I am a 23 year old male who has had acne problems since the age of 17 until now at the age of almost 24. It's has completely changed my life. Every single waking moment is dedicated to finding out what is causing it as I just don't believe I just "have acne", there has to be a root cause to this. It all started at the age of seventeen with one nodule that appeared on my pubic area, it burst open itself and within the next three years I lost count on how many red inflamed legions I had down there. The aftermath was not pretty, but somehow in gods grace everything healed up and you would never notice I had any at all. Since then I have had only one in this region in the past years they have completely stopped making me SO happy. So at age 20 I had my first one pop up where the jawline and neck meet, this continued to spread in cystic fashion on my neck and jawline to the point where I was suicidal. The first derm I went to told me that it was folliculitus caused by staph and gave my some medication and antibiotics which never helped. I went through some very tough times considering these should be my wonder years of talking to girls and meeting new people, just doing the typical early 20s stuff ya know? I lost a lot of years to this problem that ill never get back. After I moved back home I broke my ankle and decided to go paleo. After 4 months of this I had no spots at all anywhere, the first time in a long time I was very very relieved. About six months ago I moved into my own place again and starting eating really shitty and along with that had a huge flare up on my cheek that left some scarring. Ever since then I just haven't been able to get it under control to where I've had some sort of spot somewhere for the last 4 months without fail. The emotional toll this has taken on me can not be put into words, I would do anything to figure this out and find a solution. I now have anxiety, depression, bdd, and who knows what else ha. I want to say there's a correlation between it and food but I just can't positively say. Recently I had one on my shoulder, hip bone, and inner thigh, just big ole inflamed legions. My most recent derm said it was just acne and I've been using acanya for spot treatments. I've also used every cream and pill that they could throw at me short of accutane. Going for a consultation soon to see what they can do for the scarring I have on my cheek hopefully there is a procedure that I can undergo to at least see improvement. I guess my question is has anyone here been through a similar experience? If not it just feels nice to put my story out there for the first time. Here are some things I've looked into or tried to see see if they were the root cause, but sadly to no avail yet it seems.

- stopped smoking cigarettes ( succeeded)

- became very healthy with a paleo diet/ saw improvemnet slipped up and here I am still

- im a hat guy so I thought wearing a hat everyday could cause it? Idk

- masturbation cessation

- sometimes I think I could be from smoking weed in cigars

- currently sugar, gluten, corn, soy, read meat, caffeine, nightshade, citrus, alcohol, gmo free (think it might be helping)

- thought it could be from sleeping on my side but I put a fresh t-shirt over my pillow every night

- possibly from a reaction to shampoo or a chemical called sodium lauryl sulfate or possibly fluoride in toothpaste

- thought maybe I just have sensitive skin and very slight irritation causes new spots

- checked a couple but not all my hormone levels. The ones checked all came back normal

- blood tests came back normal

I'm fairly intelligent and the type of acne I have is just weird to me, the left half of my face is damn near perfect. I have some scarring on my right cheek and a few active spots on my jawline with spots of pih here and there. Nothing MAJOR but it's just bugs the shit out of me and has taken a huge mental toll on me.

This may be wrong my man but I will try to help.

try washing your face with CereVe Foaming Facial Cleanser

I'm assuming you have insurance since your older than 18. Ask your Derm if the Prescriptions do not give you satisified results if you can go on a 3-5 month course of Accutane.

Currently i am using the cetaphil daily facial cleanser on occasion. I do not believe that it is caused by lack of face care. Deep down inside I just know that something else is at the root of it all. Unfortunately I do not have insurance at the time but will have coverage in January if everything goes as planned. Just with a diet change I watched the cystic ones disappear but still seem to be dealing with regular acne. I have thought about accutane but am keeping it on the back burner as a last ditch alternative. Thank you for your input though any and all help is appreciated right now. I WILL beat this