OCD Action

sleepyhead
Member

Hello, I am new to this forum.

I have spots and redness to my face. I am crying constantly and when I look in the mirror I sometimes shout at myself for being so ugly. I am a teenager and In college ALL the girls have an even skin tone and MAJORITY have no spots.
I always feel so conscience and ugly that I avoid talking to people, I want to break up with my boyfriend as I feel as though he won't be attracted to me if he saw me (I have stopped wearing foundation and now use concealer).
I feel like I am going crazy like talking walks along hills constantly thinking about how I look and wanting to jump off of these hills and injure myself. I feel as though I am in an weird world almost where everything is horrible and unreal. I also self-harm because of my appearance.
I am also refusing to eat as I feel so negatively about my skin.

Thank you for reading, help will be appreciated.

Wed Mar 3 2010 12:52:15 #
Truddles
Member

Hi sleepyhead,

Welcome to the forum.

I can't advice you on BDD as I have OCD I just wanted to make sure that you didn't have to wait for a reply.

What I can tell you is that I had terrible acne on my face, chest and back as a teenager and felt like you that I was ugly. Like you I wasn't ugly I just had a mass of spots. They all went eventually after seeking help from my GP and in those days there wasn't much choice of medication to use unlike today.

If you don't eat properly you're not feeding your skin and giving it a chance to heal itself. Without adequate food and the correct food at that, it can't renew and heal itself. It's like asking a builder to build a brick wall and not giving him the mortar to hold the bricks together

If you are using a concealer are you using one that wont block the pores on your skin further. There are products on the market designed to help problem skin and you don't have to pay a lot for a good product. Some of the supermarket skin products are excellent speaking from experience and they are also cheap - important when you're a student

Self harming will certainly not help the way you feel and so you should make an appointment to see your GP and ask for help. Don't hide anything from the GP tell him/her everything. Tell him that you need help with your spots, but also that you are having problems and are self harming and can he refer you for help. Remember if they don't know about the problem they can't help.

The BDD forum can be quiet but you need to talk to people and not feel that you are alone as you're not. So you can always join in on the main OCD forum members from all the different forums often use the OCD forum and there are lots of students on it. We're a friendly bunch and will be there for you.

So first stop GP and remember you don't have to be alone.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Trudy

Wed Mar 3 2010 13:28:40 #
Number 6
Member

Hi Sleepyhead
As you are a teenager, you may just have the sort of acne that goes away when you get into your twenties (I had bad skin as a teenager, but I have great skin now).
Diet is a very important factor, and you need to tell me what you eat/drink on a day to day basis? If you are eating the wrong food and are prone to acne, it will not get better and indeed a poor diet can aggravate the acne, and in some cases, could make it worse. If you improve you diet, your skin will almost certainly improve.

Wed Mar 3 2010 17:07:44 #
Unregistered

Hi I agree

Acne blighted my teenage years and unfortunately my twenties too. I do not think I ever drank enough water. So I agree with Julia completely. I use tea tree oil on any spots I get now (which is very rare) and it works a treat.
Failing this it is worth a trip to the docs. If all else fails anti-biotics will do the trick - I personally needed them - mine were caused by rosacea. But changing your diet is the first step.

Wed Mar 3 2010 17:20:42 #