Hello Everyone,

So here is a brief but interesting breakdown of my journey with acne.

I am currently a 35 year old male and up until I was about 25 years old I only struggled with the occasional pimple (or two), along with hyperpigmentation. Unfortunately, something changed as I turned 25 and I would now get the occasional CYST instead. Fortunately though, these cyst's almost never left major scarring or atleast not that I noticed.

Around two years ago, my stress levels skyrocketed due to work related issues. And just like that, with no warning whatsoever, I was now, for the first time in my life, at the ripe age of 32, suffering from a face full of cystic acne. I tried everything, from Benzoyl Peroxide to Ice, Salicylic Acid, and hot compress. Nothing seemed to even remotely help. I eventually got fed up and visited a dermatologist and insisted on a Cortisone shot (The dermatologist was initially recommending clindamycin) for a couple cysts that had been lingering for a while.

This, as you may have already assumed, was the worst decision I possibly ever made. I was left with some serious dents around both sides of my cheeks in additional to the grade 1 scarring the other cysts had left.

Knowing my skin like I did, I always sensed no cream or potion was ever going to really resolve this. I eventually, somehow, managed to figure out that there was a correlation between my chronic constipation (maybe caused by my high stress levels) and the cystic acne I was struggling with. I did some research online and started taking probiotics along with psyllium husks almost daily and boy did that acne clear up!

Thankfully, I have now been completely acne free for the last couple of years!

That said, I am left with a few box scars along with 2 deep dents from the cortisone shots (I hope that's what the derm used). I've previously had 3 seating's of Infini RF, 1 seating of E-Martix, 6 months of constant Retin-A, and hyaluronic acid filler twice (Mostly for the dents from the Cortizone Shots). I've definitely seem some improvement/ progress, however, the Cortisone dents haven't completely filled in (even post the fillers) the skin around the site almost seems scarred/ bruised permanently. Please help!