Hiya KIC!

You're not alone in this. I feel your pain and I know how hard it is to wake up each day just to battle this thing called acne. Do you still have active acne or are you pretty clear these days? Accutane is a nasty drug which does work but the side effects are not pretty. I was on it myself when I was in my teens but sadly my doctor (and parents) were pretty useless and so for whatever reason I did not complete the course of the drug and my acne came back with a vengeance in my early 20's. Long story short, scarring.

Can you tell us what kind of scarring you are dealing with? Icepick, rolling, boxcar, keloid? The red marks you mentioned are not scars, so don't stress about them. They will heal in time even if you do nothing. There is no scar tissue involved with skin discolouration like that however it can take years for the marks to fade completely.

Keep your chin up! Trust me things get better. xx

Im sorry you are dealing with the same monster am i dealing with. It sucks to have to be an adult with severe acne/scars and people look at me like im a hormonal teenager. Accutane worked wonders in the few short months i was on it but it was too risky for me to be on it with the depression and looney thoughts it gave me, with that said i dont know why i went back to it a second and third time. I do still have active acne unfortunately... I am on mondox and a prescription benzyl peroxide wash. All the years i have been seeing a derm and they havent told me what kind of scarring i have. But i hate it im willing to do anything. How can i upload pictures to show the scarring?

Benzoyl Peroxide is good at killing acne bacteria on the surface, but not really deeper down (cystic acne). Be careful with the product. It acts as an exfoliant and dries the heck out of your skin if you overuse it. To combat the dryness your skin will produce more sebum, thereby making acne worse. Some claim that BP makes their scarring worse. Not sure about this but I certainly didn't like using BP when I was prescribed it. BP is great on one hand and then not so great... I would personally only use BP to spot treat but I don't use BP at all any more and have managed to get my acne under control. If you're dealing with cystic acne I strongly suggest looking into another topical for that.

If the BP is helping then that's fantastic, but don't forget there are other, more natural, options out there like my personal favourites salicylic acid and glycolic acid. Retin-A is also your friend!

Scarring can generally be classified by four types:

1. Icepick - which look like your pores only bigger and deeper.

2. Rolling - which give your skin a wave-like appearance.

3. Boxcar - when you have holes or indentations that are shallower than an icepick scar but have jagged edges and are wider in diameter.

4. Hypertrophic - raised scarring that sits above the normal level of your skin. Also called keloids.

As to how deep the scarring is, if you stretch your skin do the scars disappear? If yes, then they are likely to be more shallow. If you can still clearly see the scarring when you stretch your skin then you are probably dealing with more severe scarring.

Also, may I ask if you're taking any supplements in at the moment? If not then I suggest that you grab a skin boosting supplement. Namely, iron, zinc and vitamin C. You might be able to find one tablet which has all three, like the one I use. It's amazing how minerals in our body can help to fight acne and even acne scarring.