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2 years ago I was on a low dose of accutane for 2 months before my triglycerides began acting up and I was taken off them. My derm prescribed me acanya and differin and they worked wonderfully for 2 years. I experienced no drying/irritation issues and it kept all inflammatory acne at bay.
I began to experience some clogged pores that differin wasnt addressing. I relayed the info to my derm and she prescribed Taz to use along w/ the acanya. I began using the Taz at night approx in late July/early August for approx 3 weeks before I experienced really irritated skin. I decided to discontinue using the Taz and just go back to the Acanya/Differin combo since my skin was 95% clear and I could deal w/ the bit of issues I had.
Over the last month, I feel like the whole texture of my skin has changed. My skin looks thin and is very fragile. Im breaking out in big inflamed spots. Im gradually getting to the point where I was just before going on accutane. My skin is also experiencing irritation, something I never experienced while using these before. Ive always had oily skin but it seems that Im producing much much more than I ever did, im guessing due to the irritation.
I dont know what happened. I thought that by going back to what was working for me would calm my skin down, not make it worse than ever before.
My wedding is Saturday and Im a complete mess, physically and emotionally. I seriously might give myself a nervous breakdown by then. Im at a loss as to what happened or what I should do. New big inflamed zits are coming up everyday. I have a cyst under my eye that I have to get injected.
What could have happened? Im really trying to understand. Could the Taz dramatically changed the texture of my skin in that little amount of time to the point where the old topicals and causing me irritation and, thus, further breakouts.
Im so depressed and anxiety ridden. I was doing so well and I just experienced a free fall in the last few weeks. Im sure the stress that Im putting myself thru isnt helping, but I just dont have a stress switch to turn off when this happens.
Anyone have any advise or thoughts? Thank you
All retinoids are classified as irritants. The quickest way for something to increase your rate of cell turnover, which is what retinoids do, is to irritate the basal dermis. Taz is one of the most irritating. When your skin is irritated it doesn't look pretty. After you go off Taz you may see some nice after-effects such as increased collagen, but no one ever said your skin was supposed to look good while ON the retinoid.
When I got married my skin was far from clear and I went off retinoids 2 months before just so I wasn't a red blotchy mess in addition to the acne.
Cortisone shots from the derm are the quickest way to clear up active acne spots for a special event.