Hi Everyone!

These are pictures of what I look like now. I wish I had old photos to do a side by side comparison, but I cant find any (not by coincidence either, I purposefully avoided getting my picture taken). I haven't been on this site in about 11 years, but I wanted to re-join and make this post to provide encouragement and to  let people know that it gets better.

My acne first started to get bad when I was about 15. It progressively got worse until my whole face and back were covered. I had, by far, the worst acne in my entire school. Of course, this made me very upset. I remember being painfully shy, not being able to look people in the face, always wishing my acne would clear up, crying, and avoiding going anywhere and meeting new people. My stress and depression from the acne consumed my life. Treatment wise, I tried pretty much everything from Proactive to Accutane (the negative side effects of it were too much for me so I had to stop). If any of this sounds familiar, I really feel for you. I know what its like. It stinks. But I'm also here to tell you that it gets better! I'll get right to the point and say that what really helped me out was called Minocycline. A combination of the drug, working out and being active, and changing my attitude (which included just being myself and trying not to let my acne bother me) is what finally started to work.

Its been about 10 years since then, and I feel almost obligated to come here and let people know that they're not alone and that it does get better. Looking back, I wish I wouldn't have let my acne control my life the way it did. It stopped me from going places, seeing people and missing out on experiences. But maybe you can benefit from my hindsight. Stop letting acne dictate everything you do. Be yourself, do what makes you happy, and don't care what other people think. Don't feel like you need to hide away just to appease other people. Adopting this attitude was probably my greatest weapon for fighting acne, and in fighting the depression that came with it (reading books about positive psychology helped a lot).

Some things are out of our control. Our height, eye colour and skin colour is all predetermined. For some people, their acne is not something they can control. One of those 'a-ha!' moments for me (sometimes called an epiphany) was "this is the hand that I was dealt. I need to stop feeling sorry myself and do the best I can with what I was given."  In essence, I am saying you cant control the cards you're dealt, just how you play the game. If I could take any positive from the experience, it was I learned that you never know what people are dealing with, so be kind always.

I hope my story has given some encouragement to some of you. I will be around in the forums, offering any advice and words of encouragement that I can. If you see me around, feel free to say hi!