Okay, so I just joined this forum today because I've been feeling really really down about my acne situation and I can't imagine what I'm currently doing wrong that I could fix to help clear up my face.

I've never suffered from severe acne - i'm a 19 year a old girl, and before August of this year I never experienced anything beyond mild breakouts (1 or 2 spots at the worst point in my cycle)...since slightly before the beginning my sophomore year of college, though, I've been dealing with consistent moderate breakouts that persist for a really long time and overtake most of my face. For a few weeks, my skin cleared up pretty nicely, but as of a week ago it's broken out again with a vengeance. Right now I'm dealing with about 5-6 whiteheads on my face and a horrible painful cyst on my chin

I'm a vegan, so I don't eat any dairy. I'm very careful about my diet--I eat mostly fruits and vegetables with very minimal amounts of refined sugar. I also make sure to stay hydrated, and I would say I drink easily more than 10 glasses of water a day. I stopped wearing foundation because I was worried it was drying out my skin, so now in terms of makeup I only wear eyeliner, mascara, and concealer on my acne. I also clean my pillowcases regularly. I only wash my face once a day and I don't use any cleanser--only lukewarm water. I occasionally moisturize, but I tend to avoid products because my face is extremely sensitive and most things set it off immediately.

I was on birth control for awhile during the summer, but I didn't enjoy the side effects and it coincided with my skin beginning to break out, so I quit. For awhile it seemed that quitting bc is what cleared up my acne, but now that it's come back even worse I'm having my doubts.

What am I doing wrong? What can I do to cure this acne? Or at least manage it better? I'm wondering if I should attempt to get on oral antibiotics, but I worry about the side effects there too. I'm not interested in getting back on birth control. This whole situation is wreaking havoc on my self esteem, and even though my acne isn't severe idk how much longer I'll be able to deal with this before I completely lose hope T _ T