I've had acne since I was 14-15 years old, but I've finally rid myself of it now that I am 22. Here's my journey:

- Non-accutane drugs are effective, but only for so long. Topical retenoids cannot be relied on if you have persistent acne. They will last 6-9 months, then fade in their usefulness.

- If your acne is hormonal and a youth-related issue, then topical retenoids may be sufficient. You may not "grow out of it" if your genetic relatives did not grow out of it. In my case, I should have either taken accutane or received some kind of expensive counseling/coaching to help me with lifestyle changes immediately from a young age since most people in my family had acne until their 20s when they finally took accutane.

- I was resistant to taking accutane because of health concerns associated with it. I had a number of chronic illnesses that I did not want to complicate by taking accutane.

- Diet is key if you want to get rid of acne without accutane. For me, I cut wheat, gluten, lactose, sugar, alcohol, peanuts (allergic), and also minimized exposure to other things I'm intolerant towards (I took a food intolerance test). Honestly those food intolerance tests are pretty B.S. for the most part. You'll drive yourself insane trying to rotate foods and avoid these tiny intolerances to all those foods. Just avoid the key foods you are extremely allergic towards and you'll do just fine.

- Other aspects of my diet had an effect too. I stopped eating basically anything artificial. I am not going to eat some protein bar or powder even if that's what "fitness" people recommend. I am not going to eat any sort of potato chips even if they are gluten/lactose free. Additionally: I avoid any source of sugar that is not contained within a fiber source. Fluctuations in blood sugar are associated with acne and these sharp blood sugar fluctuations are caused by fruit juices/soda/sugar in coffee etc. I know that people think fruit juice is healthy, but it's really not all that much different than soda except for the fact that it also has some nutritional value (the effect on your blood sugar is very comparable between these two products).

- When I fixed my diet, the moderate-to-severe persistent acne subsided and my acne became mild. I still had some acne that remained, but this was mostly managed with drugs. Non-accutane drugs, however, don't really work over a time period longer than 9 months if you have persistent acne.

- Diet is only part of the picture. With my new lifestyle, I still got acne every once in awhile. When I get acne, I often suffer from permanent scarring from the acne, so three different dermatologists all recommended accutane for me despite the fact that my acne was mild-moderate. I kept turning it down, because I didn't want to risk worsening my other chronic illnesses.

- What finally got rid of the acne was learning to read ingredient labels on every single personal care product that I own and replacing each one of them with a natural alternative. I use Dr. Bronner's soap as a body wash. I use a non-SLS, non-flouride toothpaste. I use Free & Clear shampoo & conditioner (it smells weird, but whatever). I also never wash my face and reduce the number of times I have to shave. I use an electric razor rather than a manual razor to avoid the chemicals. I used to use concealer or a "dermatologist tested" tinted-moisturizer (don't believe that crap. dermatologists don't fully believe that chemicals you put on your face can cause acne. i know that's not fully true and a lot of them are good people, but if a "dermatologist tested" tinted-moisturizer causes you to break out, then stop using it). I stopped using it. This helped reduce my acne down to an occaisional pimple.

- Now, I still get the occaisional pimple and I've learned how to understand what causes those pimples. Usually, when I get a pimple it's because of a "hidden ingredient" in a food I ate at a restaurant. Or, it is because of a time I said to myself "eff it, a little milk won't hurt me." Mash potatoes, certain curries in indian food, salad dressing, breading on chicken, beer, etc. These all contain common acne allergens, but they are commonly overlooked. A few days ago, I had some indian food that used milk to produce some kind of sauce. I ate it anyway. 6 hours later I had a stomach ache. 2 days later I had some acne. It's really tough to draw cause and effect with things like this, but the scientific literature supports that the cause-and-effect is delayed for this type of reaction. Once you have eliminated all the acne triggers from your body except a select few, then you'll be able to slowly notice these longer-term reactions.