Lately I've been more and more obsessed with my acne, as well as my "weight problem" and my "nose problem". Between the ages of 12-16 my acne bothered me moderately, but I lived with it. I'm 17 now, and lately it's brought me to tears, I DREAD leaving the house, I always feel like that's all anyone sees when they look at me. I'm constantly over picking in hopes to get a pimple to go away, and I'm always looking for a cure. Although I know the only one that I can get is Alesse, my old birth control that I used in '04, and I can't start that for a few weeks because we still won't have any money until then. I am 5'2 and weigh 96 lbs., I'm average weight I guess, but I feel extremely fat in my stomach, and I do 50+ crunches a day but today I couldn't even get myself to do them because I was so depressed about the situation. When I look at famous people and even some models, they're no thinner than I am though. But still I can't get myself to not hate my stomach.

My nose is kind of love/hate with me. I have the nose of my family, almsot everyone on my mom's side has it and I think it looks nice on almost everyone but me, but I love it because it's from my family. I stare into the mirror at my nose and my acne and my stomach at least twice a day just hating myself and this is not at all like me. This is very new, within the past 6 months, I'd say.

I'm also a Buddhist and very much don't believe in hating myself but I can't seem to overcome this no matter how hard I try, and no matter how many times I tell myself that my acne will get better with my age and I will just have to even my skin tone on my face (to make my nose not look so big) after my acne is gone and tone my stomach over time. I just feel like all of the confidence that I had about myself is gone for some reason, and I'm not sure what to do.

Have any of you ever had dysmorphia? How did you overcome it?

you have the power to change both your weight-problems AND you nose. summon up your inner courage and character and just DO IT. good luck

Eat organic shit moron

I kind of hate my tummy too but it's not the bane of my existence. Wear clothes that flatter you and if something you try on in a store looks bad, keep in mind that it's not your fault because clothes these days are for the most part poorly made and don't fit anybody well.

As for your acne, have you tried ditching dairy? I had acne at your age and tried every damn thing to get rid of it, not one single doctor suggested that my love of cheese could be what's causing it! My boyfriend has wicked oily skin and it worked for him too. I hit the occasional zit with neosporin cream, which seems to work better than actual acne medicine.

I felt pretty much the same way at your age about those same three things... I guess you just have to convince yourself that people who look 100% perfect are, in reality, kind of creepy. Look at less magazines. Find someone who kind of looks like you to admire, especially if you think they're really pretty and they share one of your supposedly undesireable traits. I admired Courtney for her acne, I have pictures of a chubby-looking Marilyn Monroe posted above my mirror.

I don't know what the insurance situation is where you live, but it might be beneficial to look into healthcare that will cover your birth control pills and possibly a few trips to a therapist.

Yeah, luckily I live in America, so because I can't afford insurance, I get no insurance. I can, however, afford birth control pills in a few weeks and those basically clear me up completely, it's just getting to that point that's been stressful for me. I can't ditch milk only because I'm a vegetarian and I don't have a lot of money (but I will probably ditch milk in a couple months), so I can't get on soy, and I need calcium (which I will at that point get via pill.) Plus the food I'm eating is generally horrible (or fruit, lol) because of the lack of money, so there's almost no point in ditching one thing when I can't ditch the rest of the crap until a couple months from now, financially.

Under normal circumstances I don't like eating food that I didn't make from scratch so that I know what went into it. I eat A LOT of homemade soup, fruit, vegetables, tea, and so forth. But it's the single issue of lack of money. I can only afford the cheapest of things right now, and that's really getting to me.

I think that diet has had a lot to do with this, as well, because it was around the time that I started eating nothing but really bad foods that I started to break out so bad. My mom also switched us to a different laundry detergent around that time and I'm allergic to that (so because I don't like a dirty pillowcase, or a pillowcase with the new stuff on it, I put a papertowel under my face when I sleep, and it's helped a bit, lol.)

You advice here is great though and I'm going to take all of it. Thank you very much .