Story so far ....

Hey all, I'm Tim age 16 and from England.
I'm new to acne.org and this is my story so far.

Well where to begin...
My acne story began when i was about 13-14. It started fairly mild from what i can remember; mostly on my face, particularity my forehead. At first my acne didn't rely bother me tbh I thought that it would shortly pass over and clear (obviously not though otherwise I doubt I would find my self writing this). So, as I grew older (later part of 14 years) my acne was still lingering. This was when I thought that a doctor visit was necessary, (although i did go through a month of my mum telling me that it was fine and would clear before she eventually booked an appointment). So 14 going on 15 (can’t remember exact dates) i went to see my local gp and this is where my treatment began.

So upon seeing he described my acne being mild but had the potential to worsen. He then prescribed me a common oral antibiotic for acne called Oxytetracycline. To start with my dose was fairly low. And sure enough after about 2 weeks of medication my acne began to get better. But then after being on the medication for about a month this "getting better" halted as my acne did not get any worse nor better. All that had seemed to be achieved was controlling my acne outbreaks. So sure enough i was straight back to my gp. He decided to up my dosage of the Oxytetracycline. Once again the pattern was relatively the same. My acne cleared up slightly before the healing process hit this so called "wall".

So being about 15 and a few months i once again found myself back at the gp's. This time my oral medication was changed to Erythromycin and I was also prescribed PanOxyl 5% Benzoyl Peroxide. So my treatment began once again, and yes I the same results, (At this point the Benzoyl Peroxide did not play a large part). So being about 15 and 9 months maybe, I was back at the gp. This time my medication was switched back to the Oxytetracyline. This time the medication seemed to have no effect what so ever, and my acne worsened (maybe also coupled with stress of exams). This is when I turned to the internet for advice.

After coming across a few dodgy looking sites trying to sell me god knows what i came across Dan's acne.org and the regime. (This time frame is around the past two months or so, began near the end of summer break [July - early September]). So i thought right I have plenty of Benzol Peroxide so i decided to give the regime a go. Due to already using Benzoyl Proxide multiple times before my plan was to start with the full wammy (twice a day full dose), this was one of the biggest mistakes i have made in my acne life. After about 2 days my skin was as pink as a lobster and the after about a week it all began to peel off (badly). To make things worse i had to go back to school with my skin in this condition, (talking about a bad week!). So after that experience i decided to let my skin heel for a week or two and then i would stat the regime again but from the start with small dosages. I started the regime number two about two weeks ago, but my spots were still awful (especially on my forehead). So I was back to the gp (this was on Tuesday). Due to my past and number of visits my gp decided that it was time i saw a specialist. So i have an appointment on Wednesday.

And that’s my life with acne so far.
As previously mentioned I am new to acne.org so I don't know if I am posting this whole thing in the right place :S ( i suppose if your reading this then I posted it somewhere people can read it)

I know this whole thing is about me, but I was hoping that sharing my story will open up people to share theirs with me.

Thanks for reading

Tim