Hi everyone,

I've got another before pic on my gallery. I can't seem to fit more than these 2 pictures on this post so here's the link to the other one:

Just wanted to post my success for moral support and encouragement for anyone else like me that thought they'd NEVER get clear. I had acne my whole life and it became cystic when I reached my late 20's. I had the worst acne of ANYONE I'd ever seen, I even had to have some surgical excision of cysts that never left. It was that bad, this picture doesn't do it justice but it's the best I've got. I had periods where I had some improvement and I'd get hopeful but I was never permanently clear until this year when I starting on Spironolactone and changed my diet. I waited to post this until enough time has passed that I knew for a fact I was done breaking out. The last inflamed zit I has was 8 months ago. I changed my diet about 10 months ago I started spiro about 15 or 16 months ago, so it took about 8 months after starting spiro and 2 months after changing my diet for me to be totally clear. Even if I cheat on my diet I don't get acne anymore, maybe some clogged pores but no acne. I don't use any acne products. I only wash my face once a day, don't even wash it in the mornings. I use coconut oil as a cleanser sometimes and a makeup remover if I wear make up.

I started out at 75mg of Spiro and upped it to 150mg within 3 months after crying to my derm to let me up it. I want to give a shout out to Green Gables for her post on spiro too which was so helpful and got me going on it. As for the diet part of it which is also very important, I stay away from all junk food, fast food, and any type of grain and or soy. To the best of my ability I do not eat ANY unsaturated oils, which means the only ones I do eat are coconut oil and olive oil. Google Ray peat and read his articles on aging, inflammation, health etc and educate yourself on this subject. It might very well save your life as well as clear your skin.

The pics are about 2 years apart. The other gallery post shows my scars better and I attribute the improvement in scarring to derma-stamping, single needling, STOPPING retin-A, silicone mircro-droplet injections, TCA spot treatment on scars and eating a healthy diet like I mention above. There are some red areas in this after pic because I recently did some TCA spot treating but I don't break out anymore and this redness is temporary and easily covered with make up.

I highly recommend derma-stamping and TCA for scars, when used cautiously and only if you've educated yourself on proper use. I really love using a 30%tca to spot treat small spots at a time because I don't have to hide in my house for 2 weeks that way, it's a slower longer process but I find that at least that way it actually gets done. As for stamping, I now do it once a month (or every 4-6 weeks) and I also just starting massaging my face and scars which feels good and brings blood flow to the surface of your skin making it healthier. There's a post somewhere on the forums here called "30min massage for scars" you can read which is very helpful too. I don't even use any cleansers except honey in the shower and sometimes coconut oil. I got rid of all the store bought, chemical laden crap. That being said, I do think salicylic acid, lactic acid and tca are good as long as they're not done too much, and health wise, I feel they're pretty safe to use. They're made from milk and fruit.

I used to think it would never get better and I'm so glad I was patient, took pictures, kept learning, and kept persevering.