I'm 29, female, and have had problems with acne, redness and super sensitive skin since age 14. I've tried everything possible but still have those stubborn breakouts, including the really deep angry ones that never come to the surface but are really obvious and painful. I tend to go through 2-3 weekly phases where my skin is good for a short while before it starts to deteriorate in some way or another, and then times when it gets really bad and doesn't seem to get better for weeks on end. Not only is it very oily but it can also become dry to the point of cracking and bleeding especially around my mouth, chin and sometimes forehead (although this tends to be exacerbated by cold weather/indoor heating).
It doesnt help that I have a history of OCD and related body dysmorphic disorder, so when I get the smallest spot I am completely focused on ripping it from my face as soon as possible. With a face full of them you can imagine how this ends up - and I know it's bad, I had therapy for it several years back and am MUCH better than I used to be but I still get sucked in by the overwhelming compulsions especially when I'm stressed and have events coming up that I want to look presentable for (which is often).
I've been in the grips of a particularly bad skin 'episode' since about mid October and after it failed to clear itself up in the usual time, I tried all my other tactics - military regular cleansing, glycolic peel, steaming, calamine and clay masks - and it's only seemed to make it worse. The spots have continued relentlessly from the centre out to all areas cheeks, chin jawline, temples, browbone and forehead. Combined with the recent frost here in the UK it's become extremely dry and sensitised (not helped by my intermittent picking) and I've also had a smattering of very deep, large lesions crop up on the front of my neck up to just beneath my chin - they were really raised out so I tried to extract them and just made them scab up (not nice I know, sorry) - they are starting to scar and so deeply pigmented that no amount of concealer will completely fade them out. I have short hair and very pale skin so this is especially frustrating because I feel like they're out in the open for everyone to see and piling on layers of makeup every time I go outside comes with it's own practical issues which I'm sure many of you know.
Anyway just thought I'd give a history of why I'm on this site, I have more to post but I look forward to any advice I can get.
My advice to any acne sufferer is to go dr and dont leave without an oral anti biotic,something like lymecycline,tetracycline.
never pick or pop or squeeze spots,regardless your body will deal and expell anything in the skin,it will raise thriugh the surface of skin as a whitehead that will pop say when you wash,it wint bleed so it wont scab and wont leave a scar.
anti biotics kill acne causing bacteria,no bacteria = no acne.
14 hours ago, Quadboy said:My advice to any acne sufferer is to go dr and dont leave without an oral anti biotic,something like lymecycline,tetracycline.
never pick or pop or squeeze spots,regardless your body will deal and expell anything in the skin,it will raise thriugh the surface of skin as a whitehead that will pop say when you wash,it wint bleed so it wont scab and wont leave a scar.
anti biotics kill acne causing bacteria,no bacteria = no acne.
thanks for your reply, this is really helpful advice. I went through a 9 month course of tetracycline in my early twenties which I'm not honestly sure helped much, it just made everything very dry and gave me stomach symptoms (which I would now know to counteract with probiotics) but I didn't know better back then. I've spent years researching ways to help my skin and while a lot of the lifestyle and diet changes have helped long term it's still not completely solved. And I continue to have the 'rock bottom' days where my skin is such a mess I can't even face leaving the house. I wish there was an guaranteed fix that I knew would work but here we are.