Michael was suffering from what I can understand, pretty bad acne during his youth. He didn't wanna go outside the house many times and he had difficulties talking to people. He always looked down or away, trying not to make eye contact. He didn't wanna see that they saw. During some time he didn't even look at his mother when they used to speak. During his time on stage you couldn't tell that he had a problem with himself because of the perfect covering makeup and well adjusted light. Offstage was worse, then you could really tell that he was uncomfortable and had great complexions. It was hard for Michael. To him it was humiliating when people used to coment about it, he knew it too well anyway, they didn't have to say anything. He says that it subconsciously set scars in his selfconfidence and ability to socialize with people later on. "I got very shy and emarrased to meet people. The effect on me was so bad that it messed up my whole personality." His mother, Katherine says: "The changes that it brought in him became permanent. He was no longer a carefree, outgoing, devilish boy. He was quieter, more serious and more of a loner."

I, too, suffer from severe acne, but I'm fortunate to finally have gotten medication now. It really is hard to live with, most people wouldn't know. Almost everyone has had acne during their teenage years, but it's a differens between ordinary puberty acne and the more severe type. As Michael, it has prevented me from doing a lot things in my life, because it brought me such shame and knocked out my selfconfidence, real bad. I started to be able to live with my disease and trained my confidence, but I couldn't really exlude it entirely, it was still there, bugging me. My acne is very well improved, I have only about two months left on my treatment, and soon it'll be gone, forever.

So in this case, I can really say that I know what he's been trough and how it's affected us. It sticks to you real bad, and some people, never really recoveres..