Hi everyone,

A lot of the things I'll discuss have been talked about a lot as I'm not alone, but I wanted to start my own thread and see if anyone had any insight or solutions in relation to their own suffering of acne.

I'm 31 and in the last year have gained a lot of knowledge about acne and trying to take better care of myself in order to stop it. I've fought acne ever since I was 15, and when I was in high school I would go to the dermatologist all the time and nothing he prescribed ever worked. So when I was 18 I started using Proactiv which worked and I used that for a year, but then moved onto Acnefree since it seemed to be the same and was a little cheaper. I've been using it ever since. At first I used it twice a day, then for the last six years I got my skin used to using it just in the morning. Sure I got pimples every now and then, dealt with them and they went away, but overall I felt like I had control.

In the last couple years, I started breaking out more, got some boils, all which I dealt with painfully and have some slight scarring as a result. I got super paranoid about diet and started realizing that I used to eat way too much dairy and drink too much juice, so in the past year I've cut both down a lot. I drink mainly water, and try to limit dairy as much as possible. I also thought the Pert Plus shampoo I use was breaking my forehead out, so I've been using Bert's Bees shampoo which contains better ingredients for the skin. With all this effort and the continued use of AcneFree, you'd think my skin would be even better, but it's not. I'll have good days, and then bad days. But overall I just can't seem to get it under control despite diet changes. I start to feel like this is my life and it'll never get better. I'll suffer with it for the rest of my life.

I've thought about going back to a dermatologist, but I feel he'd just prescribe be with another lotion or topical cream that will dry my skin out like my old dermatologist did, yet nothing will be under control. And I don't want to take Acutane due to the side effects. So I'm just curious to see if anyone has any suggestions. I tried using Sacylic Acid ingredients about a couple of years ago and that made my skin awful, so I went back to the Benzoyl Peroxide of Acnefree. Is there something stronger I need? Why isn't this stuff cutting it anymore? Why can't my skin just stop? I also know stress causes Acne and I've cut down on as much stress as possible too, as well as things like Chocolate and sugars. I tried taking more Vitamin A and B a couple years ago too and fish oil, yet my skin seemed better off these things than on.

Thanks for the time everyone, I hope I can get some useful suggestions that I can use to help get my skin more under control and not have to use concealer nearly everyday on spots I'm embarrassed on showing.

The weirdest things is...it MAINLY seems to be my forehead. Other blemishes or pimples I get on any other region may occur might goes away. My forehead lately just seems to keep getting small little bumps. I even have tried to give it a little wash at night with some warm water so it stays cleaner, but that hasn't even helped. Is there something I can use just for my forehead that's stronger? I've tried the 10% acnefree on the spot cream which helps but I think my forehead may get used to it so then when I go back to the 3.7of the regular Acnefree 3 step, my forehead breaks out. Am I using too much BP? Acne.org's regimen says 2.5 and only on one step. AcneFree uses 3.7 on two steps. But I worry without this much BP as my skin has gotten used to, I'll break out even more, right?

Oh recently I even cut down on the shower's temperature so that I just use luke warm water which I know is better for the skin. Still breaking out.