Not My Face!

Your face is pretty important. I mean, just think about it. Your face is the first thing people notice about you. In general, when something happens to other places on your body, you can hide it. At least for a while. It doesn't absolutely have to be a big deal unless you want it to be. Your face is different. People care about your face. People are constantly looking and even occasionally judging your face. Whether or not that's a big deal all depends on you.

Self conscious with face eczema

In general, I usually do care about what people think of me. I don't want anyone thinking negative thoughts about me or treating me less than anyone else. I mean, who wants to feel less than? Certainly not me. So yes! My face and the health of my skin matters a lot to me. My eczema is pretty bad on my arms. It annoys me, but I'm not constantly worrying about what people are thinking about my arms. Half of the time they're flared. They're either red or maybe dark brown. At times it's inflamed, other times it just changes colors. Maybe for fun, maybe just to torture me. I'm not quite sure.

Eczema on my arms

There's not a lot someone can say about my arms that would make me feel bad or lower my self-esteem. I realize my arms look bad. They've looked pretty bad for a long time now. If someone has a problem with that, they should probably help to find a cure. Otherwise, they'd just have to move on as I have.

My face is different.

When eczema wasn't on my face

I can't just "move past" my face. I need my face. For years in school, my face was amazing. The skin on my face was just about the only decent skin I had. I remember when people would compliment my skin. I would always chuckle to myself because I knew they'd only paid attention to my face. If they saw my arms and legs they certainly wouldn't be so quick to pass out that compliment, but it did make me feel good. It felt like even though I didn't have very good health, and even though my arms were achy and my legs were in pain, I could still be decent. People could still see me as beautiful.

Bad eczema on my face

When I transitioned into adulthood, things began to change. My face didn't have the same glow it once had. It wasn't as clear as it once was and it really seemed as if my eczema began to spread there too. Don't get me wrong, I'd had a little trouble with it and my face in the past, but never like this. Never large spots. Never red inflammation. Never this noticeable. It was a disappointment to say the very least. I was disappointed in my skin, my health, myself.

What little confidence I did have was quickly lost. The compliments I once got on my skin, now came few and far between. It's like people looked at me differently, and honestly, at the time... I couldn't blame them.