Hey everyone! So I have just made an account on acne.org (finally) because I wanted to share my story with everyone and hopefully give somebody out there hope for their skin.
My story starts when I was 9 years old. Now back then I only had one or two spots at a time. Eventually, through my middle school days there started to be more spots, but nothing too major that couldn't be treated with some Clean & Clear from the drug store. The bad acne started coming in during my sophomore year of high school when I was 15 (I'm 16 now so my skin started getting really bad about a year ago).
When both of my cheeks were covered in huge, red, angry pimples I knew that there was a problem and it wasn't just teenage acne. Unfortunately, I was too embarrassed to talk to my mom about going to a dermatologist for it. In hindsight, I wish I talked to her sooner! She also had acne when she was my age so my acne is definitely a mixture of genetics and hormones. I ruled out my diet and exercise because I have a healthy diet and am an athlete. I'm pretty sure she noticed that I was feeling down about my acne after a rant to her earlier in the morning about my skin and she asked me if I wanted to go to a dermatologist during dinner. Of course I said yes. The appointment was made for December.
The trip to the dermatologist was a little scary. I didn't know what to expect or if he was going to poke and prod at my face. He didn't, instead he looked at my skin and told me that I had moderate-severe cystic acne. I had a mix of everything: cysts, pustules, papules, comedones, blackheads, whiteheads, you name it, I had it. After looking at my face for about two minutes and talking about what acne even is he prescribed me 100mg of minocycline, 0.025% tretinoin cream, and 1% clindamycin phosphate lotion. I was supposed to take the minocycline at night at least 1 hour after consuming milk products and do my topical regimen of cleaning my face with Dove soap, putting on the tretinoin, waiting 10 minutes and then putting on the clindamycin lotion in the morning and at night. Perfect right? I have prescriptions now and should work fast and like a charm? WRONG.
After one week of using my prescriptions it got so much worse. The tretinoin was making my skin turn over faster and bringing more pimples to the surface. I am a horrendous picker as well so this was just fueling the bad skin fire. It also made my skin dry as a bone and would flake like nobody's business. Putting makeup on was the most challenging thing ever because I didn't even want to look at myself in the mirror; I was so depressed to see the crime scene on my face. To add onto that, my skin was flaking so foundation looked horrible on it. I still wore makeup though because it made me feel better about myself and a little more confident.
The real progress started happening in February, which was 3ish months after I started my regimen. I remember being so happy when my skin would clear up the slightest bit, but then that high would crumble when it would break out again. It was always like taking two steps forward and one step back. I would cry myself to sleep sometimes because I was so depressed about my skin. Watching YouTube videos about people's acne stories and reading you guys here on acne.org saved me when I was in those sad spells.
During the follow-up dermatologist appointment I told him about my breakouts caused by my monthly cycle and he prescribed me 100mg of spironolactone to take along with the minocyline. The serious progress happened then and my acne cleared up dramatically within a two month span. A good 90% of it was gone, leaving behind hyperpigmentation when it eventually did leave.
I am very content with my skin right now. The occasional breakout still plagues me every now and then and my nose still has blackheads on it, but I have made loads of progress from where I began. I thank everyone for their support when I was feeling so depressed about my skin. Thank you for reading this novel of an acne story and I hope you find your magical cure 
