Hello all ,

So after dealing with acne for 5 years I am finally posting something on this forum.

My social anxiety and shyness prevented me from posting before. Even as I write thisy palms are sweaty.

The purpose of this post is to tell my experiences with acne so far and hopefully get some feedback. You all seem like supportive and helpful people.

I first had acne when I was 14. It was these big pimples on my forehead. I always his it with my hair. (I'm 19 now and a guy BTW)

My family members would always point it out to me and I would just smile or ignore it. One day I had enough and just scratched them with my nails. It was very painful and left horrible scars. Now they are not even visible. They eventually went away. When I was 15 I had normal teenager acne and it didn't bother me very much. I only popped whiteheads if they were present before I went to school.

When I was 16 my acne got really bad. There were these really big whiteheads on my cheeks but I didn't do anything and avoided mirrors. The reason I didn't do anything was because it was during the 6 month break I got after my o levels and I was working in a small shop and the guys there were awesome so I didn't feel self conscious. After 6 months the big pimples changed to really tiny numerous pimples on my cheeks. I had to enter a new school for my a levels then. So I didn't want acne in my face in the school so I finally went to a doctor.

They prescribed me tetracycline and retino-a and t3 mycin for whiteheads. There was no progress for 6 months so they prescribed me 5% benzoyl peroxide. It hurt when ever I applied it and after two months my whole cheeks were filled with black hard pimple like things. My doctor said I was allergic to benzoyl peroxide and that I should have stopped immediately and came to her. She prescribed me allergy topicals for a month and after a month my face was finally clear. I was really happy.

I thought this time I would make the necessary steps to prevent acne so I got a clean and clear face wash for oily skin. It ruined my face and this time it was worse. My nose had millions of whiteheads and red bumps. It was really gross. I got another dermatologist who had a very good reputation. He did two chemical peels on my face and it controlled my acne though my face was very red and I didn't like looking in the mirror. But my nose acne still didnt go away. My doctor then informed me about accutane. I put it off for three months before finally agreeing.

I took 20mg daily for two months and 10mg for the following month. But I got a very big cyst on my stomach in the third month and had to do a small surgery. The surgery doctor prescribed me some more.meds and said I should stop accutane. My skin was clear then so I didnt mind

After one month my nose acne came back and I went to my dermatologist again and told h what happened. He then prescribed accutane 10mg for two months. After two months he gave me a topical called adapalene or something and said I should try Neutrogena acne face wash, which was really drying my skin so I stopped. Currently my nose acne is coming back again and I don't know what to do anymore.

Hope someone will respond to this ridiculously long post.