I have always had terrible cystic acne growing up that started when I was around 9-10 years old. Over the years I tried every damn treatment you could think of but nothing would get rid of it, or even get it under control. The products I tried would all just clear it up a little bit, but not enough to really notice much of a difference. I had an extreme morning and evening regimen of vigorously washing my face and putting acne creams on. If I ever once forgot to wash my face or put the creams on, I would wake up with the worst breakouts of my life the next day. I absolutely could not forget or skip a day, ever. I took birth control for my acne, but it only helped a small amount. I always thought once I got out of highschool the acne would just go away eventually, but it never did. Finally at age 23 with a face full of zits, I thought, ?This is it. This acne is never going away.? And I started looking into more drastic treatments. This is where the accutane came in. Let me tell you this was no walk in the park. I went through the hardest 6 months of my life while taking this stuff. It made my lips and skin soo unbearably dry. Describing it as uncomfortable would be an understatement. If I ever left my house without vasoline, I was absolutely screwed. My lips would get so dry that they would stick together and I couldn?t even get my mouth open. One time when they got stuck together, I forced them apart, and the skin from my bottom lip got pulled off and was stuck to my upper lip. It was bad, and nasty to be quite honest. I felt sooo tired all the time. I would sleep for 12 hours and wake up still feeling exhausted. I felt so fatigued. I am a full time college student, and school got extremely difficult while I was on this stuff. I just could not for the life me concentrate, and was always falling asleep in class. I couldn?t find time to get homework done and study because I was always so exhausted. I ended up failing TWO classes while I was taking this stuff. And I had never failed a class before in my life! I was also experiencing memory loss, which honestly freaked me out a bit. I was constantly forgetting things, leaving things at people?s houses, forgetting to do things, which is very unlike me. It also caused me to gain a ton of weight! Which was terribleeee. The weight gain was probably the worst part for me. I would literally go days without eating and STILL gain weight. I was always starving, but was always afraid to eat because I was blowing up like a balloon. I probably gained over 30 pounds during the 6 months I took this stuff. And then as soon as I stopped taking it, the weight fell off without me even having to try. 

However, despite all the terrible side effects, I still have to say I feel it was worth it. My acne was controlling my life, and I finally feel free now. I think what I like most is not having to do a full face of make up every time I leave the house. It feels like a true gift, because I always hated wearing make up. I no longer have to wash my face or put acne products on at all. It?s been about six months now since I stopped taking accutane, and all the side effects are gone. I?m back at my normal weight, and my skin is still completely clear. As others have mentioned, please be very aware of the side effects. If you can, try to take it during a time when you don?t have too much going on in your life. Also, you can pretty much expect to have no dating life whatsoever while taking this stuff, so be prepared to spend some time alone. 

This drug was amazing and cleared my skin on both occasions rapidly. Side effects are not fun but you do it because its only for 6 months and then its 'cured' (sigh). Not the case for me at all. On both occasions the acne came back after 6 months. I am now 26 and I now and my acne is as bad as it ever was and is clustering on completely new parts of my face. How much I wished that this was my cure and this nightmare would be something of the past.