[PSA] Be kind to yourself, because fixating on your skin can negatively impact the people you care about

Beauty Tips For Body Care
About half a year ago, my skin was the worst it had ever been. It skyrocketed my anxiety to the point where I stopped hanging out with my friends all together, spending hours upon hours on research. Thankfully, it has greatly improved over the last couple of months, albeit a few fluctuations here and there. However, if I even felt a new pimple emerge, would freak out and not want to see anyone (skin PTSD, has anyone else felt this?) I let the topic of skin dominate conversation, mostly because it was all I could think about. Sometimes, I would break down and talk about how much it made me hate myself. My boyfriend was at the receiving end of all of this.Recently, I noticed that he has been purchasing a lot of new products and reading up on skincare (not a bad thing by itself). He was always a soap and water kind of guy, so this was very surprising. One night, he told me that he would rather we leave the light off because he was insecure about his acne. It broke my heart. To be honest, I always thought his skin was very good, and the little scarring he had I actually found attractive (I don’t know, it kind of adds character to his face). Anything else that could bother him I never gave a second thought. This experience taught me two things:​You probably see issues in your skin that other people don’t even register, especially those people that simply like you as a person.Your own frustrations and negativity involving your skin can rub off on the people around you. Seeing you love yourself will help others love themselves, too.I hope I don’t come across as dismissive to the havoc skin problems can wreak on your mental health, I know how demoralizing it can be. But I also know that in this battle, most of the harm you inflict is on yourself—you are still empathetic, kind-hearted, and eager to prevent the harm of others. That’s why I urge those of you who are beating yourselves up over your skin, if you cannot be kind to yourself for yourself, at least be kind to yourself for those you love.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by ch-apstick