Acne Leads to Stress and Low Self-Esteem

Acne affects nearly 50 million Americans, making it the country’s most common skin disease. Anyone who’s ever suffered from acne knows just how tough it can be on mood and self-esteem, and a new survey now backs them up.The Skin Matters Survey, commissioned by Retin-A Micro Pump and conducted by Harris Interactive (please note I’m not affiliated with this company), asked dermatologists, adults and teens about the social effects of acne and contained a few surprising results:

• Seventy percent of teenagers feel pressure to have clear skin, but teenage girls take a greater hit to their self-confidence, mood, physical health and relationships with family as a result of acne than teenage boys do.
• Sixteen percent of adults and twenty-nine percent of teens have made significant changes to their social lives because of acne. Nine percent of adults refrained from asking someone out on a date or accepting a date, seven percent cancelled plans and three percent said they’ve been passed over for a promotion because of their skin.
• Thirty-eight percent of adults with acne agreed it’s more stressful having acne as an adult than as a teenager.

But perhaps the most surprising revelation of all is how few sufferers turn to the one person who can help the most — a dermatologist! Only 18 percent of adult respondents had ever seen a derm for acne treatment.

If you suffer from acne, please don’t lose hope. Dermatologists have a huge arsenal of acne-fighting tools to draw from and can give you prescription medications that are more powerful than what you can buy in the drugstore. In many cases your insurance will even cover it. 

Have you ever changed social plans or felt down because of a breakout? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.

Wishing you great skin!

By Leslie Baumann, M.D. – Nov 10, 2009