There's a medical reason you always get a horrible spot before a big event

We’ve all been there: you’re about to go on a date, or to a job interview, or a party where you’re convinced you’re actually going to pull, or you’ve decided to finally leave the house after 16 straight days of watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. You feel good. You feel fresh. You feel clean. YOU HAVE A GIANT SPOT ON THE END OF YOUR NOSE. 

As inevitable as death or Ed Sheeran appearing on your favourite TV show to ruin it for you forever, you are absolutely one hundred percent guaranteed to get a spot whenever anything good is about to happen to you. And it turns out it’s not just you being punished by an omnipotent god for the sins you have committed in a past life, it’s an actual, quantifiable medical phenomenon.

As Dr Linda Papadopoulos explains on NetDoctor, your bad skin can be explained by a phenomenon called psychodermatology – which refers to “the discipline that covers all aspects of how the mind and body interact in relation to the onset and progression of various skin disorders”. 

Apparently, the skin and the central nervous system share hormones, neurotransmitters and receptors – which means that any disturbance to your nervous system can have a big impact on your skin, too. 

So if you’re stressed or nervous about something – that life-changing job interview or your hot date – your skin is probably going to be affected. 

Luckily for you, Dr Papadopoulos has a few suggestions if you’re affected by bad skin. Keeping a diary that monitors both your emotional state and how your skin looks can be a way of working out how different moods have an impact on your skin, or whether there’s any significant patterns. 

Engaging in positive activities that make you feel good about yourself can also be a way of not defining or limiting yourself by your bad skin – “you are not your skin problem”, Papadopoulos writes. 

“Unlike other illnesses, skin conditions are often visible to others and as a consequence we may feel that our condition begins to define us. It doesn't.”

“Don't feel you need to answer questions about it or explain it – instead, when you engage with people, talk about your interests, your passions, the things that matter to you, and if you are asked about it have a stock answer that assures them that you are fine with it so they should be too – and then move the conversation on.”

(Images: Fox / iStock)