How to deal with acne

For those that are reading this post, I know how tough dealing with acne can be. I am going through it right now, and it can really take over your life and your emotions. Through the past 6 months of dealing with acne, I have learnt a few things in learning how to deal with acne.

P.s. These things aren’t going to get rid of your acne, but I think they will help you deal with acne, and treat yourself with a little more self love.

P.p.s This post is not coming from a professional point of view, it’s coming from the point of view of someone who is going through acne right now, and sharing the things that are helping me <3.

1. Stop talking negatively

I know this can be SO hard, trust me.

Whenever I look in the mirror with no makeup on, the first thing that comes to mind is negative thoughts.

This is literally doing nothing for you, in fact it’s probably making you more stressed and inflaming your acne even more.

How to stop talking negatively

This can be one of the hardest things to do, because when you have acne, you really feel like it’s the only thing you can see, but trust me, it’s only a small fraction of your appearance.

Trying to stop talking negatively can be a long, hard process, but here’s a step by step guide of how you can change your mindset.

• Step 1 = you catch yourself saying something negative
• Step 2 = take a deep breath
• Step 3 = tell yourself that your acne does not define your beauty (‘My acne doesn’t make me any less beautiful’)
• Step 4 = say 3 nice affirmations about yourself (‘I love my smile, I am healthy, I am grateful this is my biggest issue’)

I try to tell myself that I am grateful my biggest worry and stress that is consuming my brain is the fact I have acne.

There’s no denying it’s hard and that it doesn’t knock your confidence, but when you put it in perspective of other problems, it makes you having to deal with acne not so bad.

2. Do extra self care and self love

Why do I need more self care and self love?

• You are more stressed daily because you’re thinking about your acne
• You start neglecting self care and self love because you mentally don’t have the energy from thinking about your acne
• You have the mentality of ‘it can’t get any better so I’m just not going to try’

By self care and self love, I’m not talking about doing more skincare, or buying more products for your skin. In my experience, the less skincare the better.

I’m talking about doing things that make you feel good, less stressed, and take your mind off worrying how you look.

This helps you deal with acne because you’re not obsessing over it, and making it consume your life.

Self love / self care ideas

1. Working out. Since really struggling with acne, I have fell off with my workouts because I am down and have no energy, and you could be the same. So getting back on the workout grind, whatever that looks like to you, is going to make you feel so much better in yourself, release endorphins, and take your mind off things.
2. Movie nights. I love having a movie night to, one, get cosy, and two, take time for myself to focus on something and enjoy myself. Watching new movies and making it a solo date night has been one of my favourite things to romanticise and take that time for myself.
3. Meditate. Trying to get your body out of that fight or flight mode when being stressed is really important. Managing your cortisol levels will help everything in your body run smoothly. Whatever meditation looks like you for, whether it’s 1 minute of deep breathing every hour, a long meditation in the morning or evening, will all contribute to levelling out your cortisol levels.
4. Romanticising little things. I’m not being dramatic, and I’m sure there are people who can relate to this, that having acne can really take the joy out of the little things because it’s constantly on your mind. So whether you’re going for a little walk outside with no makeup on, sleeping over at your boyfriends, going into your favourite shop, try to romanticise it and enjoy it.

3. Drinking enough water

Honestly, I have noticed a HUGE difference in my skin and overall mood when I am drinking enough water.

I have seriously been lacking on my water intake, especially since feeling down about my skin. The mindset of ‘I just want to lay in bed and do nothing’ was really taking over for a while, but ever since I have said to myself to get back on my daily grind of taking care of myself, I have noticed a huge difference.

Why does drinking enough water help?

• It helps with headaches. Do you ever feel like you get a bad headache, and feel super tired when you haven’t drank enough water? Me too, all the time. That should be motivation enough, but I know how hard it is to drink a lot throughout the day when it’s not a habit.
• Helps aid digestion. Obviously when you drink more water, you’re peeing a lot more which is helping to flush out any toxins. I think it’s just really important on top of that to make sure you’re getting more nutrients in because you don’t want to be flushing all of them out. (Don’t fact check me on that, but I have definitely read that somewhere lol).
• Helps you concentrate. Our brains are made up of a lot of water, so drinking water and making sure you’re hydrated helps you stay focused and not get fatigued. The last thing I want is to feel fatigued and groggy when I’m already not in my best mental state.
• It helps your skin glow. The best thing to do for your skin is to hydrate it, so keeping it hydrated on the inside and the outside is a bonus.

4. Enjoying time with friends and family

I know the last thing you want to do when you have acne is to go outside and meet people.

But trust me, when you’re older and you have amazing skin, and you look back on the time that you didn’t feel confident in your skin, you’re going to kick yourself for staying in the house and saying no to plans with your friends.

If your friends are good friends, they will definitely not make you feel any certain way about your skin.

They probably won’t even notice your skin because they love you for you, not your appearance.

I’m not going to lie, yes they will probably see your acne, but they won’t spend the whole day hyper fixating on it like you might be doing in your head.

You know for yourself if you have a friend that has acne, or maybe they have a skin condition that they’re really insecure about, you don’t spend the whole day looking at it and thinking about it.

You spend time with them and enjoy your time regardless of what they look like, and that’s exactly the same as what they will be doing with you.

Thank you for reading <3

I hope this post was helpful for anyone struggling with acne. I know how hard it can be to deal with acne, and going through an endless cycle of trying, failing, trying, to feel confident in yourself.

If anyone else has any tips on how to deal with acne, please feel free to share them in the comments!

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