pre-mature? maybe i cured my zits..

this year has been one of the MOST stressful of my life to-date.

to make i short & sweet. i done a lot of dumb things to my face; coupled with how stressed i was... it's a miracle my ENTIRE face isn't riddled with poc-marks.

first stop when i got tired of my acne: dermatologist
....they're booked till 2011 (in my area)

called an esthetician that works for a plastic surgeons office
.... to me, that's the next best thing( if not better!) than a derm.




anyway, she offered me some expensive soap for my cystic acne (obagi clenziderm)
... tried it for a few days... amazing difference! BUT i suffered severe redness, irritation.
dropped down to 1-2 days/week for obagi at night (other days neutrogena deep clean)


honestly, the only difference i notice is everything.
obagi:
a) tightens my skin (1st bottle)
b) sucks dry the clogged pores (bp bottle, the 3rd)
c) when i find myself encountering stressful situations, i do my best to talk my mind out of getting upset. (it is my belief, if i warn myself 'dude, you're gonna break out'.... i'll immediately clam down!)
d) the bp is great for spot-treatment. haven't had a failure with it, yet. once i spot a bump, i douse it in bp and within 3-4 days, it withers away.

the neutrogena will dry out my skin amazingly (in a bad way) if i use too much.

this esthetician stressed that i use a minimal amout of everything obagi, because it's "medicated" type soap.



i followed her instructions to not only obagi, but to my neutrogena fix too. it seems to work. my cheeks have cleared up 110%! i'm very happy with the results.


only thing i did different from her routine than mine (other than use diff. soap) was severely LIGHTEN how i washed my face....


...a) she suggested i 'massage' and not scrub
...b) she suggested i not use a washcloth, but my fingers ever-so-lightly (feather touch)


since i (personally) feel a drastic turn-around, is this all i needed? was someone to tell me how to wash my face properly??



skin BEFORE any treatment: extremely sensitive, highly active acne (major) cystic, on cheeks only.

pics: http://www.acne.org/messageboard/findpost-p2744725.html these are all with scarring only. the only acne present is probably 1-2 bumps, nothing major. (these are 'after' acne attacks)

i still find, that my cheeks (most acne-prone, but NOwhere else) is super red after high exposure to neutrogena (ie. used much more than a 'dime'... causes my face to turn BEET red), and, i do break out with too much exposure.


summary: was i washing TOO much, before? was i irritating my skin and thereby CAUSING acne, based on how furious i was washing?

......( i used to spot a bump and furiously scrub it until it exploded. only until i discovered this website in oct. did i stop doing that!)

does anyone notice the scars, but us?

in a topic i saw earlier today or yesterday, somebody mentioned something a teacher said to them: "nobody will notice your flaws because they're too worried about their own"

i wish i bookmarked it. i found it to be very inspiring.
i'm too worried about my own appearance to notice everyone else's flaws..


how about everyone else? do you still notice other people's imperfections more or less than your bout with acne?

does your skin develop sensitivity to cleansers?

can your skin develop a reliability on the cleansers you're using? (ie. once you stop using them and go to a different cleanser, could this make acne worse?)

or likewise, is it possible for your skin to develop immunity to a cleanser that previously worked?

scars, or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation?

can anybody tell from the pictures if i have actual scarring or just post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation?


as well, in the morning after i wake up, my face looks a lot less red and the tone matches far more than it does in the photo (taken about an hour after the night's face wash), why is this?

the second i wash my face (day or night), my cheeks are red as if i was slapping myself. i do not scrub or apply lots of pressure, i gently massage the soap into my face.. i use the same amount of pressure on my forehead as i do my cheeks, but my forehead is NEVER red.

most of my acne is on my cheeks. i do get the occasional zit on my forehead, but not very often.

too much BP?

last night i mistakenly used a bit too much BP in my problem area. today it has been itchy/tingly on and off and it looks as though i got 3 cysts showing up.

is this coincidence, or caused by the overuse of BP?