Depression

Acne can also lead to depression in teenagers. This can affect their mental health. The American Academy of Dermatology has found that teenagers with acne often feel self-conscious and embarrassed of how they look, which affects their emotional health and can lead to depression (American Academy of Dermatology Association). As a result of feeling unattractive due to acne, teenagers feel insecure, unworthy, and sad. This can cause them to avoid going out and be unmotivated to do things. It also does not help that some continue to find it difficult to manage their acne. This can worsen their mental health because it could deepen their feelings of sadness, cause teenagers to have serious long-term effects, and it could even lead to suicide. According to Vallerand, a researcher from the Community Health Sciences department of the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, stated, “We found that acne increased the risk of developing clinical depression by 63 percent in the first year following an acne diagnosis and that this risk remained elevated for five years after the initial acne diagnosis” (Lehman). This shows that as teenagers continue to struggle with acne, their mental health continues to decline, leading to depression and serious long-term effects.