A Retrospective Reflection OnTeenage Acne
Those Wonderful Teenage Years
When I was younger, more specifically a teenager, I was known as The Acne King.
And not without reason! With a visage that had scores of both black heads and white heads, I was a walking talking running advertisement for blemish acne and teenage pimples. If the scorn of my peers (especially the girls) was one thing, the impossibility of removing the ugly acne I had was another thing altogether.
Myths About Acne Causes
The general myths about acne didn’t help. My family members firmly believed that acne was a result of eating junk food. While it was true that I enjoyed the frequent dose of junk food that the neighborhood fast food joints dished out, I wasn’t too sure that eating out was the cause of my acne. I mean, a number of my friends ate out with me, and what’s more, ate junk food even more frequently than I did. But they hardly had any acne. Something had to be wrong with the popular belief right? I had seen the myth being busted right before my eyes. Another associated myth was about chocolate. And since I loved chocolate in any form or shape, I would have found giving it up, even at the risk of remaining The Acne King, an abhorrent idea. But having read up and followed news and medical reports on the subject, I discovered to my relief that chocolate consumption had nothing whatsoever to do with acne.
The Blackhead Jungle
So I resorted to searching for the best acne treatment. I tried acne lotion, read articles on how to clear up my acne. I became obsessed with removing blackheads and spent many hours in the bathroom trying to get rid of my blackheads. My friends thought it was pretty funny,too. They weren't any help at all. Most of my friends, hinted with obvious sarcasm, that my acne advertisement face was a result of my frequent and constant masturbation, which they concluded was what I was really doing when I was removing my blackheads in my bathroom. For a while, I believed this. Hey! What hot-blooded, teenage male doesn’t indulge in a little "self abuse" at that point in life? I always loved the expression of "self abuse," which is how the priests at our parish referred to masturbation. Some abuse! But I digress. But then again, observations told me that this too was an acne myth. For if my acne was linked to my masturbation, was I to conclude that my male friends who had no acne at all did not masturbate? I knew had a friend who talked about "self abuse" all the time. Yet he didn't have any zits. If they were right about the "self abuse"-acne connection, my friend would have been a five-foot walking boil. So, that was another acne myth busted.
Another myth that I did believe, and which sounded genuine and even scientific at that time, related to the assumption that acne was a result of dirt accumulation on the pores of my face. I never stopped to consider that if that was the case, why wasn’t the skin on my arms and legs, which were more in contact with dirt and grime than any other part of my body, riddled with acne? In any case, I spent several months assiduously searching for the best acne treatment. I washed my face with every type of soap or acne lotion I could find. No luck.I was still the Acne King!
Finally I threw In The Towel
Finally, I threw in the towel for the last time. I just bought blemish cream to cover everything up. It was hard to look natural with all that stuff on my face, especially when I was in the direct sunlight, like at our high school football games. So finally I just resorted to a fatalistic attitude and concluded that the more I stressed out about how to clear my acne, the more it would continue to remain. It was at that point that I gave up bothering about my acne filled face. And guess what? A couple of years later, as I slowly grew out of my adolescence, the acne disappeared on its own! Although there are still a few tell-tale scars of my Acne King days, my face is clear and radiant today!
Those wonderful teenage years! Maybe it was the stress.
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Tags: acme myths, Acne, acne treatment, Diet, Health, Teens
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