Acne: Just Another Four-Letter Word

I was introduced to this book as a reccomendation from Annette Pasternak (“The Stop Skin Picking Coach”). At the time of reading (and even now, in some ways) I was filled with a lot of shame, not only because of my acne but because of my skin picking. This book helped me to feel less crazy about my acne and by extension, my skin picking. I reccomend it highly.

For the first time in my acne healing journey, I felt that I was reading my own thoughts written clearly, concisely, and truthfully. I have always approached healing my acne from a place of fear, self-loathing, and powerlessness– this book captured the internal dialogues that followed me through every modality I experimented with to cure my acne. If only for this reason, the book gave me a sense of relief that I haven't found elsewhere. In truth, I haven't found relief from my acne, but I have been able to let go of some of the rules and shame that dictated my “battle” with acne. I still have a long way to go, because acne is a stubborn guest. But I'm becoming more okay with the idea that even if the acne never leaves my skin, I can still be happy, healthy, worthy of love, and good enough.

I can appreciate that some of the other reviews of this book are not glowing. To my mind, these reviews echo criticisms of Health At Every Size or “Body Positive” books in that they can rub people the wrong way. The claims are unfamiliar and uncomfortable and it sometimes require admitting that our conditioned beliefs might not always be in our best interest or contribute to our health. Likewise, this book redirects responsibility for acne away from the individual and onto systems of governmentality (a set of cues and logics about how to conduct yourself in a highly competitive environment). In other words, it can be a momentarily helpless place to realize that acne may be a product of something greater than individual choices in diet and exercise and skin care. But that can also be liberating.

Its kind of awesome to have a new set of criteria by which to judge acne; not necessarily as (purely) a hormone imbalance or an intolerance to certain foods, but as a product of thoughts and blocked emotions. There are still so many lessons I have to learn about acne and about myself, but I am grateful for a book like this to give voice to the challenges of acne and the power in living life anyway. Thank you, Aarti. I hope that everyone who needs to hear this message can find this book.