Alright, here's my first post on this site, hopefully I don't mess it up 
Well, to start, I'm a 21 year old male, and I've had acne since I've been 14 or 15. I got to a pretty moderate-severe point around my junior year of high school, and after many trial and error runs with other acne medication/antibiotics, my dermatologist put me on Accutane.
I had all the normal symptoms - very dry skin, dry lips, etc. It was annoying because my lips would bleed almost every time I ate, but I persisted with the hopes of clear skin. After 5 months, my skin looked great! No scars, no blemishes, no hyper-pigmentation, no anything! However, this did not last.
My acne came back just as bad as before, and the second Accutane treatment occurred from the end of my senior year to the beginning semester of college. I experienced the same symptoms as before, but my skin ended up looking great again. Barely any scars, no blemishes and no hyper-pigmentation. However, this did not last either.
A few months later I started getting acne again. I did not want to go on Accutane for a third time because it wasn't as severe, and I was tired of the 24/7 chapped lips. It seemed to stay less severe for awhile (about a year), but in the past few months I've started to get more cystic acne around my jawline, more sore/dark red pimples around my cheek area, and the hyper-pigmentation seems to be more prominent than ever after a pimple goes away.
Now I'm looking for some opinions. Do you all think I should go on a 3rd round of Accutane? Or should I go on something less severe?
As a follow up, I did go on some antibiotics for a short amount of time when my acne first started flaring up badly after the 2nd round of Accutane, but the pills made me physically sick so I stopped taking them. I started Proactive as well (and it's what I'm currently using), and it's helped tame it slightly, but I still seem to get some pretty bad breakouts. I got blood tests done to check for hormone imbalances, but apparently everything came up A-ok.
Also, it wasn't until recently that I realized how many awful things I was doing to my skin. I was a chronic picker throughout the entire years of acne. I used to subconsciously touch my face a lot as well. I also never had a great diet throughout my teenage years. However recently I started working out, altering my diet (there are some days though where my diet is terrible - I blame college), and tried to stop picking as much as possible. My sleeping schedule is always changing, but I try to get 8 hours as much as possible (Once again, I blame college).
Thank you all, and sorry for the long post!
Hello Rowe Shane I wouldn't go back for a 3rd course at all. I was on accutane twice 5 months each time.the moderate to severe acne came back within 2 days of stopping.the success rate of accurate says 85 % but it's actually much lower. I would strongly recommend a cephalosporin antibiotic as in duricef 2 500 mg a day and most importantly take 400 mg of ibuprofen directly with each dose of the antibiotic.this increases absorption of drug and quells inflammation process.your results will be better than accutane.trust me I did this for over 10 years.other great antibiotics for severe acne are ceftin cephalexin vantin spectracef omnicef ceclor cedax and velosef.you can do the ibuprofen regimen with all of these also good luck!