have makeup on and I wanted to be able to hide my face from everyone.

 Your face isn’t like your arms, or your back, it’s the one aspect of you that you can’t hide easily, and you don’t want to be judged by new friends because of it.”

Psychologist, Dr Alexandra Mizara, who specialises in psychodermatology which addresses the interaction between the mind and the skin, says the main effects of acne on your mind are:

“First of all, it affects the face so that in itself is a very difficult thing, because the face is the first thing we see if you’re looking at somebody.”

“The second thing is that acne starts at the very sensitive age of teenage years, which is when we become more self-conscious about our appearances.

So, we lose that kind of naivety that we have as children, and we become more self-conscious in our social interactions.”

Wearing excessive amounts of make-up is common for many young girls or women who suffer from acne, due to make-up being a mask that they can hide behind.

According to a recent survey by PR Newswire, young girls are starting to wear make-up earlier than ever to hide their insecurities.

Acne is the one of the biggest insecurities within the United Kingdom, due to its effects on your self-confidence.

 

“I used to leave the house with ridiculous amounts of make-up on to even be able to feel confident enough to leave, which would then cause comments like ‘if you’ve got acne, you shouldn’t be coating your face in make-up, you’ll make your skin worse.’”

Four years later, and Corrie is still suffering this shame in her skin and face, and continues to find aspects of her life which are hard to feel confident in when sharing her true skin to the world.

This is common for many who suffer from conditions which affect the face, due to the importance of the face being the organ of emotion and identity.

A new survey from the British Association of Dermatologists shows that 54% of British adults who have ever experienced acne feel that it has had a negative impact on their self-confidence, and 22% feeling that it has had a negative impact on their social interactions.

 

Whilst currently training as a student midwife, she has fond experiences that have been diminished by her skin condition and continues to shy away from the world.

 “It’s affected my work because being in a new environment again, whilst working in a hospital and meeting new people all the time, I’m constantly worried that people are going to be judging me.

Women that I am caring for and delivering their children, I can’t help but feel like, oh my god are they going to judge the type of midwife I am just because of my skin and the way I look.”

When touching on how acne continues to affect her and her mental wellbeing, Corrie described the feeling of which others also struggle to diminish whilst suffering from acne, or after having treated the skin condition.

 

“It definitely, definitely still affects my mental health, even though it tends to fluctuate now that I am older, but when I am going through a tough period where it’s severe, I don’t want to leave the house.

I’m really down, I don’t like socialising, people around me definitely notice a difference in me and it’s almost like I’m back to being the extremely insecure 16-year-old again."

To hear more on Corrie's story and some more statistics, watch my video below or click the youtube link:

Skin and aesthetics doctor, Dr Maha Shariff raised more on this issue and the hundreds of myths surrounding acne that are publicised on social media that mislead those who are suffering.

“With social media it’s a tricky one because no one knows really what to believe or how much to believe.”

“Acne is a chronic condition, so it’s not something that you grow out of, which is a common myth on social media.”

This can be severely damaging to the mental health of suffers who think they have found hope in treating their acne within the exploitation of harmful remedies and treatments online.

According to PR Newswire and a recent study they conducted, 72% of teens who use social media and have acne agree that most people their age are self-conscious about their acne on social media.

68% of teens believe that most of their peers edit or alter their photos on social media if they have acne to hide it, with another high 58% offering to take a photo to avoid being in the picture.

In the new world of filters and Facetune, there is the easy allowance to post photographs that are misleading and are altered to be appealing to those who are suffering and searching for help.

For example, brands may use the technique of Skin Retouching in their advertisements to enforce that their product will completely clear your skin.

This in turn gives acne sufferers false hope, when they should be seeking help through professionals, as everyone’s skin is different. 

According to Almirall, the type of skin is determined by genetics, although it will also be affected by other factors and can change with time. Each type of skin will have its own characteristics and require different care and treatment.

An experts oversight into acne

Aesthetics and skin doctor, Dr Maha Shariff qualified as a general practitioner 16 years ago, and decided to start her own aesthetics and skin clinic after suffering from a skin condition herself and understanding how vulnerable and insecure those who suffer feel.

“I didn’t have really bad acne growing up, but I had eczema, and it was only on my face, so I have suffered and had my fair share of comments about that growing up.”

Having this personal experience, Dr Maha understands how much this can affect mental health, even past treating the condition and no longer suffering.

“I’ve always felt with my practice that I didn’t want people to have to feel the way that I did, and still even do about my skin.”

“Those comments that you hear at a young and vulnerable age really do affect so much more than you can see on the outside, and they stick with you for many, many years.”

Having worked within her own practice and as a general practitioner, Dr Maha explains the process and the main goal when helping those who have struggled to learn to love their skin.

“The main goal of treatment and treating acne is that you want to prevent scarring as scarring can be permanent.

Especially the pitted scarring, which is difficult to treat, even with needling or lasers it can be really hard to treat, and it can create permanent changes to the skin.”

Post acne scarring affects up to 95% of individuals with acne, representing a permanent disfiguring condition with no universal solution, according to The National Institutes of Health.

Acne scars are caused by dysregulated collagen production during the natural healing process of acne which has been popped.

 “You need to manage acne just like you would do for blood pressure, or asthma or any other condition, you need to get it under control.

And then you need a maintenance programme, like how are you going to stop this kind of reoccurring because ultimately, the basis is hormonal.”

 Because of this, acne affects at a different age in girls and boys. Puberty can start between the ages of 8-13 in girls and 9-14 in boys, hence the age differences in when acne tends to affect the sexes.

Acne is caused at this age by overactive oil glands and a build-up of oil, dead skin cells and bacteria, which leads to inflammation in the pores.

Oil glands become stimulated when the hormones become active during puberty, leading many to have acne in their teens.

“We have the highest amount of oil producing glands on the face, but people actually tend to make their skin sensitive because of using so many products, their skin barrier is then not in a great place to heal.”