At the height of one of the happiest times of her life, awaiting the birth of her first child, Aimee Skaggs was hit with a devastating facial skin condition.

"All through my pregnancy, my complexion became redder and redder, until it was almost purple," Skaggs said. "I tried not to let it get me down. I was excited about my first child and didn't want to feel as though the only thing I cared about was how I looked."

Lori Appling felt completely in the dark. For some unknown reason, her complexion was acting up. She developed welt-like pimples on her cheeks. Her first thought was that it must be acne, but none of the acne products she used improved her symptoms. In fact, her face got worse.

"It really worried me," Appling said. "I never had any problems with my complexion. I knew I had to do something."

Theodore C. Kent, Ph.D. has his own method for soothing his rosacea. He turns to poetry to help relieve stress and his rosacea symptoms.

"Poetry, because of its rhythms, dives into your psyche," said Dr. Kent, a retired clinical psychologist who now teaches retirees who have gone back to school. "It provides advice and encouragement that make you feel better about yourself."

Denise Balzo had always taken great pains to look her best. She exercised nearly every day and was blessed with a clear complexion. Then, two years ago the heartache began.

"It started after a death in my family," Balzo said. "I was under such tremendous stress, I started to break out."

Balzo developed a red area on her cheeks and across her nose. More alarming than the redness, though, was the severity of the bumps and pimples that appeared.

Marjorie Pendleton was concerned about her blurry vision. She couldn't see things clearly, so she made an appointment with an eye specialist to get some answers. "The first thing he said to me was, 'How long have you had those red cheeks?'" Pendleton said.

By Kathy Stern's recollection, it all started at the age of 46 when she decided to try a new facial cream containing alpha hydroxy acids, which help remove dead skin cells and make skin smooth. At first, said Stern, her skin never looked better. Then, everything went awry.

"I switched brands and almost immediately my chin started breaking out, then my cheeks. The women at the cosmetic counter said this redness sometimes occurs when you first use these products."

Tami Carlson thought it was ironic. At the age of 33, she was spending more time pampering and worrying about her complexion than ever before. She was accustomed to blushing and burning easily, a common byproduct of her Scandinavian background, blue eyes and pale skin. But now her face was constantly red and irritated looking. "It was just ridiculous, and at my age," Carlson said.

"It was especially annoying because I had never had any skin problems before." But more than that, her bad skin could effectively sabotage her modeling career.

John was a respected professor on a college campus. Then at the age of 57, he started to have trouble with pimples and redness on his face, mostly on his nose. He had periodic outbreaks, followed by soreness and an embarrassing red nose. Though John's facial problems didn't seem to affect his professional relationships, he was still concerned.

"I was worried that people might associate my red nose with drinking," he said.