Years.

That's how long it's been since I've felt this good.

Years of trial and error. After experimenting with every over-the-counter topical, prescription BP, minocycline, even regular ibuprofen usage: I've finally found my perfect regiment to curing years of horrible cystic acne.

The cure is nothing.

It was my last resort. I decided to stop everything and just let me skin relax for a few days. No excessive twice-a-day routines, no pills, no antibiotics.

I'm currently 19. I've suffered four years of acne, with the last two producing severe cysts and bacne — all over my forehead, cheeks, chin, jawline, even neck. They wouldn't stop appearing no matter what I did. Before moving out west, I spent the previous year traveling 1.5 hours to the top-rated dermatologist in the northeast. She urged me to go on accutane, and even said I was one of her worst cases. Dozens of bottles prescriptions sit in my desk, all piled up on top of the large (and intimidating) Accutane manual. (A college student... not drinking excessively?)

Basically, I said f*** it.

And bizarrely enough, everything turned around. All I did was splash water on my face at night and apply a good amount of moisturizer. I haven't had a cyst in about a month!

That's it. A splash of water and moisturizer. My theory is that because of my excess amounts of BP, which completely dried out my skin, my body was forced to produce extra oils to keep my face moisturized. In tern, those extra oils clogged deep in my skin, producing cysts.

Now keeping my face is moisturized has made all the difference in the world. No more pills, topicals, etc.

I could look back and say, "wow, that was a waste of thousands of dollars, time and effort." But really I'm so happy right now that I don't even care! It's truly remarkable. I really want to thank all of you on this board. I never post but I read often.

To those of you who are struggling out there: Keep at it and never give up. There's always a way.

Hit me up ladies.

-ArizonaHeat

I remember when my skin was bad and I'd try anything that worked for anyone. So, if anyone out there still needs help, they can try my regimen.

sulfur helps shed the outer layer of cysts so all of the bad stuff isn't trapped in there for months. it's also antibacterial/antifungal. in laymen's terms, what happens is any cysts i develop never really get that inflamed and they simply disappear in less than a week.i use grandpa's thylox soap

shea butter is chock full of fatty acids. fatty acids help cysts when taken internally, so why not put it right on your face? it also has lots of vitamin e which speeds healing and helps w/ scars.

good luck!

Sometimes I pop a spot (deep or not) and it seems if the contents all came out. However my skin swells (red/white color) and remains raised for sometime. It always makes me worry if the fluid caused by the bodys defence of swelling will cause another pimple (or worse pustule or cyst).

Is it always the case that the swelling will reduce and the area will heal flat again or is it possible the inflammation (considering you removed the original bacteria and contents) and fluid caused by the swelling can create another spot?

What do you guys think?? I hate it when I pop a spot and it still seems bad because of the swelling which raises the skin so you cant detect if the original lesion was actually removed.

Ok, as difficult as it was for me to upload these,
to say that I'm desperate is an understatement.

This is what I've been dealing with for the past 2+ years
and i know you've heard it before, but NOTHING is working.

Firstly, how would you rate my acne? I'm pretty convinced I belong on this forum
I'll get a few cysts every now and then but even if its just whiteheads, I'm 100% sure it would be considered severe.
Does anybody else have a similar case? I want to talk to YOU!!
what I've noticed is all the advice I've been following has been coming from those users who are bitching over three measly zits. I need someone who understands what I'm going through.

Please, anyone, help me out here.
Much thanks.

the bad side
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/Iri...pg?t=1227569461
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/Iri...pg?t=1227569486

my "better" side
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/Iri...pg?t=1227569531
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/Iri...pg?t=1227569596

Newbie here...

I'll get occasional cysts, recently it seems I have a ton cropping up on my face, but sometime a really *huge* one will come along - you know, the kind you can feel growing. Yuck!

Now, I know it's not 100% kosher, but I'll admit it - I've sometimes taken a sterilized needle to drain the cyst and then hydrocortisone ointment-ed the hell out of it. Sometimes it works, sometimes not-so-much... but to be honest, I think the worst damage it's caused is a small red mark that eventually fades.

I've had cysts injected before and it's worked wonderfully - no damage to the skin whatsoever. On the other hand... last time I went to the evil Derm Doc, I had her inject two humongoid ones, and I swear she used a 7 gauge needle on them... surprise, surprise, I now have two dents in my face.

Okay, now, 'fess up! Am I the only "sinner" here?

Hi-

Ive had acne for about 9 years (im 19 almost 20), and over this past year for some reason it has gotten worse than ever- its now all over my cheeks where it didnt used to be and scarring. Weird thing is, when it started getting worse, i started trying to drastically change my diet, cleanse etc. Sure, i cheated often, but i was still eating and supplementing better than ever. And now its so bad i dont know what to do. There was a while when i thought it was getting a lot better a few years ago, and i didnt think about it. Now its all i think about, and i avoid mirrors at all cost (not exaggerating how bad this is)

Wondering: What should i do? Could it really be this awful because of stress(i do have high stress)? Should I continue eating stringently? Also, do u think exercising would help even a little even if diet doesnt? Do you think it keeps getting worse because i stressed my body with cleansing, etc?

Also, my acne is horribly red and inflamed. Ive heard some talk about an anti-inflammatory diet, but what is that in detail?

thanks,

at the end of my rope

heres a brief history
i have been on 3 courses of accutane over a period of 6yrs, minocycline, a bunch of cremes/gels
currently using: st ives apricot scrub, cetephile moisturizer, tazorac, BHA gel, Zhongzhou Zinc oxide and
Sublimed sulfur ointment
some of the acne i get never comes to a head and instead are just red bumps that heals and fades over time..
anybody kno what type of acne this is??
http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img632ee0.jpg
http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img632ee0.jpg

any regimen recommendations ??

Ive had acne since i was 12 yrs old..
Im 20 now..
Back then I had white heads etc just normal acne..
Nowadays, my acne has no heads...
They are just red bumps that DONT GO AWAY FOR A LONG TIME...
Sure they eventually fade, but they leave an everlasting mark of red or dark purple..
Right Now Im on Tazo..
Just started it yesterday, and was wondering if this medication could help the type of acne that I have...
I want to reduce the redness and some of the scarring..
Will Tazo help me with this?

Also, Please rate my acne on a 1 to 10.
10 being the worst you have ever seen...

I sometimes wonder if I look that bad.. people always stare and it bothers me so much..
I hate my life at times.....

so i got a couple cortisone shots in my cheek and now im getting some major dents from the atrophy. i know this is probably not permanent adn will heal over 6 months - 1 year, but if i got restylane would my skin heal on its own while the filler was there? thanks!

Can anyone tell me if this would be considered "severe" acne? To ME it feels severe, but I've been told I overreact a lot and am just being "vain", so I just don't know. I can't get in to see a dermatologist until late October. I have an appointment with my GP early next week. Is this considered Accutane-worthy, or do you think they will try antibiotics or birth control pills first? I've never tried either of those for my acne; only topicals. I've been using Dan's regimen for the past 3 1/2 weeks. I was using AcneFree Severe before that. I've always considered myself as having moderate acne, but in the past couple of months, it has transformed into this. Any help/advice would be appreciated.

[attachment=12698:pic2.JPG]

I dont know what to do... These past two years my acne has gone from not so bad to absolutely horrible. I hate going out because i know people will just be like oh wow look at him... Now i only go out for stuff i need and i always wear like huge hoddies to cover up my face. Its becomming so rediculous. I went to the doctor the other day and he even noticed how bad it was and he just gave me some antibiotics and some cream and now my face is even DRYER than b4. Its so unbearable i just wanna scratch my face till its all away. it hurts to touch with my fingertips and open my mouth now, even smile/laugh. and my parents are like "IT will pass with time".......... Theres no possible way this crap will pass with time. it looks kinda like http://www.accessmedicine.com/loadBinary.a...wolf_1e-A5t.jpg
except its all dryer than hell... In all honesty its starting to take a huge emotional toll on me. So yeh i dont know what to do and sorry for the wall of text im just super pissed off right now that nothing is going my way at all -.-

Ive been suffering from severe acne for 8-9 years now, but 2 months ago I got some tips from a friend how to clear my skin up. And this has really been working out for me, so I hope this could work for you to.
The first thing i started was to was my face more often. Mainly in the morning and right before going to bed, but also after being out of the house for a longer period of time. This will help with washing away much of the unnecessary fat and bacteria that plug's up the pores and don't allow the skin to breath properly.

Second, i started changing my bed sheets more often. I usually change it very other 2-3 days. This keeps fat from smudging off to my skin. It's especial important to change the pillowcase every day. Even though you don't use any hair products, fat will get from you hair to your pillow in the night and then on to your face.

Third. I stopped using any hair products, so when I wash my hair, the fat from the hair products wont run down over my face, back and chest.

Fourth. I have 2 types of pressures on my shower head, so I use the hard pressure to wash my face, neck and back when I'm in the shower. And I never wash my hair at the same time. (I usually wash it after in the sink) And I never use any shower gel or soap, as I discovered that it only did thing worse with the acne. Instead I just use really hot water.

Fifth. I try not touching my face with my palms as much. I don't want the fat and bacteria from my palms getting in my face. (So wash you hands regularly).

And I also stopped eating and drinking dairy products. I don't know if this has anything to say, but I read on this site that acne and dairy is linked somehow.
And fresh air is also important. So stay outside, and not on your ass by the TV
And the most important, don't stop doing this after your skin clears up. The acne might come back

I hope this will help you as much as it has helped me.




Ive tried using
10 % benzoylperoxid
acetone (worked for a few weeks, but gave me a chemical burn in my neck)
Accutane (worked for a few years, but the acne came back)
Tanning (just hides the acne)
Isopropyl alcohol
and a lot of different ointments.

It's right below my nose. I'm not even touching it, but I can feel it throbbing--growing, even. It's so fricken red. How do I make it gone asap.

I started to develop very minor hard bumps in between my breasts when i was about 16 years old. as i got older (now 23 years old) these bumps have become much more noticeable and have spread down to my stomach. there is no scarring or black dots in the middle or redness. just hard bumps under the skin - i am little concerned...some of them seem to be growing. some of them are big enough to see, while other you have to feel around for. i doubt it is some sort of breast cancer....i have searched online on the possibilities of what it could be and no answrs. my doctor said thats its just side affects from puberty...but i'm now 23 years olf and they have not gone away.


any ideas on what it might be?

I'm a veteran poster on this board. I have tryed everything. From Dans reg to eating like a rabbit. Carrots, strictly veggies. I Still got cystic acne. I have been in the hospital twice from my face being covered in cystic acne and getting and infection. I had cortizone shots done on a daily basis. I had one derm feel so sorry for me he gave me a shot pack so I could do it myself. Been on tane, antibiotics. You name it. I'm feed up with people saying you have to eat this way or that way to be clear stay away from this that and the other. I have figured out what it takes to be clear not just me but other people as well. I have tested this regimen on other people besides me so it works. Infact this regimen works so well it has gotten deleted on this board in the past. I have advertised the reg several times in years go by and it has gotten deleted so read it while you can before it gets deleted again. I know I know i been on this boad long enough to know people will say how can you say this regimen works for people. Well my question back to you is have you tried it.

Its very simple.

All products can be had at walmart
Oxy 10 Chill Factor
Oxy Bar Soap
psyllium husk fiber capsules

Simple
In the morning take 6 psyllium husk fiber capsules
Then lather the oxy bar soap on your face.
Then rinse it off with a rag
Then use the oxy 10 chill factor apply to the acne prone areas. Let it sit on your face for 10 to 15 mins.
Then rinse it off with a rag. Let your face air dry. One might ask how thick should I put the oxy 10 chill factor on. I say just a decent amount. Not to thick but not to thin.

At night before you go to bed.
repeat same steps minus the taking of the husk fiber capsules since you already took them earlier.

Thats it no 2 inch thick bp no 30 min reg no crack donut look on your face no cystic acne. The thing I have realized is bp is not meant to be left on its meant to be taken off since your skin has already hit a saturation point. Do not say it doesnt work unless you phyiscally tried it.

I will take any questions.

anybody tried colon cleansing? results?

or are you predisposed to these more severe forms of acne (conglobata, fluminans)?

Thanks everyone

I'm going to see my GP then hopefully he'll recommend a visit to the dermotologist.

I'm only 15, and my acne has been pretty bad since was 13.

unlike most teens, i've been intensively fighting mine with multiple treatments, but nothing helps?

Am I silly, I just don't want to spend my teens knowing i'll never look good.

I want to not have to constantly worry.

I've tried so hard,

The doctor will obviously give dietry requirements and recomments anti biotics, but if these fail like every treatment i have. yet i do have strict dietry plans, will he consider accutane at my age?

Thanks

Hi,

I originally joined this board as Kitty's mom, because my 17 y/o daughter was considering taking accutane. Well, now she has decided against it and is on bcp. Just started that a bit over a week ago, so not seeing any real results, yet.

In the meantime, my 20 y/o daughter, who has always had clear skin with an occasional zit every now and then, has developed cystic acne.

She went to the dermo in late October, who put her on minocycline for the past month. This does not seem to help, in fact her face has gotten worse and she is discovering new bumps every day.

Needless to say, she (and I) is very frustrated by this. We are trying to decide what might be the cause.....overwashing, overdrying, stress (she says she is not stressed, except by her breakouts), diet, make up (she has been using bare minerals since Feb and this recent breakout started in late September when she got a new jar of the make up).

anyway....HELP!!!!! I need to try to find something for both of my girls.....I have suggested accutane, which I myself took for cystic acne when I was 30.....I just don't want them to continue to suffer with this monster called acne.

Little history..... I am a 26 yr old female, had acne since the age of 13. Very large cyst type on neck, jawline, chin area. My forehead has always had hundreds of tiny bumps on it. At any given time I had 5 or 6 large pimples on my face, plus the bumpy forehead, and large clusters of cystic acne on my jawline/neck area and back. I have tried every single otc medicine out there. Also proactive. I have taken the following prescriptions: Clindamycin cream and pills, retin a, minocycline, and doxycycline and one other cream type that had to be kept refrigerated.
I had 0 improvement with any of these. Retin A made my face worse. Now my miracle!!! I quit using any acne medications at all. I wash my face morning and night with cetaphil soap. The strange part.....I use a baby toothbrush after I have applied the soap and gently scrub my face with it. It needs to be very soft, you don't want to irritate your skin. I believe that it cleans much deeper than washing alone, and also gets rid of dead skin that clogs pores. I began to see improvement with this, but not 100%. I had a huge cluster of marble size cysts on my neck near my ear. They were so painful it hurt to move my neck. Every time one would heal, more would form. I was scared it was getting infected, so I covered the area with neosporin. The cysts were all gone in the morning! After seeing that, I began covering my whole face with neosporin at night after I washed it. Within one week my whole face is clear. Still have redness but 100% clear. Even the 10,000 tiny bumps on my forehead are gone. I am shocked. My skin hasn't looked this good in 13 years. I plan to keep this up. There is no downside to it. Instead of drying out my skin, the neosporin makes it soft. It also has pain reliever in it which helps with the painful spots. I used the white cream type with pain reliever.
Morning: wash with cetaphil, exfoliate with baby toothbrush
night: wash with cetaphil, cover face with thick layer of cream type neosporin ( not the clear kind)

I really hope this can help someone with their struggle. It causes suffering in so many ways, and people with clear skin don't understand the pain. I will try to post pics, but I have very few because I never liked my photo taken. I am hoping some of the scarring will clear up as well.

Ear acne sucks. I get it on my ear lobes and behind my ears and inside too. It's painful to put on earphones and it sucks because they're so sensitive! Oh well, at least I have long hair so no one can see when I have a big inflamed nodule on there. And there's no way in hell I'm treating my ears with BP.

What do you guys do when you have that one event where you need to at least hide your skin?

Basically, I'm going to the sharks game tomorrow
and all my classmates will be coming home from college and we haven't seen each other for a year.
At this point, I'm considering not going.
Is there anything I can do tonight and tomorrow to at least minimize my poor skin? even if its only temporary.

my dermatologist put me on this for a week now,
has anyone used this? I have not seen much improvement I actually think it got a bit worst........
please help

this is getting so old.
i'm sure none of you need a summary of the stubborn acne cycle
but in sum, i was slowly starting to clear up for a few weeks
and today i had a big meeting full of my friends who I hadn't seen for a few months
and all of a sudden, my face just turned to shit.
it's like acne has a will of its own
and it only looks good when I'm home alone.

My parents are kind enough to sugarcoat it
and tell me when my skin is looking better
but my kid siblings are so blatant
and I can't help but thinking that if little kids are noticing how bad my skin is, my friends are obviously thinking the same.
hence, paranoia at school, with friends, even with my own family.

my favorite is when people say "oh you'll grow out of it."
now, is that before or after my face is destroyed beyond recognition?

whatever, this isn't a pity me post.
I'm just venting. Any words of wisdom are welcome.

Okay so this sucker blew up from just a regular breakout to a monster over like two days, and I didn't even do anything to cause it. I haven't had one this huge in a loooong time (and the last time I did, I picked it and the infection spread and got positively gigantic--so I'm definitely enforcing a NO PICKING rule on this puppy), and I'm not exactly sure how to deal with it. It was just a regular breakout on Thursday and Friday, and then on Saturday it grew, and Sunday it grew, and today it was just massive.

It's definitely tender to the touch. At times it even feels like it has its own little pulse (isn't that the freakiest thing ever? like there's actual living evil under there), and the area even outside the 'core' area is inflamed and raised, too. I tried to get the best pics I could so you could see the area around it as well.

I've been icing it in the morning and before bed for the last two days.. should I continue doing that? Also, would Neosporin be of any help this late in the game? I've used Neosporin in the past for ones that have popped/bled, but I don't know if it would be helpful to this beast since the skin isn't broken or anything. I'm also taking Ibuprofen as an anti-inflammatory, but so far it has not brought down the inflammation.

Any tips would be appreciated, because normally I'd just attempt to pop/drain the sucker, but after the last one I had similar to this caused 25% of my face to rage against me, I CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT pick at or needle this one.

What do you think?

Hello! Currently I am on 100mg of minocycline twice a day, with .1% tazorac in the morning an 4% hydroquinone at night. I have been making sure to avoid sun exposure as much as possible, and sometimes even avoiding artificial light (it sometimes makes my skin itch like mad and feel red hot). For the past few weeks I have literally stayed inside all day, and just done anything I need to at night, so the only sunlight I get is whatever sneaks through the blinds.

While I have no problem with this at all, my Mom's fiance who lives with us is at his wit's end. Just today he got in a huff saying I never went outside and it wasn't healthy and how wrong it is. It really isn't causing any problems for any of us though, in fact since I'm inside more I keep the house a lot cleaner, so I can't see why he's so upset other than that he finds it weird or unnatural.

My mother understands why I'm inside so much, and despite explaining it several times to her fiance it doesn't really stick in his head. Is he overreacting and can anyone provide me with any medical articles to help back me up? Should I just call my derm and have her explain it to him?

Or, am I in the wrong here? Am I really not getting enough sunlight? Thank you in advance for your answers, I appreciate your help beyond words. :)

Woke up this morning and theres 2 angry looking red bumps on my nose , One RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE END OF MY NOSE and the other on the side of my nose. They are pimples because ive had them there before, but the dont have heads they are just large red bumps.

HOW DO I GET RID OF THEM????? I have work in 2 days and i dont want to go looking like rudolph the red nosed raindeer

Hi everyone. I've been reading the forum here for awhile, and everyone seems very knowledgeable and supportive, so I'm hoping that someone might be able to help me...
So, here's my story. I'm almost 20 years old and I've been dealing with moderate/severe acne for about 7 years. Well, things were looking up for awhile, but over the past year or so my acne has become worse than ever before. I went to a dermatologist because there was just no reason that I should be breaking out so severely at this point in my life, but nothing at all we did helped. Over the years I've tried:
Erethromycin/Benzoyl peroxide topical-only worked slightly, and stopped being effective very quickly.
Mynocyclin pills-made me sick, didn't change my skin at all
Clindamycin topical-worked better than the erethromycin/BP, but again it stopped being effective after a short time.
Doryx (doxycyclin) pills (recent treatment)-6 weeks, made me sick, no improvement in my skin at all
Retin A Micro (recent treatment)-verdict still out on this one, because my derm took me off it when it didn't work after 6 weeks. After reading these boards I don't think it's very common for it to ever work after just 6 weeks. Needless to say, I stopped seeing this particular derm....
Laser treatment (recent treatment)- I was told that nobody had ever seen less than a 75% reduction in their acne after this treatment, it was basically guaranteed to work because it kills all of the bacteria on your skin and greatly reduces the oil production of your skin. Well, after 2 months of laser treatment, there was no change in my skin. If anything, it was worse.
All over the counter things you can think of...nothing helped.
I haven't noticed that anything I eat changes my skin. It has gotten to the point where I'm becoming deeply depressed, not just because of how I look, but because I feel like there's something very wrong with me and I don't know how to fix it.
So, with all of that said, is there anything at all that you guys can suggest for me to try (besides Accutane...I don't have the time/willpower/money to go through that)? Can anyone think of a possible cause for my acne to suddenly flare up so bad? And does this sound like it could be a hormonal issue rather than just overzealous bacteria? Thanks so much...