Hi people of the internet, my name is Ryan, I am an 18 year old male from the United Kingdom, and I have been on accutane approximately a week. I am writing this because I want to talk directly to those who suffer from stubborn and persistent acne that most people would define as 'mild', and unworthy of accutane.
Here's some back story. I first started getting acne when I was 10 - annoyingly young but hey life has a habit of being a bitch like that. I started with just forehead acne, I'd never have less than 3 cystic/boil like whiteheads (incredibly sore and left marks for about a century). My simple solution to this was to grow my hair and pretend they didn't exist. This was fine until I was about 14 when they decided to plague my cheeks too. They were sore, unsightly and honestly disgusting. I have an incredibly pale complexion too, so they stood out like a sore thumb. I've also suffered from bacne, or more specifically shoulder-acne for as long as I can remember - no sore cysts but persistent whiteheads that scar.
When I was 16, I had to start shaving - another recipe for disaster. My skin is incredibly sensitive, and it took me about a year to find a product and razor that firstly didn't cause my skin to go red raw, but also prevent me from getting bumpy whiteheads all over my jawline. (If I shave more than 3 times a week now, I still get this issue.)
So, whilst my acne has never been considered severe, it's always been enough to be an emotional and mental challenge for me, and it's always dented my self esteem and when it gets bad I could end up in the house for weeks on end.
I went to the doctor the first time when I was about 14. I knew of Accutane at this time but this site always made me feel embarrassed to ask since by acne was never as bad as half the photos on this site. My doctor said something along the lines of you have okay skin but I can see your concern, and for the next year I went backwards and forwards to him, being prescribed different topical treatments. None of these worked, all of them destroyed my skin Im going to document everything Ive tried over the years below to give some advice for others.
A year later he finally gave up on the creams and prescribed me lymecycline, followed by doxycycline both of which I can confidently say did absolutely nothing other than reduce the time my spots stayed red raw (nice, but it only lasted while I was on the pills). By this time I was about 16 and going through my GCSEs so my skin wasnt at the forefront of my mind.
Finally, after 8 years, I heard somebody tell me what I wanted to hear, that my acne was stubborn and appeared sore, uncomfortable and was more than just teenage spots. She comforted me, examined me, talked me through all the options. Much to my disappointment, she said she wouldn'tprescribe me Accutane.
She prescribed me trimethroprim (also known as bactrim) - its probably given me the best results to date and whilst I saw no change to my back, my cheeks cleared up and I only got small whiteheads (my forehead still always had at least one giant beast of a cyst). I would still breakout but they were nowhere near as harsh. My skin also had a relatively nice complexion too, as she told me to just avoid all skin products except a cleanser which she prescribed, and the antibiotic.
Fast forward to November and I have been prescribed Accutane.
I want people to know, in the same situation as me, there is NEVER a situation when your acne isnt that bad. If its bad to you, thats all that matters, dont listen to what other people say. If it affects you, mentally or emotionally, thats enough to want to get a fix. Sometimes you have to pay good money to get somebody to listen, and sometimes you have to take things into your own hands, but never think you arent a good enough candidate for something that could change your life. And yes acne can cause depression, no matter how many times people tell you it cant or how there must be other underlining factors only you know what is affecting you the most.Most of all, dont tell yourself others have it worse, if you have that attitude youll never be happy because there are always going to be other people in the world who are worse off than you. You should always prioritise your own happiness in life.
So thats my back story. So far Ive been on Accutane about a week and I have very dry lips. My skin itself isnt dry, but thats probably because my skin was very oily to start with. I havent experienced a purge yet, but that may be because I stopped trimethroprim the day I started Accutane. I have however experienced a couple of cysty spots on my cheek that I havent had since I started trime. In all honestly, my skins kinda soft, but I dont know if thats just coincidence. No change on my back/forehead so far, nor the blackheads on my nosee.
Ill keep updating bi-weekly and well see how my Accutane journey goes!
TLDR; Hi, I'm Ryan, I'm 18 and from the UK, and I have suffered from mild acne since I was 10 years old. I started Accutane a week ago and this is my log.
Random things I have tried:
Tea Tree Oil - Burned my skin
Panoxyl gel - Good for drying up spots, but bleaches skin, clothes and leaves marks
Quinoderm - Same as above
Some retinoid cream for the back can;t remember the same - useless, did nothing
Freederm exfoliator - good, makes skin feel soft
Cetafil cleanser - Great! I swear by this product, so good for sensitive skin (prescribed by my demro)
Cetafil moisturiser - Wasn't for me, too greasy and made me break out
Manuka honey - broke me out hugely, but I used it on big swolen spots and it seems to help reduce them in size quicker
Freederm gel - helps prevent big spots spread to other areas of face
Proactiv - AVOID AVOID AVOID, this stuff is so expensive and it decoloured, dried out and did nothing of any use to my skin
toothpaste - don't use toothpaste unless you want red marks on your face for weeks
Aveeno cream - great for dry skin
zipmist - great for shaving if you have sensitive skin
lush mask of magnaminty - really good, makes skin look fresh and feels great, reduces redness too (dont use too frequently)
Sudocrem - oh my god why didn't i use this sooner its so good for healing redness and reducing spot size
I'll add others as they come to mind.
Update: It's been a little over a month - dry lips but mainly because I always forget to use chapstick all the time. Weirdly my skin on my face isn't dry but instead it's really soft to the point where getting a spot seems impossible (I haven't had a new cystic spot on my cheeks since week 3, I have one lump on my bum-chin, but it wasn't really a spot more like a blind boil). I haven't been moisturising my skin, but i've been washing it with a cleanser My back is better but by no means perfect, it's dry and flakey and I am still getting the odd cystic white head and my shoulders are covered. The blackheads on my nose purged for about 4-5 weeks but the last few days they seem to have all cleared up and oozed out in the shower, so that looks better too.
All in all, I didn't expect to see such quick, visible and effective results, but so far it's working great for me!
Side affects other than a little dryness, my muscles ache like crazy and I am fatigued, but that may be because I've been working nightshifts in retail over Christmas, I can give a better reflection of that in the new year when I revert back to my normal day shifts.
Update 2:
2 months in now, still on 40mg daily. It's been an odd month. About 14 days ago I was 100% clear, back, face, chest, you name it I didn't have a single spot which is unheard of for me, all there was was some redness from past spots. I then broke out like crazy, like mega crazy, worse than when puberty hit. It was sore and uncomfortable and rashy again. I had/have a chest infection alongside what is a horrible cold (borderline flu) and I've been bed bound for over a week now. I've been on antibiotics too. So it may be down to this but I'm sure it was coming on before I felt sick, but maybe that's me trying to find reason to hate my skin again. Regardless, my skin is disgusting and covered in lumps and redness, it's gross and I have that horrible sinking feeling again. It has however calmed down in the past day or so and has returned to how it felt 14 days ago, it's not sore anymore or rashy, so I'm hoping the breakout is over and I'm just onto the healing stage again.
I really hope this is normal 2 months into accutane?
As for side effects, still tired, dry lips, short tempered, other than that, nothing major. I got a half-sleeve done and it healed up in the normal time, I know some people question whether to get a tattoo done or not while on tane, for anyone wondering, I had absolutely no problems.
I'll keep you all updated.
Update 3:
Sup y'all. It's been 5 months now, sorry my updates have been slacking.
Firstly, my dosage was upped approximately 2 months ago to 60mg a day. (3 20mg tablets every morning).
Secondly, ever since then I have felt awful. Extremely fatigued, moody, lackadaisical and I have basically lost the will to live on this medication it is horrible. I ache, I've put on weight, and I have no motivation to do anything. I have been in and out of work sick since January and it's got to a point now where I have been signed off until the end of my treatment. I had to decide whether to either quit my job, quit accutane, or quit neither and hope work would be understanding, which they thankfully are.
The only reason I refuse to come off it is because well, it's worked (and/or working). My back. Clear. Okay fine I have 1 spot but compared to BACNE that's nothing. Blackheads on my nose. GONE. Sure, it's a little bit porey but it improves all the time. Right cheek 100% clear, havent had a spot for months, no scarring never looked like I even suffered from acne. Left check, I had a breakout a couple weeks ago, I currently have no active spots just some scarring that needs to fade. Forehead is the only anomaly, I still breakout relatively frequently there hence why my dermo is keeping me on accutane for another 1-2 months. Neck is meh, sometimes its 100% clear sometimes its not, but I never get more than 1 spot at a time.
As for how I look, I look tired and can often look a little grey and 'faded'. But i'm putting that down to how crap I feel and I hope when I finally come off I will regain some colour and look less tired.
Hi friends,
It's been 8 months and a week ago I finally came off Accutane.
The last 3 months have been hell - I've been signed off work sick now since about month 6 because of the side affects. I started getting extreme fatigue, muscle joint pains and I could barely motivate myself to get out of bed. I put on 2 stone and basically began to hate myself even more.
HOWEVER - Back CLEAR. Forehead CLEAR. Cheeks CLEAR. Neck CLEAR.
Yes I still get spots, right now I have one on my chin and one on my neck, but they are tiny and you can't notice them, and i'm in 40C heat in Cyprus right now so I put it down to that.
Accutane worked.
Scarring is meh, my skin is sooooooo much better and I hope it'll only continue to improve over time, there are a few marks and scuffs where acne was but it generally looks better day by day.
As for the side affects, within a week since stopping I've dropped 5 pounds, weird because I've not known this to be a side effect but hey, I plan on losing the weight I put on. Lips are no longer dry. However I am still experiencing the fatigue and muscle pains, but my dermo assures me that those will ease and be completely gone within 2 months maximum. Honestly, I'm just exhausted, and am relieved to be finished and hopefully have control of my life back. I return to work on the 14th of July, I'll keep y'all posted on any further progress. I'll post some pictures too when I get back from Cyprus.
TLDR; Skin clear, side effects were a bitch, worth it? Yes, no more crippling demoralising acne. 8 months of pain for an eternity (I hope) of clear skin.
