How to Deal with Picking At Acne and Improve Your Skin

Before and After

The time between the before and after pictures was about two months. The before was taken on May 25, 2024 and the after was taken on July 15, 2024. I have been using my normal/random skincare that I usually use, never stopped that. I ate like I always did; dairy, sugary foods, not a lot of fruits or vegetables, and I did not drink as much water as I should have been. Now I do not promote that type of eating and drinking. I am trying to increase my water intake, and increase consumption of healthier foods, while slightly decreasing consumption of not so healthy foods. But my point in pointing that out is to say that my skin did not mainly change because of my diet or skincare, because those things did not change. For me, I think I figured out that the reason I still have acne is 97% because of me picking at my skin. But yet, it’s so hard to stop. Looking at those before and after pictures, I knew that if I just stopped touching my skin, I would be cleared of it all. Did that stop me from messing with my skin? Yes, and no. For months after I figured it out, I still could not go longer than 3 days without messing up my skin. When I say messing up my skin, I mean, picking, like scratching, and squeezing to get the imperfections (acne) out. And not only my face, but my upper body as well. As soon as I realized I messed with my skin, I would go all out and pick until I felt nothing. All that left me with was a red bloody painful mess. This cycle would go on, every 2 to 3 days. Taking pictures of my skin, kind of held me accountable. I would see an improvement, then when I messed up again, I would see the affects of that. Really seeing it with my own eyes and clearly seeing that I am the one doing this to myself, I don’t know how to explain it. In my head it made me feel really bad that it’s all me, but I know I can control my self. I know I can control myself and I need to if I want to have clear skin. I had to change my mindset. Just because I tried to pick at one or two imperfections does not mean that I have to start all over. It does not mean that I have to now pick at my entire face and body so that I can start over my count for, how many days did I not mess with my skin. I had to be okay with messing with my skin a little bit, so that I don’t go all the way. If I pick at one two spots, it’s okay, I just need to wash and cover it up to let it heal. To get better at this, I would allow my self to pick 3 times in each area. For example, if it was day 3 of me not having messed with my skin, an suddenly I just really need to pick at something, I would allow myself only 3 times on my face, 3 times on my back, and 3 times on chest/stomach. If I picked at each place and did not go over 3 for each spot, then I can continue my count. The next day would be day 4. So pretty much, I allowed my self to not be perfect. This helped me to go more days without completely obliterating the skin on my face and body. Since I wasn’t constantly messing up my entire face and body, that allowed my skin to heal and not to let all the acne germs spread to make things worse/or keep them the same, so my skin got a bit clearer and smoother. Now, I am at the point where I no longer give my self the 3 picks pass. Because I don’t need to. If I pick even once, my count restarts. If I try to mess up all of my skin to restart the count, it doesn’t go on for as long as it used to, because again, there isn’t as much bumpiness to pick at as before. So I just get over it, say it’s okay, I will wash and clean my skin and focus on healing it, and it will get better.

Products that Helped Heal My Skin

My number one, most favorite product to use, are acne patches. They cover up the imperfection so you can’t mess with it anymore and heals it at the same time. If you mess with your skin, I highly recommend acne patches because you can cover the mess up, and it allows it to heal. Instead of becoming worse the next day, I would notice the blemishes would be flattened out. Acne patches helps stop the bleeding and that clear liquid that sometimes oozes out…(yea I know). Here is a list of the one’s that I used and still do… (From Amazon, I may earn commission from products bought using my links) 🙂

1. Rael Beauty Acne Patch – https://amzn.to/3CxI2Bt
2. Lit Bear Acne Patch – https://amzn.to/4gtKW8d
3. Lit Bear Acne Patch (Different sizes) – https://amzn.to/4hQu3FH

I loved Lit Bear Acne Patches because of their sizes. They have large squares and rectangles that can be used on the body. I used them on my face because I would just cover up my whole face in acne patches before bed. That was when my skin was really bad. Thankfully, I don’t have to do that much anymore. Just sometimes.