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My Story:
For the longest time, I had amazing skin. All of a sudden at age 16, I stopped growing vertically and my body literally changed shape from scrawny to muscular over the course of about a year, which meant I obviously had some huge hormonal surge, and it caused a bunch of acne and my skin was SUPER oily all of a sudden. I'm talking wiping a finger across my face, and having enough oil come off that you could have dipped it in bacon grease :S. I had a high junk food intake at the time (I would eat pizza every day, drink on average 1-2 cans of pop per day, and eat chocolate bars or whatnot regularly). I never seemed to gain any weight from it, so at the time I didn't think it was doing anything. For about a year, I tried a bunch of different over the counter products, nothing seemed to work, and all my acne ever did was get worse. At first it was my face and back, but then they started popping up in the middle of my chest, and eventually my shoulders.
Eventually, about a month before I turned 18, I went and saw a dermatologist. I was prescribed doxycycline with differin/clindoxyl topicals, and using all of that all together cleared my skin up significantly after around 4 or 5 months, and at the 7-8 month mark, my skin was left scarred, but otherwise perfectly clear (with the odd blemish here or there), so I started to wean off the topicals a bit, though I kept using the antibiotics. Around this time, I'd started attending university, and of course, I made some changes to my lifestyle that I regret now. At first it was weekly binge drinking, but sometime last January I started smoking pot on a regular basis, and I was eating alot of junk food at this time. This continued until around the end of February, when all of a sudden I noticed that my acne was back (though slightly less than before). I promptly stopped smoking pot and drinking), and I decided to focus on exercising and dieting to start detoxifying myself, since I probably did a number on my liver. I got a bit lazy and stopped with the topicals after a few weeks, instead focusing on curing it naturally. It started going down a great deal, but I decided it wasn't enough, and 3 weeks ago I started up again on the topicals, and I'm still purging a bit, but my skin's definitely making progress at this point. I hoped it would be all clear now at age 19, but looks like I'm back to square one
. At least it's clearing faster this time, and my skin is WAY less oily than before.On another point, I started noticing increased facial hair growth along with the acne, so it's probably another hormonal surge, I probs threw it out of whack with umm... irresponsible substance use.
As of now, I have breakouts that are concentrated on my jawline, shoulders, back, chest, and a couple of areas on my face. Most of it's scarring, so it probably looks worse than it actually is, but it's hard to tell sometimes
.My Regimen:
- No smoking whatsoever
- Limiting alcohol intake, moderating when I do happen to drink (on occasion). I usually have the odd standard drink here and there, but on the odd occasion I don't see anything wrong with having around 2-4.
- Multivitamin in the morning with breakfast, one dose of doxycycline at either lunch or dinner
- Shower in the morning, apply BP, and moisturize problem areas.
- Wash face in the evening, apply differin (adaplene) and moisturize (if necessary)
- Apply non comedogenic sunscreen to exposed areas before sun exposure
- Exercise a few times a week BEFORE showering.
- Limit dairy and sugar intake.
- Eat more fruit and vegetables (I try to eat an apple a day).
- Ensure I get at least 2 litres of water per day. More if I exercise, or if I drink.
The key to this regimen is balance, and I'll probably have to follow a good chunk of the above for the rest of my life. I'll keep everybody posted about the progress I make, but I'm off to bed now, I spent a good hour making this and I'm tired.
If anyone has any questions about what I'm doing, or even any advice, please feel free to post.
