I just want to share with you my experience with accutane, because some people here just simply leave this website when their acne is gone and they continue with their life.

Heres a little background story. I'm an 18 years old male, i was a very social person. When i was in high school i used to attend social events, party, meet new people, go to gym, jog almost everyday, talk to girls, etc etc talking in front a lot of people was a simple thing to me and overall i was a very confident man. I started getting acne when i was 11. It was all over my back (worst one), my chest, my upper arms and face. When i was 14 a derm prescribed me doxycycline for a month with some creams and it cleared my face (not body acnes though). After that it was only mild acne, it did not really affect my life because you can simply cover body acnes by proper clothing and my face acne was very mild, its like one of those pimples you get here and there that go away in couple of days without leaving significant spots, let alone scars. I had relatively clear skin for a couple of years.

I got admitted into one of the top public law schools in the country and was very happy because my dream was to become a succesful lawyer. After entering college my face broke out horribly, i started getting red lumps all over my cheeks (nodular acne). I constantly visited my derm to get cortisone injections every 2 weeks. I have never had this kind of acne before, my derm prescribed me doxycycline again for a month but it did not work and it was steadily getting worse. I switched to another derm and he prescribed me minocycyline along with BP creams for about 2 months, which did not work either, only irritating my face. At this point, acne greatly ruined my life, i lost my self esteem. My grade dropped significantly, i lost contact with my friends because i didnt reply to their texts and kept refusing to go out with them because i was very embarrased with my face, i stayed in my room all day watching youtube videos and browsing internet trying to find a way on how to "cure" this acne. I was scared to look at people in the eyes when talking to them and i always avoided sun and bright lights. Some severe acne sufferers must know this feeling. I deleted my social media accounts, thinking about quitting college and even thoughts of comitting suicide came to my mind because of how sad and depressing my life had became. My parents noticed this and they suggested me to see a psychologist, but i knew i didnt need a psychologist because what i really wanted was clear skin. I switched to another derm again and i told him how acne had affected me, i told him that i became a very asocial person and at one point i cried because some of the noduls really hurted and did not go away for more than 2 weeks. He prescribed me accutane for 6 months starting from mid november 2014, so i had just finished accutane recently totalling about 137-140mg/kg cumulative dose. In the middle of the course i developed cysts and it surprised me because this was the first time i had cystic acne, it DEFINITELY looked worse than before i started accutane. I thought about quitting accutane thinking it was causing this cystic acne, but my face already looked bad so i was like "why dont give it a try? your face looks f'ed up anyway" and decided to continue. I kept breaking out throughout the course until the very last month 6, then suddenly it stopped. Now its been 3 weeks since i stopped accutane and my face is clear of acne. Im very happy because now i can touch my face without feeling any bumps and no need to worry about new pimples. Now that my acne has gone, it left me with ugly red marks/Post Inflammatory Erythema and hyperpigmentation. My doctor was glad that my acne now seems to be "under control", i discussed to my derm about ways to get rid of these marks and he said that vbeam laser treatment will work wonderful to deal with that problem but i should wait for at least 2 months after finishing my last accutane pills. Overall im very happy with accutane because it changed my life, im no longer having any acne on my face, my chest, my arm, or my back. Im slowly regaining my confidence back, id absolutely go for second course if my acne comes back. No doubt.

These are the side effects i got when i was on accutane and how i dealt with them:

1. Dry and peeling skin (obviously) - use moisturizer

2. Dry lips - lip balm

3. Dry eyes - artificial tear drop

4. Mild nose bleed - happened 3 times then it stopped, didnt do anything

5. Flushing on cheeks when exercising/exposed to high temperature - will be fixed by vbeam perfecta

6. This one sounds ridiculous but at the last 2 months my derm bumped the dose to 80mg/day and my skin became very dry. Since i am a circumcised male, the tip of my P... became very dry and sensitive it felt kind of weird and tingling when mr. sniffles touched underwear, but this can be fixed by applying vaseline or any kind of moisturizer on it.