Can stress be the root of my acne?
I am an almost 27 year old guy who has had acne for 14 painful years now. It has been cystic at times while other times manageable. I have done EVERYTHING besides Accutane (still regret not trying it)
From 19-23 it was pretty mild and responded extremely well to a combo of a light coating of Dan's BP in the morning and Differin at night. I ate anything that I wanted. Fast food, dairy, tons of alcohol, and my acne stayed mild.
Fast forward to when I turned 23 and two stressful events (long term relationship ended and I got my first stressful office job) caused my acne to become consistently cystic. From 23-25, I had 10-15 pimples at all times many of which were cystic and scarring. Nothing worked at all. I finally changed my diet a few months away from my 26th birthday. No dairy, no sugar, no gluten, no alcohol, and highly anti inflammatory whole foods. The bottom line is eating that way works wonders. I still use my BP in the morning and night but that wasn't enough to make a dent in my acne when it was bad from 23-25.
The problem is I have to be PERFECT on this diet. I am terrified to deviate from it and for good reason. One example is 2 weeks ago when I went to Vegas for the weekend. I kept up my topical routine but decided to say fuck it and eat whatever I wanted. So I ate out every meal, drank alcohol and just had fun for once. It was NOT worth it. Painful cysts and pustules all around my mouth, temples, and jawline which I am still recovering from.
This is honestly no way to live. I can stay 95 percent clear by following a perfect diet but I am living in fear at this point. I have never learned how to control my stress but I KNOW that deviating from my diet will cause deep pimples that scar.
Can anyone else relate to this? Everything that I read says that stress can make current acne worse but can it actually be the cause for someone that shouldn't have acne (a 27 year old man)?
Can stress be the root of my acne?
I am an almost 27 year old guy who has had acne for 14 painful years now. It has been cystic at times while other times manageable. I have done EVERYTHING besides Accutane (still regret not trying it)
From 19-23 it was pretty mild and responded extremely well to a combo of a light coating of Dan's BP in the morning and Differin at night. I ate anything that I wanted. Fast food, dairy, tons of alcohol, and my acne stayed mild.
Fast forward to when I turned 23 and two stressful events (long term relationship ended and I got my first stressful office job) caused my acne to become consistently cystic. From 23-25, I had 10-15 pimples at all times many of which were cystic and scarring. Nothing worked at all. I finally changed my diet a few months away from my 26th birthday. No dairy, no sugar, no gluten, no alcohol, and highly anti inflammatory whole foods. The bottom line is eating that way works wonders. I still use my BP in the morning and night but that wasn't enough to make a dent in my acne when it was bad from 23-25.
The problem is I have to be PERFECT on this diet. I am terrified to deviate from it and for good reason. One example is 2 weeks ago when I went to Vegas for the weekend. I kept up my topical routine but decided to say fuck it and eat whatever I wanted. So I ate out every meal, drank alcohol and just had fun for once. It was NOT worth it. Painful cysts and pustules all around my mouth, temples, and jawline which I am still recovering from.
This is honestly no way to live. I can stay 95 percent clear by following a perfect diet but I am living in fear at this point. I have never learned how to control my stress but I KNOW that deviating from my diet will cause deep pimples that scar.
Can anyone else relate to this? Everything that I read says that stress can make current acne worse but can it actually be the cause for someone that shouldn't have acne (a 27 year old man)?
Lol didnt know I would find someone who is going through this as well. I have something called perioral dermatitis(pustules around my mouth region, they come out in clusters..leave yellow stuff behind ugh..). So I went on antibiotics for 20 months..thing is antibiotics worked for me! But I got resistant to a couple and refused to go on it again. I changed me diet to no sugar, dairy and even spicy food! So now, I am getting really depressed because while following this diet keeps me 70% clear, I miss eating out and having fun like I used to! I eat fruits and deal with a few breakouts because well..I gotta live.
Have you tried using ACV with lemon? I heard it works wonders for pustules. I am going to try that soon. Also will try ingesting ACV with water everyday.
Since you didnt respond to antibiotics, it could be that your acne has a fungal element to it. Try applying an antifungal..like Lotrimin Ultra and using Selsen blue shampoo with 1% selenium sulfide on you face and see if it clears up!