50 replies to this topic

[5ive]

I haven't forgotten about you guys!

I haven't been on here because my acne has cleared up.

1) Give up milk.
I put this NUMBER ONE because I want people to KNOW that MILK CAUSES ACNE. Cut it out. Do this strictly for 3 months. There have been studies to show there is a direct link for milk and boys and acne. http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/18194824
I found that doing this my skin cleared up, even on my back!

2) Get on BP
After washing your face (I just use water to do this), wait 5 mins, put on BP, wait 5 mins, and moisturize. This is Dan's regime. It helps. 'Nough said.

3) Realize you're not "dirty"
Don't scrub or scald your face. You are gorgeous. Don't try to change your skin. Don't buy into the hype that you need some harsh cleanser to make your skin feel better. Don't pick at your skin to get things out. I actually find acne commercials LAUGHABLE how they try to make you feel self-concious that you are DIRTY. Like Proactiv commercials are horrible and play into people's insecurities.

4) Don't pick
Let it come out of your skin. Your skin evolved to have acne for reason and it knows what it's doing. LEAVE IT ALONE. This website was awesome http://www.stoppickingonme.com/

5) Generally be healthy
The best face wash? Sweating. Urea from your sweat will do wonders. Just a rinse after is all you need. Don't damage your skin. There's such a thing as being too clean. You have a "horny layer" to protect it. Don't rip this off and let bacteria in. Laugh more. Eat better. Stop smoking.

6) Green smoothies
Seriously, look into this. A handful of kale, a handful of berries, a scoop of cinnamon, maybe half an avocado and maybe a cup of fiber cereal then just add some water, blend it up, you have yourself a really healthy treat for your skin and body. It tastes amazing and alternate your greens (instead of kale have spinach or romaine), but kale is really important since it is a great source of calcium and seeing as how YOU GAVE UP MILK you need this!

7) It's not perfect
Admit it. You have acne. Accept it. It sucks. Boo hoo. First world problems. Get over it. There's only so much you can do. You will get a zit here and there. Suck it up. Look people in the eye. Don't let it control your life. Easier said then done, trust me. We've all been there where we couldn't leave the house for months. But please try to better yourself and challenge yourself.

8) Sleep with a towel on your pillow
I'm lazy. I don't wash my sheets every other day. I'm more likely to wash a single towel though. Not only will this prevent the BP from staining your sheets, it keeps the bacteria away.

9) Mind over matter
You think you're going to break out? You are going to. You think that zit is really bad and is going to become inflamed? It will. You think you're going to clear up and have nice skin? You are.
Start being positive about your skin and stop focusing on the negative! I used to go inches away from the mirror and zone in on every pimple on my face. Then I started to practice standing away from the mirror at all times. It gave me a ton of anxiety, still does, but my opinion of my skin has completely changed.

I am positive that these changes will help someone out tremendously. I have no doubt my skin cleared due to hormonal changes (I am 25) but I still get breakouts.

Below is a pic taken with my shady webcam, but the cam usually picks up ALL redness. As you can see, there isn't any concentrated redness anywhere. I haven't had any issues with my skin in months. And if I did, it was usually so insignificant and due to cheating (i.e. having milk).

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Edited by 5ive, 01 June 2012 - 11:38 AM.

[downwithcysticacne]

Wow, this was so helpful! Thanks!!

[Ammy]

I agree with you, i think ur derm is a foolish , he probably just wanna make money from you, thats what derm do.
Like when i had my first acne, there were only 3 acnes on my face that time and i went to this derm and he gave me anti-biotic at first, when i told him its not really working, he asked me if i wanna try accutane..at that time i dont even know what accutane was, because i never had pimple before so i have limited knowledge about it, but my mom knew, she asked him about the side effects and when he told me, i was lilke..Wat the heck, i only have 3 acnes on my face why would i take that.

[5ive]

What's up everyone? Thanks for the responses, love them. For the record, I BROKE OUT. Ugh. I pretty much came on here to complain.

I allude this to a few factors. One, I've been cheating on my diet. I had dairy, sugar and way too much salt on multiple occasions. I thought it was great I wasn't breaking out but I spoke too soon.

I also got sick, stomach problems and a cold. So my immune system was down.

Last but certainly not least, the Summer has reached its zenith of humidity. Going back in my blog I realize that this is when I was breaking out like crazy too. My skin responds really badly to the humidity and the smog.

To be honest folks, I've been doing the regime ONCE a day for a while now cause I got lazy. My skin was amazing and I was on cloud 9 for months, not even thinking twice. Now I'm left with a mess. A tingling, buzzing, zitty mess. It's the kind of zits that just tingle tingle TINGLE. It's hard not to think of them when they are so physically annoying.

So, I came up with a plan while in the bath: do the regime twice. I found doing the regime twice in the Summer last year cleared me up. So maybe I just need to adjust my routine when it starts becoming really humid? I also increased my BP by half given the breakout.

I am also going to decrease the amount of moisturizer I put on by half. I noticed that while I was breaking out my face was an oil slick. So clearly I'm not lacking moisture.

It just sucks cause it's more work for me. And it also sucks cause I realize I am living with a shitty disease that is exacerbated by factors that I always forget about. Hence why I blog about it so I can know better when the time comes next time.

Tingle, tingle FUCKING TINGLE. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Edited by 5ive, 18 June 2012 - 10:15 PM.

[mystory]

Amazing Post! Thank you

[5ive]

Yes, so doing the regime twice in the Summer helped a bunch. It dried out my skin and things got under control. I live in Canada so it's annoying having to adjust the regime constantly. In the Fall/Winter I run the risk of drying out my skin too much doing this. While in the Summer it needs to be cleansed and treated more often. I think it just depends on your skin.

This whole process has been trial and error. I realize it will never be perfect. Acne will always be there. For the past 3 months I have been clear. I am of course back on here because I have one sprouting. I can, again, chalk this up to pigging out on ice cream and cake (my weaknesses). My skin is not perfect, it never will be. I am only human. I am going to break out. Cutting out dairy has been so difficult. Probably harder than quitting smoking.

So yes, I got one that is under my skin and appears red on the surface. It's big. It's actually a reoccurring cyst. This has just been a warning that I need to watch what I am eating. So no pigging out on dairy. I'm pretty good throughout the week. It's just the weekend.

I quit drinking entirely. I live in a city area where there are a lot of bars so I caved into pressure. It's been 152 days since I drank, and I don't miss it. I found that there wasn't much a relationship between drinking and acne. Although, when I was hungover I used to just pig out on dairy cause it made me feel better.

Anyhoo, life is good. Got a new job. My confidence has improved since being acne free. Thanks Benzoyl Peroxide! My friend whom I haven't seen in a while came back in town and she just got off Accutane. Apparently her face was so bad she had to move back home to take care of herself. I had the utmost sympathy for her. I've been there. Taking care of acne is like taking care of a disease. It sucks.

I guess you have to find what works for you. I am a big believer in destiny so if somehow you find my blog it probably means you could learn from it. I hope someone does and start loving themselves and accepting themselves. As well as getting on Dan's Regime as well as exploring that you may have allergies to dairy or sugar.

Edited by 5ive, 26 September 2012 - 07:04 PM.

[5ive]

Just decided to check in. Since that breakout in the Summer I haven't had one since. The BP helps. Cutting back on milk helps. I really can't stress this enough. Acne is no longer a problem. Of course there are days where I'm scared of going back to square one. But as long as I keep up the regime and the diet I will be fine. I haven't had a big, monstrous zit in OVER A YEAR. Even when I was "breaking out" in the Summer it was never as bad as it was before. I am seriously happy with my body physically.

I really wish the best for you guys on here. These boards have been such a big support throughout this process. I came out of the breakouts with no scars physically thanks to the boards. I can't stress BP and cutting milk out enough. Acne is no longer a problem.

Edited by 5ive, 08 October 2012 - 04:29 PM.

[5ive]

Hey everybody,

So Winter is upon us, and if you're anything like me you are BREAKING OUT. I will say though this is a very mild breakout, but a breakout nonetheless.

I've come on here to complain, yet again. Woe is me. I want to say it just sucks having skin that is so unique. The popular consensus out there is to moisturize more in the Winter. Well, for me, it's use less.

My skin is already so oily and the Winter dries it out. It totally sucks having an insanely humid Winter (which equals oily skin) and then have a very dry Winter. It's almost like this transition happens overnight too.

The products I use are drying. So if I use a lot of products my skin will be extra dry and will start to split a part. It will begin to break out since my acid mantle is vulnerable and bacteria is getting in. As it is now.

So note to self: in September begin to cut back on products to make for a smoother transition. I am now down to half a finger but I want to go less.

I find that the best part of BP is that its a drying agent. So it doesn't make sense to dry it out more.

To top it all off I just a got a new full-time job that is pretty stressful. I've also been eating badly because of the holidays.

I am now on a strict diet again of no milk or sugar and trying to manage stress. Oh, and get more sunlight seeing as how its Winter and there is none after 5pm. Yay Canada.

[5ive]

I just wanted to say that I broke out. Really badly.

I can attribute this to a few things. The weather jumped from really warm and humid to cold and dry. I found my skin breaking out in my laugh lines (I had about 4 pimples develop there). This made me realize that I was smiling too much (go figure) and that my skin was cracking from movement. I was quickly reminded to cut back on acne medications. And I did.

Then I broke out on my chin. That I hate. I find the acne down there really stubborn and it spreads like wildfire. I really, really was reminded to take a look at my diet.

Honestly, I got lazy. I started a new job and I pretty much just made all my meals ahead of time that was usually chili made with red meat. I have an intense feeling that red, processed meat (or lean ground beef in this case) is equivalent to milk in terms of hormones and toxins. So take note.

Also I stopped with the green smoothies, but more on that in a bit.

I really only started to breakout when the holidays came around. It was pretty much after I caved and had a chocolate muffin. The NEXT day I got a breakout. In particular the ones around my laugh lines I was talking about earlier.

My immune system got really weak over the holidays. I think people think it's fun to eat crappy food such as low quality chocolate. After cutting back on my acne meds my skin cleared up but then I was reintroduced to crappy foods by my family.

My sister made these DELICIOUS cookies that are made with milk chocolate hershey kisses. I must have had about 20 of them. I told myself that the breakouts would be worth it. Really, it was just my mind trying to rationalize it.

I ended up with a whitehead on my jaw that was by far the most ridiculously big zit I ever had. For some reason it was just all whitehead and no inflammation/redness. Other than that I was pretty clear and though I'd be OK.

I ended up with a sinus cold that lasted a few days and was really just a TON of mucus. Can we say ALLERGIES?

Then this week came. Me and my boyfriend got in a huge argument and I was so stressed out. I have a tendency to scratch my skin in my sleep. I did.

I woke up with a red mark on my cheek. I really thought nothing of it since I was more concerned about my chin that kept producing whiteheads at this point probably from all the crap I've been eating.

OKAY, and here's where it gets bad: that scratch became infected. It grew into a really red, angry zit that is the size of a penny on my upper cheek. The ENTIRE THING is coated in a film of pus. So weird. It just kept spreading and infecting the pores around it.

FIVE DAYS later it finally hardened and fell off in my sleep (last night). I woke up with just a bunch of redness and swelling. Then I took a shower and the steam I guess opened the pores a bit. As I was getting out it began to tingle again and I looked in the mirror and saw it forming some more pus right before my eyes.

Disgusting. I really can't even bring myself to take a picture of the condition of my skin. I know it's not that bad but I'm really upset with myself that I let it get to this point due to my laziness.

Things that led to this breakout:

-stress (fighting with my boyfriend, holidays, family, traveling, work)
-diet (low quality chocolate, sugar, white bread, red meat, dairy, NO GREEN SMOOTHIES)
-acne.org (the regime in the winter cracks my skin too much)
-hot showers
-lack of sunlight
-low immune system

So yes, I can't tell whether it's a blessing in disguise that my skin is a direct reflection of what is going on in my body. But either way it sucks and I'm depressed about it. I just want my skin to be clear like it was for months.

I really wish I could come back on here and tell everyone how amazing my skin is STILL, but the fact is, I'm human and make mistakes. I'm also dealing with a disease that will always be there and is just being prevented.

Things I am doing to make it better:

-adjust my regime to 'winter mode' (i.e. once a day, cut down on BP (don't worry, I've done this before with incredible results))
-get more sunlight (go for walks at lunch)
-not so hot or long showers
-reintroduce Kale and green smoothies (I swear my skin already feels less oily and pores tighter)
-work out problems with my boyfriend so less stress (we haven't fought in a few days because we worked it out)

Thanks guys!

Edited by 5ive, 06 January 2013 - 08:43 PM.

[thereisalwayshope]

Wonderful…Let us all know how this works for you

[5ive]

@thereisalwayshope thanks for the reply!

I AM CLEAR.

Basically I just cut out the crap and ate better and adjusted my regime.

I am completely clear as I was before the holidays. I really think my skin is connected to diet. I pretty much have to eat like a diabetic.

I think anybody who is serious about getting it under control should start researching diet. I think I wasn't eating enough Vitamin C and eating too much dairy. The day I started eating more Vitamin C the breakouts stopped and I started to feel a lot better. Definitely going to keep up the green smoothies!

Edited by 5ive, 14 January 2013 - 09:28 PM.