Anyone who suffers from cystic acne PLEASE HELP! Over the summer I started to develop severe acne from going off of birth control and it brought me into a serious depression... Well I had been taking doxycycline for 6 weeks and I saw a dermatologist last week and he put me on bactrim instead and I think I might have been allergic. And I think I have some smaller cysts but I started noticing a red spot on my forehead maybe on Monday that looked like a pimple forming but then it started to get bigger and looked like it was going to be 10 pimples in one.. And THEN one appeared right next to it on the other side . These are now both about QUARTER sized on my forehead! I put benzoyl peroxide on it ever since I saw the initial redness.. I can't tell if it's much change but now they are very slightly raised red bumps just look like a little swollen patch or something... Not particularly painful, but itchy (I've now been putting bp mixed with decitin) anyway are these giant cysts forming??? Would they be formed already?? I've never seen anything like this... These things are huge.. If anyone has ANY input or experience similar to mine please reply I don't know what to do
Sounds like cysts to me. I often get clusters of them in one spot and it looks like a huge painful lumpy swollen area, but really it is 4-5 big cysts under the skin. It usually starts like an itchy feeling under the skin and then they grow and grow. I have not found any topical product that helps with these and I have tried everything. There is no where where I live that does cortizone injections so I have not tried that, so my stratery is to just cover them with makeup as best as I can and bide my time until they start to shrink...which sadly can take weeks. I am sorry this is happening to you! Do you have a skin care program/regimine that you use that you have found successful in the past? If so, maybe give that a shot. Be patient and don't pick or try to squeeze this area! It will only make it more painful and last long! I sometimes use ice and advil to help with the swelling!
I know your pain. Cysts are the worst! Here is what I have found to be helpful:
1. Mario Badescu Buffering Lotion- The first time I used this, my cyst was literally gone the next day. The other times I used this, it didn't work as well but I think it's because the first one was tiny, and the others were much deeper under the skin on my jaw line (those are the worst but thankfully no one can see them)
2. Advil- This next thing worked absolutely amazing! Fortunately, I never really had cystic acne. When I was younger, I would get a cyst here and there but then it just stopped but early of this year I started to get these HUGE ginormous pimples out of no where on my chin deep under the skin but because of the place they were on my chin, you couldn't see them, it just looked a little red if I didn't have make up on it. Well anyway, I was telling a woman at work and she told me to get advil gel, cut it up, and put the gel on the pimple and to do it 2 to 3 times a day. Well it worked! It literally was gone in about 3 days and this happened about once a month for 3 or 4 months so the second I would feel it coming, I did the same thing and it would be gone in a day or 2.