I've struggled with acne my whole life (started on my back at age 11!), later on this mainly involved suffering frequent breakouts across my chin in particular even into my 30's. I tried everything in terms of treatment, topical lotions, antibiotics, even accutane when I was 17, the regimen from this site, intense pulse light treatment on my face a few years ago. I also tried various diets for my skin but whatever I tried seemed to make it worse even when I was eating incredibly healthily which was incredibly frustrating. I had very low self-esteem for the longest time, always imagined that any people looking at me were just looking at my flaws with disgust etc. Having bad acne is the worst sort of psychological torture, seems terribly unfair when you are suffering with it and I would not wish the horrible feeling of personal shame that I felt when it would flare up on anyone.

However, despite all this it actually turns out that it was indeed the food and drink I regularly consumed that ultimately affected my skin more than anything else. I literally had to start off with a very limited diet and introduce one thing at a time (each thing seemingly triggering an acne breakout that would take a couple of weeks to get rid of) before I discovered all the triggers and what it was that I could eat/drink and could not and it did not always make any sense at all. This slow, painful and arduous process took over a year but it was worth it! Anything I now consume has some benefit towards my body, I do not do what most people do and choose food according to whether or not I like the taste, this has now become completely irrelevant. As an aside I bought a juicer which helped tremendously with getting enough green vegetables into me each day along with various berries. After cutting out all of the rubbish it now feels like I am running on rocket fuel. I lost weight without even trying, gained a massive amount of energy and a more positive attitude to go with it, I think more clearly and according to several observers now have something of a healthy glow about me. Now a question. Is it likely that a person can be that healthy and still have acne? In my case the acne seems to have been a symptom of poor health brought on by a poor diet (though not one any poorer than the average). As if by magic, the impossible finally happened and my skin cleared up. It certainly isn't a result of my advancing age either as if I eat anything sugary that is not particularly good for me, (or even drink unsweetened almond milk and a host of other odd triggers such as nuts, crackers, bananas, pineapples, various meats etc funnily enough) or drink alcohol/coffee the acne comes right on back. Of course I am genetically prone to acne but perhaps my body is particularly sensitive to certain things and pushes out any toxins through my skin as a way to protect my system from being damaged “ a sort of early warning system if you will that I am potentially harming myself. Could that be what acne really is for some of us suffering with it as more mature adults? The quality of the food we generally eat is so poor these days that it is certainly capable of weakening us and making us sick long term, acne may be a symptom of this for some and the reason why acne is becoming more widespread among adults. It does make sense and if that is indeed what is happening then it is no wonder that topical solutions and medication have no real long term effect as they are not addressing the real problem but merely the more superficial symptoms.

Seriously after a lifetime of hellish anguish and misery living with this condition I could quite easily weep tears of joy when I look at myself in the mirror now. What is even more amazing is that I now get so many compliments on my looks. Amazing because although I was married for most of my twenties I'd never gotten a compliment on my appearance before from a woman in my entire life. I wasn't surprised by this and naturally assumed that she must have tolerated my looks because there were other things about me (a winning personality perhaps lol) that made being with me worthwhile. She was really rather beautiful and people would even genuinely ask in surprise how it was that someone like me had managed to secure a relationship with a girl like that “ a real confidence booster that was not and I would doubt myself even more. I spent most of my life shuffling around with my head down believing that there was something very wrong with me and the way I looked, that I was genetically inferior to everyone else and frankly I just felt ashamed to be me and it felt like there wasn't a thing in the world I could do about it. I viewed myself with utter disgust as a thoroughly ugly, unattractive man.

To find out in my 30's that with clear skin I was actually a strikingly good looking man was one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened to me, like I'd been reborn as the different person I'd always wanted to be somehow. It just could not have occurred to me that underneath all that horrific yellow headed acne there could be a face worth looking at. There is not a line or wrinkle on my face either due I assume to the oily skin meaning that people often guess my age around 24 and people are always seriously shocked when I tell them I'm 35. I've since had the sort of experiences with women I could only ever have dreamed of previously. I have held some breathtakingly beautiful women in my arms who would amaze me by just gazing longingly at me with that twinkling glint of desire in their eyes, nobody ever looked at me that way before and it feels like bliss to be wanted like that. It's such a wonderful thing to be able to hold eye contact with a woman in a way that communicates everything to them without a word needing to be said, especially when you see/feel the effect that this has on them I have felt deep connections with people in a way I did not know was possible, something that happens when you can accept yourself fully and do not feel the need to hide anything about yourself. That's not so much about looks, but it's important to feel completely at ease with yourself when communicating with the opposite sex and generally feeling good about yourself (and not like some hideous freak of nature) helps immensely with this of course. The incredible compliments I've had on my appearance have really touched me in a way the people speaking them could never have imagined. I remain very humble about all of this however, I will never forget what it is like to be on the other side of the equation and simply eating a couple of crackers with cheese can remind me of this and move me to tears for a different reason! I just wanted to tell this little story to give people hope, miracles really can happen. It only took me 24 years of thinking about it every single day to finally figure out exactly what was happening with my skin after all “ hopefully you won't need to wait quite that long to find your solution