Hello everyone!
This is my first post on acne.org and I'm looking forward to joining the community! I'll give an overview first but my main questions I need help with are numbered below! Feel free to have a nose at my story but if you want to get straight to the point its clear too...
I'll give a brief (if I can, I have a tendency to ramble!) overview of my skin history; so I'm 23, based in the central area of the UK. I've always suffered from minor breakouts that never bothered me through adolescence, however, about a year ago (Sept 2013) started experiencing worsening breakouts, I reacted to this by buying into Proactiv (worst mistake ever) and using BareMinerals (second worst mistake) and skin worsened, after these learnt more and switched cleansing and make up products to ones that were gentler and non-comodegenic. As the acne worsened into the new year (2013-2014) I got fed up and saw my local NHS GP (general doctor, non specialist, not a derm), she prescribed topical treament Zineryt (used twice a day when cleansing) combined with Tetralysal Lymecycline (one tablet a day) on a repeat prescription basis. After 4-5 months my acne had pretty much totally cleared up and I was basically just tackling the scarring which was fading well (i think due to me applying tamanu every day but not sure, advice?!), anywho, I came off the meds knowing they had done their job. Only problem is, its been a few months since I came off and my acne has come back with an absolute vengeance! It's way worse than its ever been and scarring and hyperpigmentation is becoming prevalent (adding to the scarring and hyperpigmentation I had before).
So right now, I'm currently looking at all my options, keen to steer clear of the NHS as I don't want to wait a long time for a referral etc (2-3 months last time I had one), so thinking of going privately!
Also an extra point, I am VERY self conscious of my acne, I'm a very confident, enthusiastic person normally but this is just absolutely bringing me down to a new low i've never experienced, even make up isn't doing much for my self confidence now to the point that I'm scared of even seeing a derm cause of how low my self esteem is with AND without make up
BUT THE MAIN POINT OF THIS POST (LOL) is:
- to get people's opinions of WHERE to go privately (not NHS) in the UK (England, central) to get a roaccutane consultation? Including pricing? and/or;
- other treatments to consider?
‹I have posted a few pics below to show you the stages my skins gone through and also the current mountain range i'm dealing with , so you can see what you guys think with regards to my above questions
