Hello all,

Since this forum has a wealth of information I kind of wanted some reassurance that I'm at least focusing on the right initiatives in order to start addressing my acne issue.  To give a bit of background, I've never had acne before during my life but was prescribed a medication a few months ago that caused me to get a breakout like I've never had before in my life, and once I stopped taking the medication I was left with dark spots from the acne.  I then also had some acne issues flare up again when traveling to a cold temperature climate and I was using nuetrogena cleanser for the first time, so I'm not sure if it was due to the climate change or the nuetrogena, but whatever the case my skin became very irritated.  

When I had the irritation I got some advice regarding what to use from a friend of mine that had had some success with PCA skin products so I started using PCA pigment gel (PCA SKIN Pigment Gel fl), creamy cleanser, rebalance moisturizer, and a retinol [removed].  I believe I was using it incorrectly because of a miscommunication with the people at the shop I bought it from because I called them back and they told me I shouldn't be using the pigment gel at the same time as the retinol.   I freaked out when I noticed my skin starting to get lightening spots but I contacted the people at the shop that sold me the products and they said it's due to the hydroquinone but that it will return to normal if I just continue the use.

She recommended me the following regimin:  
AM - Cleanser, spot treatment with pigment gel, rebalance moisturizer, and sunblock. 
PM - cleanser and then brightening retinol

My main quesitons are:

1)  Do most people on this forum just use the regimin posted on the main website and get good results?  ( http://www.acne.org/regimen )

2)  Should I stop the above products and just go with the acne.org regimin?  Or will the above products work as well?

3)  Will the lightening that occurred on my skin from the pigment gel actually return to normal and it's a common effect of the hydroquinone?  I'm attaching a picture for reference.