There’s something frustratingly unpredictable about acne treatment. Two people use the same formula and methodology, yet one person sees success while the other sees little to no improvement. As a result, many believe they’re doing something wrong, not trying hard enough, or simply fail at skincare. However, the truth is that an effective acne treatment hinges on your ability to control and exert influence over specific elements while others are completely out of your control.
Understanding what’s what helps temper expectations and direct efforts in the right area.
What’s in Your Control?
Adherence to treatment is by far the most controllable aspect of getting effective acne treatment. Using products how they’re intended, taking medications when you’re supposed to, going to appointments—everything here is within your control and it counts. If you’re not using products consistently, stopping and starting treatment, or skipping applications, even the best systems will amount to little.
Lifestyle factors are another controllable experience. Good and bad sleep can manifest in skin condition. Poor stress management can worsen inflammation. Diet can play a part in acne for some individuals (though not all). One’s need for sunscreen for other treatments is important. Not picking at one’s skin leads to less inflammation. All of these are behaviors within your control—even if some require a bit more conscious effort than others.
What You Can Influence
Other elements lend themselves to more influence than outright control. For example, the response of skin types; you can’t change your skin from oily to dry (and everywhere in between), but you can adjust. Someone with super dry skin can layer additional moisturizers, while someone with oily skin can manipulate textures.
The choice of products is another influence. You can try different formulations or brands or combinations until you find what yours will tolerate, but this trial process takes time.
There’s also a lot of influence when it comes to choosing treatment options. When the basics don’t cut it, pursuing stronger or different treatments—including AviClear Acne Treatment for those who’ve plateaued with advanced options—opens up new avenues which work differently than previously tried options. While you can’t dictate whether any specific option will work, you can dictate which ones you’re willing to try.
What You Cannot Control
Unfortunately, a lot goes into acne through genetics—and this is completely out of your control. Genetics control oil production, how the body exfoliates, degrees of inflammation response, even which bacteria colonize on the skin. For anyone with family histories of acne-producing traits and genetics, they’re already behind a genetic 8-ball.
In females, puberty hormones are a major trigger for acne on a monthly basis, plus pregnancy, menopause, PCOS, etc. Your fluctuating hormones are out of your control even if sometimes you can medicate them. Your body’s natural cyclical patterns trigger pimples—and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
Finally, and most frustratingly, how the body responds to treatment is outside of control. The antibiotic that works for your best friend who had the same cystic acne as you does nothing for you. The retinoids that work magic for your neighbor leave you with a rash and vice versa. Where you can control what treatment to try, you cannot control how the body will respond.
But That’s Not Fair!
The hardest thing about acne treatment is coming to terms with where there is no control. Someone could do everything right—from adherence to perfect habits and professional treatment—and still have a hard time because of genetic predisposition and biology working against them; meanwhile, someone else could do a lackluster job and have perfectly clear skin because their genetics granted them less active sebaceous glands. It isn’t fair.
But understanding this helps reduce self-blame. If you’re doing all the controllable factors well and still see little success, the problem isn’t your effort, it’s the fact that the uncontrollable factors skewed in a negative direction—and they need more treatment-adjusted options.
Where to Put Your Effort
Focus on what’s in your control. Adhere to treatments effectively. Listen to your professionals. Maintain healthy habit choices. This is not enough when severe genetics are at play but at least give treatment a fighting chance.
Don’t focus on guilt about what you cannot control. Your hormones aren’t causing distress. Your genes aren’t a problem you created. Your body’s control over what’s presented isn’t something you can dictate.
The solution comes when you’ve done everything right in what’s controllable and it’s still not working. At that point, explore what needs to be changed. The problem isn’t that you’re not trying hard enough; it’s that this specific treatment doesn’t match your biological needs.
Making Peace with This Reality
Treatment is not about trying hard enough; it’s finding the proper balance between what’s available and what makes sense for your unique biological pressures. Some are an easy fit; some require time; some require dozens of attempts.
Your part in this controllable challenge is to continue working with professionals and testing appropriate options while maintaining habits that would boost effective treatment application. The rest? How your body responds? It’s not something you can force with determination.
Understanding what’s within your control from what’s not helps channel efforts where they need to be applied while absolving unrealistic self-blame—because if you’re applying your treatments as directed, maintaining supportive treatments and working with professionals all while there’s still difficulty, the problem is not your effort; it’s that the specific universe of controllable factors are not synergetic to a new match that better suits your biology.
