When Appearance, from Acne to Hair Loss, Impacts Your Performance
Sometimes you just can’t face the world with your face. But when does that become a problem? (Photo: Getty Images)
When General Hospital actress Kirsten Storms announced this week that she’d be taking a break from the show because of “skin issues,” including acne “due to stress,” it elicited not only collective disappointment from fans, but, likely, empathy — from just about anyone who’s ever experienced the upset of relentless breakouts.
Still, while Storms acknowledged in her tweet that “we all know in this biz appearance is important” and that her breakouts had become “too difficult for GH to cover up,” her announcement also raises the issue of less-scrutinized folks who skip work, school, or social engagements because of insecurities over skin, hair, or other body-image worries.
“If you ask most people, they will say that at some point they’ve missed something because of acne, or feeling bloated, or because they were having a bad hair day — and it was probably not only because of their appearance, but also related to stress,” Connecticut-based psychologist Barbara Greenberg tells Yahoo Beauty of what can be a common situation. Still, she adds, “When it becomes a problem is when it leads to social isolation, or when you miss several days of work — when it becomes a person’s focal point.”
Kirsten Storms announced on social media that her “skin issues” were forcing her to take a bit of a GH break. (Photo: Instagram/Kirsten Storms)
On Reddit, several threads have connected people over such debilitating appearance issues. One from several months ago, “Do people avoid going out/social events after an acne breakout?” elicited some heartfelt responses. “I view myself as subhuman because of acne,” noted one. “I know I’m ugly because of it, regardless how much I work out and I try to keep fit, the face is the first thing people see, hence they judge anyone based on it.” Another added, “I pretty much go on quarantine when it happens. I know no one really cares, but for some reason my confidence just gets crushed so much I don’t even want to look in the mirror anymore.”
Another thread, which asks, “How much is your social anxiety linked to your appearance?” inspired similar comments, such as this one: “I always beat myself up at how much I let me being a little homely keep me from living life. Why the f*** am I so vain? Don’t I have more important things to worry about? I wanted to live for something else…to at least be a nice person, at least have talents and skills, something to offer. I wanted not to have any ego, and yet humiliation never set me free like I’d always hoped it would.” Yet another comes from a 31-year-old man who shares how his hair loss causes him “consuming anxiety/shame,” and still others by people ashamed enough to stay home because of everything from facial hair (in the case of one woman) and hearing aids to body fat and small breasts.
Suggests Greenberg, “I think people have to realize they are not a single part of their body, but a sum of their parts — they are not the pimple on their chin, they are not their thighs.” Also, as difficult as it may be, she says, it can be helpful to remember that others are generally not as critical as we can be to ourselves. “People are more self-conscious than they need to be, as others are, for the most part, thinking about themselves, and not about how others look,” she says. “Most are not taking an inventory of your body.”
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