FlaggLives

I wanted to go ahead and get this started guys, even though I'm not technically on the Regimen just yet (my BP is scheduled to arrive at the post office tomorrow) but I am already using my cleanser and moisturizer for the time being. To give you all some background on me, I'm a 24 year old male and I've had acne since age 16. It started off moderate, but later on I started to develop bigger stuff like cysts and that seems to be the kind of acne I get these days, like "mini-cysts" I call them because they're not huge, but they are very noticeable and annoying and they take FOREVER...to heal.

 

I've tried just about every treatment there is to try (aside from Accutane) and I've been going consistently to a dermatologist for several years now. He usually prescribes me a new antibiotic course and topical cream to try, but it never gets me completely clear and I still get breakouts while on those treatments. In the past few months I've been taking Bactrim and using Epiduo to spot treat with, but it doesn't help me much. I've been on almost all the typical antibiotics to treat acne and I've built up an immunity to most of them, like Tetracycline, Minocycline, and a few others. So yeah, that approach isn't working for me anymore (the Tetracycline worked WONDERS clearing me up the first year I used it when I was 18, but ever since then the antibiotics seems way less effective) so I'm gonna turn my focus onto following the Regimen as religiously as possible to see if it can clear my skin.

 

To give you guys an idea of what my skin looks like now: My forehead is pretty clear, my cheeks are pretty clear (aside from scarring) and my problem area right now is around my mouth and my chin. I have a brand new red cyst in the middle of my chin, and I have a healing cyst that is taking forever to go away on the side of my chin, and I've got a few little whiteheads in that area too. I've got a medium-sized blemish near the corner of my mouth, and there's a healing blemish right in the middle of my nose (AWK....WARD lol)

 

Plus I've noticed lately a few super tiny pimples on my forehead, but they're almost not noticeable at all so I don't really count them.

 

Here are the products I'll be using while on the Regimen:

 

-Cleanser: Clean & Clear Foaming Cleanser for sensitive skin (I've been using this already for about two months, and just by itself it's improved my skin vastly. I was stupid for a long time and I went with that "only wash your face with water" method and that contributed to my breakouts, so just introducing a cleanser has been a godsend for my skin)

 

-BP: Dan's 2.5% BP (arriving tomorrow)

 

-Moisturizer: Cetaphil moisturizer for dry, sensitive skin. I've used this at various points over the years, it's always worked pretty well for me.

 

-100% Jojoba oil: Picked this up yesterday to mix with my moisturizer. Seems like really good stuff, but I'll really test how effective it is when I start applying the BP regularly.

 

So yeah, that's the general overview for me, guys. My first official "update" will be tomorrow when I get my BP, but I wanted to go ahead and get my log started ahead of time. I plan to update pretty often because I'm big on details, so I'll definitely keep you guys informed about my progress.

 

Good luck to everyone else who is trying the Regimen right now! :]

 

 

I'd like to delete all of my pictures, but each time time I try to delete my album I get an error message about the Acne.org database. Can anyone give me some insight into this?

 

Not looking to delete my account, just looking to delete my photos.

I've been reading about the benefits of clay masks, and I was hoping to get a little more information from the knowledgeable folks on this site who have experience using them. How effective is a clay mask? What's are some that you would recommend?

I've even heard that you can get ingestible clay to help with acne.

This is all new to me because I've never used a clay mask in the battle against acne, so it's something I figure might be worth a try. Any advice would help.

Just have a general question about probiotics. I've been on various antibiotics over the years to control my acne, including tetracycline, minocycline, bactrim, doxycycline, etc etc. I'm currently on solodyn. My derm never even told me about the benefit of probiotics to keep your gut flora in check, so for years I took antibiotics for my acne but I never knew to replenish the good bacteria in my gut with probiotics.

Luckily I recently discovered the necessity of taking probiotics while on long-term antibiotic regimens, so over the past three months I've been taking them. I'm just wondering if the probiotic I'm taking right now is a good enough balance along with the antibiotic I'm taking.

I take Solodyn antibiotic tablets right now, one per day, 105 MG.

The probiotic I've been supplementing with is called Accuflora, one tablet in the morning and one at night, 1 billion good bacteria per tablet.

Does that probiotic sound potent enough in terms of the good bacteria amount? And are there any other supplements I might want to be taking to make sure that everything is balanced and in check?

Just curious because I'm very new to probiotics in general.

The Struggle

I’ve been a long-time lurker on this site, but I wanted to actually get involved now because I’m at a point where my acne is just making my life so bleak and I feel like this would be the best place to vent, because so many people here understand how devastating acne can be.

My name is Jeremy, and I’ve had acne since I was 15 years old. I have my good days and my bad days, but it seems like these days I have more bad days than good days. I don’t talk about my acne with ANYONE, I don’t talk to my family about it, I don’t talk to my friends about it…..I guess I’m just so embarrassed and ashamed of my acne that I think talking about it will draw more attention to it.

But I realize that it helps to talk about it, so that’s why I’m making this post, just to sort of get my thoughts out there and come to terms with the fact that I deal with this problem and I’m probably going to be dealing with this problem for a good portion of my life.

Just to give you guys an idea of the treatments I’ve been on…

All dermatologist recommended stuff.

Oral antibiotics:

-Tetracycline (built up an immunity to this)
-Minocycline (built up an immunity to this
-Dorxy
-Bactrim (this is what I’m on right now)
-Ampicillin

I’ve been on various oral antibiotics for years now, and when I build up an immunity to one of them my derm switches me to another. I’m trying to avoid Accutane because I’m nervous as hell about the negative side effects.

Topicals I’ve used:

Retin-A
Differen (this is what I use currently)

Mirrors are my worst enemy. I’m always very tentative when I look into a mirror. Depending on the lighting of certain mirrors, I can look halfway decent sometimes, and then I’ll look like a monster in another mirror with bright fluorescent lights. Sometimes I obsess way too much as well and look into mirrors even after I’ve treated my acne. It just makes me feel worse, because I know I’ve done all that I can so there’s no reason to keep staring at my own reflection.

When it gets really bad, I just hibernate. I’ll stay at home for days and days at a time, I’ll make excuses when my friends want to hang out, I’ll turn down dates from girls because I think I’ll turn them off with my skin, I even avoid my family in my own house when my skin is at it’s worst. I feel bad about the fact that I lie to the people in my life that mean to most to me, and the reason I lie and make excuses as to why I can’t go out is because I’m just so embarrassed about how I look.

It’s weird because sometimes I’ll wake up and it’s a beautiful sunny day outside, I’ll want to go out and enjoy that day and make the most out of life and just have fun, then I look into the mirror and all my confidence just fades away only to be replaced by depression. I’ll see my friends putting up facebook statuses during the summer and I see how much fun they have, going out and enjoying life, and I feel like I’m just letting life pass me by. I really want to work to a point where I won’t let acne rule my life anymore, I want to be able to not care about how my skin looks and just do normal things like other people my age.

It’s really tough. I feel like in a way acne strengthens a person, because you have to make sacrifices that most people don’t make. You have to give up so much and really work to motivate yourself just to get out of bed in the morning.

I’ve let acne affect my job. I’ve let acne affect my relationships. I’ve let it affect my friendships. Sometimes I feel like I’m running out of excuses for people as to why I can’t hang out or why I can’t come to this party…lol…it’s pretty sad.

I don’t really know what I hope to accomplish with this post, I guess I just want to remind myself that I’m not alone in this. I know that millions of people suffer through this hardship just like me, and I need to keep that in mind most of all, because sometimes the isolation can be the worst part of it.

I’d just like to hear from other people who might be dealing with this and how you guys cope with something as simple as facing life with acne.

A Note: My acne doesn’t really show up in my pictures mainly because of lighting and things like that, but in real life it’s very noticeable.