When someone gets emotionally distracted by dark marks, it’s not always easy to see or understand the real medical problem that is causing them.

This video should help clear up this situation. Please teach others by sharing this video as this misconception is causing disharmony all over the world.

©2012 “Understanding Dark Marks and Red Marks” by Dr. Neal Schwartz

The movement of The Acne Practice continues today, further illustrating that all chronic inflammatory conditions of the human body are treatable without exception.

I’ll be here,
-Dr. Neal

©2012 “Hopelessness is the Real Disease” by Dr. Neal Schwartz

Hey everyone,

I often say on the blog, “The more we observe, the less we react”


In light of that quote, I will be breaking down the common reactive behavioral problems that are commonly seen in those with acne.

In part one of this blog series, we will be uncovering and increasing awareness of the common emotional imbalance of Oppositional Defiance.

This very common behavioral pattern is defined as:

a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures.

While we often celebrate this behavior pattern in art and music, it can significantly decrease the chance of victory for any doctor/patient relationship.

I believe this behavioral pattern is commonly seen in acne patients because once a patient is traumatized by failure after having listened carefully to their doctor, they begin to believe all doctors are either incompetent or out to get them. (It’s unfortunate that this paranoia is somewhat justified in our assembly line medical system)


Nonetheless, they will continue to defy all doctors even when he or she is quite competent and caring. It becomes a predictable and common behavioral pattern that is a set up for a lifetime of failed treatments.


You see, once a treatment failure occurs, the patient usually develops a deeper distrust thinking that they were “right” to defy their doctor in the first place. It’s a classic spiral of distrust, non-compliance with recommendations, failure, deeper distrust, and so on… (It’s classic and painfully predictable)


This 18 minute video vividly illustrates the emotional phenomenon that is occurring in the world of modern medicine:





After working with and carefully observing patients who display this behavioral pattern, I decided to directly address this problem in the acne bootcamp program with some non-negotiable rules. The major rules are that clients must use acne analytics to evaluate their skin and they must email in a time sensitive manner if having any concerns whatsoever.


These rules were never negotiable and the 100% success rate has always been dependent on clients participating as instructed.
The details of this relationship has been outlined Here.

With that in mind, I’d like to share with you the phenomenon of oppositional defiance that was recently found on the internet regarding this bootcamp program:

“Dr. Neal says to become part of his program I had to do acne analytics which is taking pictures and telling him which spots are oily and counting every pimple on your face and sending him these emails; admittingly I didn’t do that for the first month. Why would I? its not like the emails are going to cure my pimples and oilyness.”

Pay close attention to the “why would I?” part. This line of thought can only come from the reflex of distrust.


The elaborated sentence illustrates the behavior more vividly:

“Why would I join an acne bootcamp program and actually listen to the doctor who is running the program?”

There is a predictable reason why this person wouldn’t listen. Around here we call it oppositional defiance, distrust, and emotional distraction.

It’s the relentless and commonly seen habit of negotiating things that are not negotiable. It’s classic for acne sufferers and the inspiration to make the rules of this bootcamp written in stone. When someone breaches them, they are immediately self-removed from the program. They can restart anytime once they have recognized the breach and have promised to try better next time.

In future posts, we can discuss how acne is related to other behavioral and emotional problems such as defeatism, skepticism, pessimism, apathy, anger, reflex doom and gloom, fear of parasites, fear of fungus, fear of food, fear of activity, and various other emotional distractions.

Again, the more we observe, the less we emotionally react. This series should help many people become “good” clients in this rigid bootcamp relationship.

I’ll be here,

-Dr. Neal




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It’s very difficult to observe our own state of mind and emotional well being. We are all naturally self-protective which tends to create a biased, blinded evaluation of ourselves. While this coping skill is very useful in chasing great ambitions in life, it also can be very harmful when failing to witness what is out of balance in our bodies and minds. As an attempt to help people learn about the artistry of their own wellness, I want to list some subtle signs of emotional imbalance that hopefully will help people observe more and react less.


Ask yourself these questions:



1) Are you frequently getting into verbal conflicts ??

When I was overworked and in the trenches of my hectic New York office a few years back, I made a daily rule to help guide my own emotional reactions. Now keep in mind that I had been exclusively working with individuals who had serious, emotionally charged, chronic ailments. To keep some sense of sanity within the chaos, this was the guideline I created for myself: “If I have one conflict in the office, it’s those around me. However, If I have more than one conflict in a row, it’s me.” This rule would help me call myself out on my own predisposition for conflict. Know that if you are frequently riffing with those around you on a daily or weekly basis, your emotional balance is likely not what we would call “perfectly centered.”

If you’ve had arguments with two different people this week, take some time to think about this post. Your mood plays in every social interaction you will ever experience. It manifests consciously through the content and unconsciously through your mannerisms, body language, and tone of voice.

2) Do you think everyone around you is dumb, spoiled, superficial, or annoying??

If so, did you know that this is a sign of depression?

This question should help a lot of people in the more recent “information generation” observe their own reactions to the world. The world is filled with a huge range of consciousness, intelligence, joyfulness, sorrow, agility, and sensitivity. This will always be the case as we are not born with all the skills this world has to offer. The question is how will YOU navigate around those who are slower, less compassionate, or less resilient. Those who are more embittered, will often react negatively and decide to become brilliant spectators or critics of all those around them. Others who are more balanced will react more productively with compassion, empathy and efforts to assist others.

Often times it is the intellectual crowd who is getting more annoyed with those around them. Here’s a question for the countless intellectuals of the world:

“How good are you at making people laugh, dancing, flowing, and creating happiness in your life?” After a long stretch of scientific mastery, I’ve re-learned what I always knew to be true as a young man. I have been reminded that the true sign of intelligence is the ability to create balance and happiness. Rather than wasting precious energy and resources trying to spectate and criticize the world around you, a truely intelligent person will join in the game of life and finally become humbled by the challenges of finding relief, energy, balance, and contentment in any difficult situation that may arise.

3) Do you smoke cigarettes, get drunk a lot, or do drugs??

If you do, you may want to take a moment to ask yourself the simple question, “Am I unhappy??” It’s as simple as that. I’m not here to preach about this stuff but it’s appropriate to bring up in a post about depression. Emotional imbalance can either be quickly remedied or energetically worked on. As you know from prior acne treatments, simple unconscious remedies don’t always give long term relief.

4) Are you having trouble sleeping??

This has been mentioned in relation to mental health for decades. Simply ask yourself the question to get an idea of what is really going on beyond how you perceive yourself. (this post can give you some objective signs to think about)

5) Chronically Tired??

Regardless of your medical history, this is a sign of physical and mental depression. Start to take action rather than looking for a bizarre “diagnosis” to scapegoat the imbalance on. Even if you have a serious medical problem that causes fatigue, you are not exempt from the natural pitfalls of plain old depression.

6) Do you think a single element of life will save you??

People sometimes blame 100% of their depression on a single cause. While this is actually the case in some short term acne situations, in many other cases the acne is only half the battle. This is vividly proven when someone completely clears their skin to perfection and is still left chronically miserable. It is my personal belief, and the belief of others around the world, that the suicides that have followed accutane use are primarily do to this phenomenon of behavior. A depressed, acne ridden individual strongly believes that their acne is the soul cause of their loneliness, unhappiness, and struggle. However, they painfully learn after their skin is clear that life is not always that simple. This realization can be very shocking and too much to handle for some people.

What is often not prepared for is the emotional trauma that has been caused by the prior acne ordeal, the years of social isolation, the habit of spectating life rather than living it, and the social awkwardness that is created from self-loathing. These things alone create ongoing misery and need to be addressed and worked on with the same intensity that the acne was worked on.

If you think one element, treatment, financial gain, or love will save you, you may be thinking simplistically from a place of depression. (I call this simplified view of the world the “lottery mentality”)

Like all creative arts, the artistry of finding contentment will not be based on a single element or windfall. Rather, it will be based on a set of skills that can creatively work with the challenges of life that will inevitable rise for us all at sometime or another.

7) Are you anxious??

In my opinion, anxiety, angst, panic attacks, and chronic phobias are simply the back side of the coin of depression. It’s all a sign of emotional imbalance that can manifest in many ways. While old fashioned psychological diagnoses have helped some people find a path to treatment, it’s much more effective in my opinion to lump all the psychological and behavioral disorders into the category of emotional imbalance. It helps to remove the stigma as well as to give hope. After all, that which is imbalanced can be worked on to find balance. Much more workable and less daunting than the old fashioned, self-victimizing terms like “bipolar”, “schizto”, “major disorder”, and “attacks”. I believe one day the psychiatric community will be forced to take accountability for allowing these medical terms to slip into and wreak havoc on our culture. These “diagnoses” do only one thing for our society. They condemn people to a lifetime of self-victimization. (As the audience of this transformational project expands, I will be relentlessly pushing this strongly held belief)






This list is obviously not comprehensive. Hopefully it provoked some self-investigation. If after reading this you’re thinking, “hmm, maybe I am a little depressed relative to years past”, here some actions you can take to work on the current situation:

1) see the post regarding my emotional treatment philosophy.

2) participate in the crossfit section of blog.

3) without avoiding or skipping the crossfit recommendation above, also consider seeing a healer, acupuncturist, life coach, practitioner, etc, to give you a jump start on your challenges.




Bottom line:

-Depression is not a “diagnosis” as it’s the predictable default path for anyone who is not actively working on their life or energy. When you see how universally prone we are all to this imbalance, the stigma can be released, and the needed actions to create balance can be incorporated immediately without further delay or distraction.

-The more we observe, the less we react. If you’re feeling crabby or annoyed today, you’re a little depressed today. it’s ok, try to do something about it rather than indulging and propagating the imbalance. Actions are the only thing that can save you.

(Try to avoid creatively finding the perfect reason not to take action)




If you’d like to contribute and help heal the imbalances of our global community, please share this post with your friends and family.

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-Dr. Neal






©2011 “7 Subtle Signs of Depression” by Dr. Neal Schwartz

Follow @AcnePractice

For those of you I’ve never met in person, there is now a short introduction video clip on the About Dr. Neal page:

My skin feels great today. It’s not just that it looks alright. The sensation of heaviness, itchiness, heat, bumps, and irritation has been removed. Like removing a thorn from a paw, the physical catharsis feels incredible. For those of you who know me from the former office, you’ll quickly notice my first beard in 35 years. This transformation of feeling ultra-clean while growing facial hair seemed an impossibility a few years ago. Whenever the 48 hour mark of not shaving would come around, my face would get uncontrollably oily and the resulting irritation and bumps would be unbearable. It was yet another great journey of life I avoided due to my skin. I’m happy to say that this inhibition is gone and my face feels completely comfortable with the beard. The freedom and level of control is hard to believe sometimes.

You may be wondering why I keep showing my surf videos on an acne practice site…

It relates to the conversation above. While battling with my own skin for the past 20 years, I found myself avoiding many situations that would send me over the edge.

Here are some of the things I used to unconsciously and consciously avoid in an effort to maintain a reasonable level of control in my life:

the beach (suntan lotion, sweat, and humidity was quite a stress test)

skiing (sweat and goggles, hats, and neck warmers caused trouble for me)

any outdoor activity like a barbeque, outdoor party, or gathering. (the humidity or the cold would cause my angry skin to act up)

any sun exposure (due to direct discomfort of inflamed skin)

daytime socializing in general. (outside weather of all types would cause facial discomfort)

It wasn’t exactly the most chill existence…, 20 years of it on and off in varying degrees. Come to think of it now, it was a living hell inherently. But as a very resilient and optimistic person, I developed many methods and tactics to cope with the discomfort of life. One of those was to recklessly throw myself into projects and work. The classic workaholic is someone who immerses themselves in their passionate work partially to escape the pain of the world outside of work. In my case, the pain was a day off. The idea of taking a stroll in the park on a day off sounded like a day to be reminded that my skin was tingling, red, flushing, and angry. It was the perfect setup for imbalance, a life of stress and disease, and an existence that would surely have been riddled with deep regret if not corrected.


While running from aggravating circumstances, I found myself not eager to get to the beach or to the mountain ever. This lack of desire was in absolute contrast to my childhood and looking back, was a clear sign that my health was not in balance. The idea of blazing my already inflamed skin with sun and lotion was just not worth the pain of both the day’s discomfort and the inevitable aftermath of oil and bumps. Simply put, it wasn’t worth the consequence and I made unconscious and conscious decisions to avoid some of the best things in life. For example, a stroll outside on a sunny day…

So here’s the story of transformation:


I’m no longer inhibited. I’m not scared of suntan lotions, and not scared of the sun. I’m not avoiding outdoor activities in any way and can control my skin in all environments with efficient efforts. While there is no cure for anything chronic, now that my mind has eased and my skin feels comfortable, I feel that I am “cured”


This video below represents my newly found celebration of life as a person who is no longer punished by enjoying a beautiful day outside in the water. I live without fear or inhibition. I’m currently working on a new video tutorial project to ensure that no one else ever needlessly suffers and avoids life like I did.


(just started surfing a few years ago. try full screen)

It’s been a wild journey.
I hope this blog helps others observe their own emotional reactions to the challenges of life.
-Dr. Neal