One of the big myths out there is that not washing your face is the sole reason that you get acne and that’s just not true. Acne is complicated because it is caused and made worse by a variety of different factors such as skin type, heredity, hygiene, and life style but did you know that acne is also caused by stress?
Stress kind of plays a double whammi as to how it can affect your acne. First of all, stress itself has long been known to be a direct 
cause of acne. In fact, most everyone has had a breakout or at least a couple of pimples caused by stress. Stress puts additional tax on your body which causes it to prioritize certain functions over others and when under constant stress your skin takes a back seat towards keeping your body wired for dealing with stress. In other words, when you’re constantly stressed out your body is too worried about your stress and dealing with it than taking care of your skin.
The trigger is chemical in nature. When you come under a great deal of stress, your adrenal glands begin to work overtime producing the hormone cortisol. This in turn signals the brain to have your sweat glands to produce extra oil on your face. When your sebaceous glands start to kick in, it becomes more likely that this excess oil will mix with debris and other undesirables clogging your pores and trapping bacteria inside. The result? Acne. A lot of it and since bacteria has set in and your pores are already closed over, the acne is big and red and not your normal whiteheads or flare up.
How can I lower stress as a way to clear my acne?
- Take a hot bath: Soaking in a tub of hot water has been a way to get rid of stress since the ancient Greeks and Romans. Taking a hot bath can actually help your acne in a lot of ways. The heat coming off the bath will help you sweat out impurities and open up your pores. Secondly, you’ll feel a lot less stressful and the heat from the bath will cause your muscles to relax which may not only help your acne but other aches and pains as well! Finally, you’re surrounded by water stress free and full of open pores, sounds like a great time to wash your face completely and softly so as not to open up any acne that isn’t ready to be opened yet!
- Exercise: Exercising is known to release stress and accomplishes a lot of things the bath does. Sweating hard causes them pores to open up. Exercise also floods the body with endorphins which makes you feel relaxed and calm. You can find more about exercise and acne here.
- Don’t Sweat the small stuff: While its easy to say this from the other side of the fence, a lot of what we stress over in the world anymore isn’t worth two thoughts! Examine your life and your situation and ask yourself if things are really that bad and if a given situation is really worth stressing over. A lot of times, simply sitting down and thinking out our problem logically while removing extreme emotion leads to solutions and an easing of stressful feelings. Give your problems a thought!
This author isn’t disillusioned. Stress is an unavoidable part of our daily life and our body is well equipped to handle a great deal of it. But stress just isn’t unhealthy for your ongoing acne problem but for your general health as well. We can all learn and benefit by removing some stress from our lives. Give it a try, your heart, your head, and your face will all thank you!