My Acne Story Part 2 (how I get rid of acne from the inside)
Now I’m gonna talk about what I do to get rid of acne internally. My acne is genetic, meaning that I sort of have to accept the fact that my skin would never be as clear as other people who don’t carry it genetically. In my 20s now, I still occasionally get a breakout. But I can’t be grateful enough to finally know my breakout pattern so that it’s easier to maintain. My biggest cause of acne is hormones. That’s why when the time of the month is about to come, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are several acne flare-ups.
Later on, I also found out, stress is another root cause of my acne. After I resigned from my 9 to 5 job, my skin was hella smooth. There’s no acne for more than a month. My skin texture is gone. What has left only those acne scars. But, it changed when I decided to go back to uni to take a master’s degree. I’m that type of person who overthinks easily. I’m also a perfectionist. That combination is totally not a good thing in university life. My skin was so mad at me. What surprised me the most is when the school break arrived, my skin instantly became clear again.
So, here’s what I do to keep my skin clear from the inside.
- Maintain stress. Due to high pressure in uni life, I need to do everything to keep my stress level as low as possible. I do anything from meditation, listening to Quran recitation, running, doing cardio, watching rom-com, listening to EDM, scrolling 9gag, or as simple as sleeping.
- Scheduling and prioritizing! This is so important because the biggest source of my stress now is those never-ending assignments. I’ve been working on becoming imperfectly perfect. Even though it’s hard, I try to lower my expectation and standard. I keep telling myself, “You only need to get it done, don’t worry too much about the result, it wouldn’t betray the effort”. Of course, I still give my best, but there are certain conditions when we can’t keep everything under control, right? That’s what I mean by lowering my expectation and standard. I try to focus more on the things I can control. Prioritize is definitely important when my Google Calendar is full of deadlines. I start from the assignment with the closest deadline, do preparation on the most difficult task, and then back to get everything done orderly by the deadlines.
- Stop procrastinating is also helpful to keep my stress level. Unlike while I was in bachelor’s, now I try to start doing my assignment right after the class is over, even though the deadline is next week. Otherwise, when other assignments come, everything would be so packed, resulting in endless overthinking and stress and bad skin again. It doesn’t have to be done right away. At least when the deadline is getting closer, there are no too many things I have to handle in such a short time.
- Spill it out. As an introverted person, sometimes it’s hard for me to get my emotion out of my chest as words, especially during this pandemic when you don’t see people that much. Keeping my emotion by myself only worsen everything. So, I found out that telling about it to my best friends or writing on this blog could make a pretty big impact.
- Stick to a healthy diet. Although I haven’t seen a significant correlation between my acne and a bad diet, I still believe in the saying, “You are what you eat”. I cut processed, junk, and greasy foods. If you’re Indonesian, you must know this is an ultimate struggle *imagining that nasi padang*. But at the same time, I try not to be so hard on myself. I still eat pizza or burgers or drink an iced latte. It’s more about balance now. After cheating, I will detox with green tea, juice, or add more green veggies to the plate.
So yeah, overall, treating your skin is the act of self-love. Always remember that you’re beautiful no matter what, but never stop looking after your skin <3
Cheers,
Wilda
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