Hey, I'm new to acne.org. I'm 17, female, and have been suffering with acne since I was in 3-4th grade. Yes, I'm being very serious about that. However, it was only one or two "bumps" that my mum refer to em on my forehead and she said it was no big deal. And that was when it started happening all over my forehead only and having blackheads on my nose. It wasn't up until 6th grade when i got big pimples appearing around my cheeks area. I've tried a lot of over-the-counter acne treatments trying to get rid of em but nothing really happened. My skin slowly gotten oily since then and pores increased in size. It was a embarrassing stage for me through out elementary school, having to see rest of my classmates with clear skins and i'm here with a face whole of acne. It was until 8th grade when I finally got enough courage to ask my family doctor to prescribe me some BP (10%) and clindamycin for my face condition. I know I should had went to dermatologist, but I was embarrassed to even go out with my face looking like that.. Anyways, I tried the BP and clindamycin, and it literally dried up my skin and got my face all swollen up and red. I was scared to even tried it again a couple days later, but i did; this time, just applied MUCH MUCH smaller amount. It was better, less swollen and red the next day. I saw a bit of improvement towards my skin, however, very irritated to what the BP is doing to my face, so i got off of it. I got off of it for two weeks or so, and things were okay; face was okay, couldn't say it was A LOT better. But however, the BP has gotten my face discoloration and very insensitive to many over-the-counter- products.
I have tried the Clinique Acne Treatment, and that was a waste of money.. It did nothing but the same effect on my skin; swollen and redness.Since then, I haven't came near BP or clindamycin up until last August of 2012 when I was just desperate for some help on my face again. This time, the progress was okay, I did not give up so easily this time. However, it has been 5 months so far, and my skin has been weird.. Very oily one day, then back to extremely dry the next. I can not even sleep longer than 7 hours during weekends and weekdays for school without it having my face very a bit swollen and huge redness from the BP. I'm starting to get so sick of putting it on my face and having to go to school with random red patches of redness from the BP.
I'm been researching about Accutane for a month now; I did a little last year but gave up on the idea since i was starting on BP and clin. again. I honestly want to start the Accutane treatment rather than applying creams on my face and knowing that my face gets more sensitive to it each time. Also, I read that it helps for back acne too, and that'd be excellent. I'm aware of the side effects and willing to commit to the full treatment. I have an appointment with my family doctor next Wednesday before I could go to a dermatologist.
Would you guys think I'm able to get prescribed Accutane if I told her my story of acne? And having to go to dermatologist for the first time get prescribed it?
P.S; I'm sorry for whoever is reading this, for such a long post :/
I doubt you'd need to tell her your back story apart from you've exhausted other treatment options, and if you have body acne, you're an ideal candidate.
For me & I think most others, the side effects are quite mild and easy to deal with, and it'll do wonders for your acne- it's far more effective than anything else.
In the meantime, lay off the BP until your face isn't red & then use it sparingly. If you go all red after using small amounts, you might be allergic to it.
I have a very similar story to yours, except mine started in fourth grade on my nose. 
Warning, BP+clindamyacin can eventually stop working because your skin becomes resistant to the antibiotic. My recommendation:
- Try going to a dermatologist and seeing what other things he can do for you and use accutane as a very LAST RESORT. It can have horrible effects that you may not even feel until years later because of the huge amounts of vitamin A that ends up in your liver.
- Try this washing with the walgreens knockoff of Hibiclens, called Walgreens Antibacterial Cleanser. Do NOT get it in your eyes. It's worked wonders for my extremely persistent acne. You may be able to continue this along side whatever your derm might give you. They have other things besides antibiotics, like Aczone and such, that can be very effective, especially if you add something like this to it. You can even look into light therapy.
- Try a salicylic acid toner. Make sure it has no comedogenic ingredients. I recommend the Burt's Bees toner.
- Try a mask with volcanic ash, charcoal, and clay in it. Make sure to get one that has good ratings and no comedogenic ingredients. Use it every night for twenty minutes. It helps draw everything out. I recommend the Giovanni D:Tox toner.
- Try Biore pore strips for your large pores, two or three times a week. They are AWESOME.
- Try blotting the oil with strips during the days when you're oily, and keeping a spray bottle with natural rosewater in it to spritz your face on the days when it is dry.
- Try taking a multivitamin. I recommend slice of life multivitamin plus...they're gummy and they taste good so they don't suck to take, and since you're most likely going to college or living on your own later you won't have to juggle pill bottles.
- Try drinking 32 oz of water per day. If you find water boring, try adding flavor packets that don't have sugar or aspartame in them or you can also just put a couple orange or apple slices at the bottom of your water bottle.
Also, I am actually allergic to BP myself. It gives my itchy, burning welts all over my skin. So this is actually the closest I've gotten to it. Tea Tree Oil can be very effective as well in a 10% concentration, even as effective as the same amount of benzoyl peroxide. (try getting a sensitive skin toner which has no comedogenic agents in it, and adding enough tea tree oil to make up ten percent (eg. if the bottle is 3 oz, you would need to empty .3 oz of it and put .3 oz of tea tree oil in. A measuring spoon and cup that measures volume is useful for this.) If you want to match the effects of benzaclin, you could do this and then add the hibiclens cleanser to your routine to kill the bacteria. I would do this, but I didn't realize that concentrations of less than 10% tea tree oil can make your skin resistant to it, so it wont work on my skin now. 
If the tea tree oil makes your skin irritated, apply aloe vera directly after it dries. This could also help calm your skin with the benzclin if you wish to continue using it.
Thank you for those wonderful recommendations, i'm actually drinking lot of water then before and eating those gummy vitamins. However, im pretty paranoid trying out new things on my face now. Afraid of the negative effects it would do. And these couple of days, my face has been looking okay, minus the redness patches, but I honestly wish it didn't. And rather have the doctor see it at the worst..
Go for accutane, honestly it could be the best thing thats ever happened to you. If they try to give you creams just say you dont like creams because they dont work and they irritate you. And ya, dont go to the doc when ur face is good....go when its BAD. I went to the doc thinking of trying to get on a second course, and what do u know the day before my appt my skin magically cleared up completely but i go in and tell her that its never that good and tomorrow itll be a mess again and she thought i was insane to mention accutane even though i need it. Now if i was to go in today she'd put me on it right away...so basically give ur doc something really nasty to look at and youll get it im sure!
Sorry, should've updated this when i came back on Wednesday. Well, my family doctor checked on my face and back. She told me that my face has gotten better than before, but the back hasn't gotten better and even more pimples. She gave me a lotion version of the clin. cause i told her that my face gets really dried up. She did recommend me to a dermatologist, and i was looking forward to it. However, i called them later on when i came back and my appointment is in July... So woot, I cant wait x.x
The lady at first told me Mid-May, but after I said my birthday date for the registration there; she moved me back to July. Apparently, the 'adults' get first hand on the appointments and kids like myself would be pushed back some. But I'll try to call them again and maybe get some better luck at things!
Hey! I just made my account on here too,.. Well, been waiting since November of last year to see my dermatologist (my appointment is next Thursday).. My story definitely didn't start as young as yours, acne's only really affected me for 2-3 years now, but I can relate to not wanting to waste time with anymore creams/gels/antibiotics that have already proved ineffective I too have been researching accutane for awhile now and it seems like the only answer unfortunately.. But good luck! Hopefully everything works out for us all ^.^