Do I have Acne?

Posted by John

January 19, 2011

OK, this is Step One and it’s a quick but vital one but we need to answer the question: Do I have Acne?.

In this section we will go through stage 1 of our 3 stage process to finding you the best acne treatment. Firstly we need to make sure that the skin condition that you have is in fact acne.

You are probably already thinking you know that you have acne, and if you have visited this site the chances are that you are correct. However, it IS important to make sure that it isn’t another condition that you experiencing in which case Acne Treatment would not work for you. In this post we will make sure that you get a definate answer to the question ”
Do I have acne?”

So, now we will go through the symptoms, and see if these are familiar to you:

Symptom 1 – greasy skin.

If you have read our “Causes of acne” post, than you know that acne is caused by the overproduction of oil, or sebum, by the sebaceous gland within the hair follicle. We won’t get into the causes too deeply in this video as we are only trying to figure out if what you are experiencing is in fact acne.

Some people who have acne are lucky enough that this is the only symptom that they get. This is because the pores on the skin do not get blocked and therefore the oil is released to the surface without developing into pimples. It is this oil that gives your skin the greasy appearance

So now, for Symptom 2 which are the non inflammatory pimples or spots that are associated with acne, known commonly as blackheads and whiteheads:

A blackhead is when there is sebum in the pore but the pore is not closed so some of the sebum is exposed to the air which causes the colour to darken. This means that a small dark spot (that can look black) appears on the skin.

If the skin pore is closed, as we can see in this diagram, the sebum will not be touched by air and therefore not darken.

This is when a whitehead will appear which will look similar to this picture. Whiteheads can appear smaller than the one you can see now. As these spots are non-inflammatory you will feel a little discomfort and might not notice them until you look in the mirror, or when someone kindly points it out to you in a public place. I used to get that a lot, and yes, like you probably do, I found it really annoying)

Even at this stage, acne can be a nuisance and mean that some sufferers will experience a slight dip in confidence as when you know you have something on your face it’s difficult to think that others won’t notice it. If you are finding that you are thinking this a lot, don’t worry, it’s normal and you just have to remember that other people don’t attach as much importance to your acne as you do yourself.

So, now onto Symptom 3 – Papules and pustules

Here is a picture of a papule –

It is an inflamed spot or pimple that you will be able to feel as it swells under the skin as well as inflaming visibly on the surface. This is normally caused by the oil or sebum building up deeper into the skin than blackheads and whiteheads meaning that it will take longer to mature at the surface.

When it does mature it will turn into a pustule, which looks like this picture.

Unpleasant, I know, but don’t worry, in a couple more simple steps we should be able to make these a thing of the past.

The reason this has now has a white centre to it, is because the sebum (otherwise known as pus) has now made its way to just below the surface of the skin. It is now possible to “pop” this zit but we would never recommend it as it is always better to let these things take their natural course. Popping it now might cause it to rupture the lining and spread infection and the sudden decrease in substance will shock the skin into healing mode which might cause it to produce a scar.

Now finally we move on to Symptom 4 – Nodules and Cysts (the last symptom in our “Do I have Acne?” stage). These are the most severe symptoms of acne and also the most painful.

This is a picture of a nodule. It is much like that of a papule but is larger and occurs even deeper in the skin.

And finally, Acne cysts. They are normally defined as a cyst if it grows to about a ¼ of an inch (or ½ a centimetre if you are using the metric system) in diameter. They can be very painful and are most likely of all the symptoms to produce a scar.

So, have you answered the question: do I have acne?

There we have it, those are the symptoms of acne so if these are all too familiar with you than you know that you have acne and you can progress 1 step closer to getting clear skin by moving on to Stage 2, which is finding out which of the many Types of Acne you have.

If you are unsure that these symptoms do reflect what you are experiencing than it is always better to seek medical assistance as you may have a different condition. For example, if you are experiencing redness in lines that follow the blood vessels rather than in spots, this could be rosacea instead of acne. Also, if your spots are bunched together and are very itchy, than this is more likely to be a rash as although acne is uncomfortable it is rarely itches.

I truly hope that it was useful to you and now we can move onto the Next Stage which will define the severity if the acne and therefore enable us to get the best treatment for you.