Hello- longtime lurker here

I've been meaning to write this for quite sometime after getting a lot of great advice on my own skin from this site.

After living with severe cystic acne for the last 4 years, I have finally come to a place thats manageable (90% gone) and for the most part breakout free. Acne has literally killed my self esteem and its taken a long time to figure out what caused it. One moment I was a cute happy girl with a social life and one day I became that person who would stay in on the weekends not wanting to show my face. Acne robbed me of a solid 4 years of social interaction.

I had pretty good skin all my life until I hit 23. That was the year I decided to cut back on drinking, hit the gym (4-5 days a week) and eat clean. My breakouts made no sense as I was finally in the best shape/health of my life, literally eating all organic (tons of vegetables, juicing, omega 3s, raw, gluten free-no refined sugar/bread) and yet my skin turned into a nightmare. I began getting cystic acne all along my jawline and chin area, including near my mouth. I also had the bacne from HELL. All the health forums said it was just my skin 'detoxing' and to wait it out. I never wore makeup to the gym and would always cleanse my face immediately after a workout.

I have done hundreds of hours of research and literally spent thousands on derm visits, cortisone shots, bluelight therapy, high frequency, antibiotics and have been prescribed literally everything. For the record I've never been on birth control.

A few months ago I found a site called the [removed] that talked about hormonal acne- the cystic nasty kind- being caused by 'bad estrogens'. Most of you probably have heard of her- Tracey but here is the link where she describes what saved her skin (her acne was insanely bad, it puts my cystic acne to shame): This really helped me [removed]

I began taking DIM and saw palmetto since my breakouts were mostly concentrated in the jaw chin area. Right away I saw a huge improvement, like maybe 60% of my acne cleared up in 1 week just from that alone. It felt amazing but as time went on I could tell it wasn't a total improvement.

I then proceeded to look at my diet- Since my 3 year transformation, I'd been eating a 60% raw fruits and vegetables diet followed by quinoa, rice and nuts/seeds. Meat was pretty sparing for me, if i ate it at all. Mostly fish and 'low fat' grilled chicken every once and awhile. I had gotten pretty skinny from this lifestyle so I was probably devoted to it for that reason alone. Then a light bulb went on in my head, I realized the last time I had perfect skin was when I was following a paleo diet 5 years ago.

I then forced myself to stop eating all grains, all fruit except berries (BANANAS were my biggest trigger!), soy, even once in a blue moon dairy and switched to a low sugar paleo lifestyle and started eating red meat again for the first time in years. BOOM- skin issues? GONE. It literally took a week of feeding my body the foods it wanted- fat and grassfed beef for it to heal my skin. I was so obsessed with 'wellness' and being 'healthy' that I didn't know I wasn't healthy at all. Acne is a major symptom of something being wrong with your body and it needs to be treated internally. Sure there are things you can put on your skin temporarily (as we all know too well) that will mask the problem. But in reality, my hormones were totally out of whack from depriving my body of essential nutrients from years of trying to be vegan. Its kind of sad, I wish I could still keep eating that way but frankly I'd rather have the self confidence to look someone in the eyes than to be 5lbs skinnier.

Here is my daily regimen. I get occasional breakouts near my period but they're so much more manageable now! I hope this helps someone

Skincare: oil cleansing method- coconut oil, de la cruz 10% sulfur paste for 10 minutes, Alba Hawaiian moisturizer-refining aloe & green tea, PRIDS drawing salve for spot treatment (OMG amazing)

Supplements: DIM extra strength- AMAZING, Saw Palmetto, Zinc, tons of probiotics

Other- Apple Cider Vinegar (1 shot daily) <---- don't skip this, for some reason this really helps to clear people up

Diet: Berries, Coconut, Chia Seeds, Stevia- sweetener, Grassfed beef, Wild Fish + Game, ---I drink occasionally and found that red/white wine gave me terrible acne, I now stick to vodka and sake and find I have no problems---- AVOID: DAIRY, SUGAR, GLUTEN, High glycemic anything! (yes, this includes bananas