BIOSOCIAL

Genetics and Diet vs. Acne 

My overall health due to eating habits and genetics had a big impact on my confidence. I have always struggled with acne. I went through puberty around 9 years old, so a little bit younger than the average. I was the only kid in the class that even had a pimple and no matter what I did, it never seemed to go away. I went to seek help from my pediatrician at the age of 12 and was prescribed antibiotics which helped, but eventually had to stop because it wasn’t meant to be taken longer than 3 months. As you can guess, my acne came back once more but 10 times worse. My dad has no acne, however, my mom does so it was inventible for me to get it. Genetics had a big influence on me having acne because my mom would have inflammation in the same spots I would get them. I was so insecure and wore makeup everyday to try to cover it up as much as possible. I tried every face wash, make, spot treatment, and serum google and YouTubers recommended but nothing worked. I eventually did some research and found something that said dairy products were correlated to acne due all the hormones and additives in them. I cut dairy and junk food out of my diet (not completely) and saw a significant change. My face was clearing up and the painful cysts were slowly shrinking. Now that I am 21, I eat dairy and junk food occasionally, drink lots of water, and do a skincare routine that caters to my skin. 

Nature, Nurture, Both.

One trait that I have would be shyness. I’m friendly but I tend to feel anxious when talking to or hanging out with people, despite how long I’ve known them. I can see this as being caused by genetics because sometimes my dad gets flustered and tongue tied in social settings. As for my mom isn’t so much ‘shy’ but she’s not really extroverted either. For example, she’d probably try to avoid someone she knew if she saw them at the grocery store. My younger sister also gets extremely nervous to ask for things or order food. I can also see this as being nurture I learned English and Lao but my dad never taught me Vietnamese. So I always loathed family events from his side. The lack of communication always resulted in staring at each other with a confused look and smile. I’ve also read about how people making a big deal about you being able to speak your language can make you too shy to speak it? As a kid, I would say things in Lao and my family would act super surprised, praise me, or say I said things strangely or 'americanized' which made me feel embarrassed so I spoke it less.