Hi, I'm Chris 15 years old from the UK.
I'm 15 years old, I've had acne since the age of 11 or 12 very mildly and then around 12-13 it started to become visible.
I dealt with it, applying standard over the counter treatments which helped and when I went to boarding school in the county side for about 8-9 months when I was 13 my skin became better and spots became less regular.
I returned back to my home in the city before the age of 14. I was managing to live with my acne, as it was a constant up-down basis, some weeks being okay, others being not to good.
Until around September 2012 where everything got really good, the acne seemed to be going away! I found a topical oil treatment my Mum lent to me and my skin was getting better on the rise.
I went to my cousin's for the week, returned and my acne then burst. Progressively, day by day my acne got worse and worse. I went crazy, trying to add proactiv helped a bit.. and then made it worse and worse until It got so bad, there was barely a gap on my face that didn't hurt like hell and look like sh** ...
Guys commented on it at school, girls didn't really talk to me and all in all i felt terrible. It was a bad time.
We got recommended to see a dermatologist and I got 50mg a day for 6 months on accutane which changed my life.
It basically completely cured me, except for the odd mark or two I had pretty much perfect skin.
But in the last 2 weeks consistent spots have been re-occuring on my face, it isn't too bad at the minute but around 3 or so would just pop out after a sleep or so and it seems like the process may be restarting. My mum says I may be getting a little paranoid.. but despite being small I am cautious.
What should I do? Any ideas from anyone? Any Post Accuane experiences? Thanks for your help!
I finished Accutane 1 month ago and I just saw my derm yesterday about Post-Accutane treatments.
She said if the acne returns go back to what you used on your face Pre-Accutane that used to work.
For me this was Skinoren which you have to get from your GP here in the UK.
She said if the acne came back really persistently then to just return to your GP and get it sorted before it scars/is so bad you need another course of Accutane.
Let me know how you get on, as I mentioned before I live in fear of this happening to me so message me if you find something that works please.
Best of luck
hey thanks for the advise, unfortunately nothing really worked for me pre accutane and the stuff i've been using hasn't worked really. So basically i'm going back to my derm to see what he advises. My hope is to go back on another course, I've heard that the acne comes back for a few people and then they go back on accutane for about 3 months and then that does the trick. But who knows.. my dermatologist said that it would be okay if i got the odd occasional pimple or two but to be honest i've had a bit more than that recently
so on monday i'm arranging an appointment. I'll keep you posted