Re: I have soooooooo many stretch marks!!! :(

Hey, uglybody (I hate your name, by the way--pick something more affirming, please!), I can relate totally, and I think I am about to surprise you. I developed huge stretch marks on my abdomen when I was 11 or 12 from a rapid weight gain. My stomach looks like I gave birth to quadruplets, and it's been a source of insecurity all my life. Really, really bad. Here's the surprise: I am a 36 year-old MALE. And the stomach is just the beginning of it. I went through the adolescent chubby phase that caused the stomach striations, and then I grew to about 6' and lost a lot of weight, down to about 145. I then went through a weight-training phase, and guess what? Yes: I have HUGE, silver scars absolutely everywhere--my inner arms, my shoulders, my upper back, flanks, my entire right breast/"pec" is crawling with them, I have them on my hips, my butt, and even (seriously) my knees. And despite what the person below and others here may say, there truly is no effective treatment for stretch marks at this time. Trust me: I am friends with a cosmetic dermatologist who has done laser resurfacing on my face six times (expensive and PAINFUL) because of Acne scarring, and he says that the only way to remove stretch marks is to literally cut out sections of the skin, which is impractical in most cases. It really only works in tummy tuck procedures.

So all I can tell you is that you're not alone. My general life contentment is seriously affected by this condition, but here's the way I try to look at it: while most people I know will spend their vacation time at boring Caribbean beaches drinking their ways to numbness, I'll take my vacations in more interesting places, with my clothes on, and see more of the world.

We aren't all cut out to be supermodels, and that's just the way it is. I am being overly optimistic here: I actually ended up at this site because I've been feeling sad for the past few days, since I discovered that my entire right flank is absolutely covered in thick silvery fissures, but life has to go on. Some people lose limbs and consider themselves lucky to be alive, so I can't kill myself because I've had the worst luck EVER with my skin. Tweet