Acne

A large number of my friends deal with acne and have requested me to write on it. So I'll be cover what is acne, how to deal with it and how it can affect you mentally and physically :))

What is Acne- A skin condition that occurs when hair follicles plug-in oil and dead skin cells. A hair follicle in normal language is a pore. When your skin pores are connected with oil and dead skin cells, it ends up resulting in pimples, blackheads, etc. It is extremely common with teenagers and young adults.

How to deal with it- As acne is very common there are numerous ways to deal with it.

When you have extreme acne you can visit a specialist such as a dermatologist or a paediatrician.

One of the easiest ways to deal with regular acne can be self-care. You will have to develop a skincare routine where you will have to wash your face twice a day, keep your skin hydrated and be gentle with your face. But it is not as easy as it sounds, developing a skincare routine can be extremely hard and then even more hard for students, when you have exams approaching and 10 assignments due you barely get time to do normal things such as talk to your friends or go outside, developing a new habit may seem impossible. I personally have extremely sensitive skin, so whatever I do to it my skin has an extreme effect. When I don't take care of it, it looks terrible when I do it looks great, I find it very hard to maintain a skincare routine, I try my best to develop it but can't especially when I have my exams in like 1 week. I end up feeling terrible about myself or great about myself based on my skin and that can be very tiring. So you have to keep trying to develop a consistent skincare routine, but don't blame yourself for not having one, that's something which I constantly do. Living in an environment where people are constantly judging you on how you look when you are getting like 5 long assignments a day and where it is normal to stay up till 3 am trying to prepare for your exams can obviously be extremely pressuring. So don't feel guilty about not being consistent and please only do it for yourself and taking care of yourself, not for the validation of others.

How acne can affect you- the physical factors of acne are pretty obvious as I mentioned before pimples, blackheads, red spots etc. But it can completely shatter your confidence and that's how it affects you mentally. The answer to how to deal with it mentally might end up sounding very cliché and overused. But loving yourself is the only way to deal with it. It feels extremely weird and awful when I write this because I literally find it so hard to do that. It is so easy to say things like 'love yourself' 'accept yourself' 'know your worth' but it is so hard to do that. It's not like when someone says that to you, you just end up realising where you have been wrong the whole time and everything is fine instantly. I think more people should know that self-love and acceptance is a journey, there will be days where you will feel awful and days where you will feel great and it can be very tiring living like this but at the end of the day your body does so much for you and takes so much for you appreciate it might be hard at first, but it is necessary.

I hope this article helped every teen struggling with acne or self-love. Please don't be harsh on yourself today :)

Artwork by Davianni Serrano

Pavni <3

PS- many people I am very close to struggle with acne and are very harsh on themselves for it, so I really hope it helped them, this article was a result of me procrastinating so I guess this is probably the first time did something effective out of procrastinating. I have my exams next week :( so I'll try my best to upload an article but if I don't you know why.