After being scared off of Accutane for years due to horror stories online, it was only when I was 27 -after over 10 years dealing with reoccurant breakouts of acne- and reached my lowest emotional point dealing with the depression that it caused me (I really got to a point where I did not want to live anymore) that I gave in and thought i might as well try the drug. I had a very bad flare up, I used to have bad back acne (painful cysts) and moderate forehead bumps (blocked pores) and painful reoccurant cysts on my cheeks and chin (hormonal acne) which had begun to scar badly. I didn't want to wait on the NHS for a dermatology appointment as i was at such a desperate point psychologically so I went private for the first month to get a prescription and then transferred to the NHS to finish the course, I was on half the "normal dose" for a longer period which meant 30mg for a year rather than 60mg for 6 months, I did this as all of the studies i had researched showed that this had the same effect with less side effects while on the medication. I don't really know how else to describe it as anything other than a miracle for me, within 2 weeks my acne had all completely disappeared and the few scars I was left with then faded a few months later. Over the course of the year I had beautiful skin and hair that never needed to be washed, the only slight inconvenience was that I had dry lips but with regular lip balm my lips never cracked or got too dry, I just had to make sure I applied lip balm every couple of hours (more if I was busy at work or working out sweating a lot etc). I came off the Accutane almost 2 years ago now, and my acne has not returned, I occasionally get a tiny pimple that disappears in a day if I leave it, my hair oil returned a bit but I still don't have to wash my hair every day, my lips are mildy dry but nothing a couple of applications of lip balm per day can't solve. My skin is beautiful still, smaller pores and not the oil slick it used to be minutes after washing every day. I used to be so anti drugs and I honestly tried every natural remedy for years first and then topical bp (only really helped if i caught every spot 'in time') then antibiotics. I really wish I had not wasted so much of my 20s being so depressed about my skin, cancelling social events, spending hours online planning what my next cure would be. For me Accutane has dramatically changed my life, to the point that I went from being quite lost in my life to excelling in my career within months of starting, getting into the kind of relationship i deserved and 3 years later have just had a beautiful baby (with no break outs during the hormonal rollercoaster of pregnancy and post pregnancy). I'm not saying this drug will cure all of your problems but if like me your acne affects you psychologically to the point it is causing your life to always be "on hold" or cancelled at late notice. It is worth giving it a go, because I had a low dose for a year I had such little side effects with so much reward! Some people may have a bad time on the drug but I also believe that this has a lot to do with the high doses most people are on.

I started getting acne when i was 18, having never suffered from bad skin at all in my early teens. I tried everything, from changing my diet, drinking a shit tonne of water, different teas, antibiotics, topicals, different birth control etc. I was told that my acne was hormonal and probably caused by progestin from my bc pill. I'm going into my 4th month of accutane and omg my skin is clear and glowing, it's the first time in years I've felt confident enough to go out without makeup and I'm getting compliments as well! I will say I've had some side effects, sore heads for the first month or so, extremely sensitive and dry lips, dry skin everywhere, dry eyes, i get scratches and bleed easier and terrible joint pain if i exert myself in the slightest. My face also flares up and goes bright red out of the blue. But in my opinion, it's all manageable, just very inconvenient. I just hope that my skin stays clear when i come off the medication as I've heard that hormonal acne has a tendency to come back when u stop ur regular doses.

I had severe acne for 20 years and tried everything until I tried Accutane. It basically cured my acne. I didnt really have much side effects except increased weight and elevated lipid level. Acne gave me so much problem in life that I rather be fat like Homer Simpson with clear skin. If you take low dosage (20mg to 40mg), I really doubt you are going to have severe side effects. Anyways, if you have moderate to severe acne, I think you should just try it. You got nothing to lose. It's a total waste of time to try those topical or oral antibiotics or some diet regiment. Take my word for it.

So im 16 and i struggled all through the last year of primary school and all throughout high school with severe acne. Some times were better, others not. My 'good' days were when my spots weren't red and inflamed they never seemed to go but when one did another 2 would replace that. i tried changing my daily routine, from what i was eating to exercising, home made 'remedies' all i can say for that is dont believe everything you read on the internet. It eventually got to the point where all the doctors and nurses at my doctors knew me, thats how regularly id been going to either get a new prescription or because the stuff i had wasn't working for me. This went on for about a year until my doctor finally told me about a dermatologist and booked me an appointment. i went had the blood test and weighing procedures, if im honest i was terrified about going on this, all the side effects potentially life threatening ones nearly stopped me from going on accutane. I went back saying i didnt want to risk it but my dermo insisted i should as they don't open this up to many people and turn away most that are asking for it. so i gave in, the first month i was on 20mg because i was a baby and panicked about what it could do internally, i saw slight changes, just slightly dry lips. 2nd month i was upped onto 30mg my skin got much better but as my dosage upped i broke out,making me think this was all useless, side effect: slightly drier lips, bit of cracking in the corners, dandruff (but i seemed to have sorted that) im on my third month now, 40mg one day, 30mg the other, my skin has cleared up so well im left with maybe 2-3 but spots, these are really unnoticeable and i feel so much more confident going out, i have some red scars left but nothing concealer doesn't cover up. im looking to eventually get rid of my scars completely but im in no rush. overall my experience has been so good so far, the only side effects ive had is dry lips and i went a couple of weeks not eating properly so lost alot of weight but thats all sorted now and im eating well again. One positive is i can go for 3-5 days without having to wash my hair now!

I promised myself that if I find the product that would help my acne I would share my experience cause I know how painfully depressing is to have acne and not knowing what will actually help you or just make it worse. So here is my story I had acne since I was like 12. They were on my face, chest, arms, legs, practically everywhere. Before taking accutane I tried all kinds of cosmetic products and nothing worked as a matter of fact it usually got a lot worse or my skin got completly dried out but acne always came back.I also tried changing my diet and started homeopathic treatments but that didn't help either. My family has a really healthy lifestyle so I was avoiding any medications and was looking for other options. I went to like 5 different dermatologist and most of them suggested tetracycline antibiotics but as I was against antibiotic at that time they said chemical peeling could also help. Well they didnt, I just throw a bunch of money out of the window. Then I started to use some antibiotic cremes that made my skin red and my acne worse. I hated myself because of my skin, it affected every aspect of my life and I was miserable and depressed beacuse of it. After crying all days, not wanting to show myself in public and having no will to live I had enough and at the age of 19 I decided to go on medication after all. Dermatologist suggested accutane or tetracycline. Cause I read a lot of bad comments on tetracycline- how more than 70% of people got their acne back after taking it and cause I heard a lot of good ones about accutane and also knew some people accutane helped I decided for accutane - rouaccutane.I know there are a lot of terrible side effects but my hatred for acne outweighted all of them. Cause I am really really impatient I was expecting results to come right away but at the beginning it actually got worse. It didn't improve even after 3 months when you supposed to see improvements. I was devestated as accutane was my last solution in acne war. Dermatologist comforted me and said that when does it comes to improvement varies from pacient to pacient. I was impatiently waiting and at the end of the month five my acne actually started to got better! I still got occasional pimple or two but that was nothing to compare as it was before. I was so happy and could actually start wearing open back shirts and look people in the eyes when I talked to them cause my skin finally wasn't an obstacle anymore. Right now I'm on month 7 with last box of accutane and my skin is acne free with occasional small pimples before period still faaar from skin I once had. I was on 10mg at the begining than on 20 mg from second month till month 6 when I got back to 10mg. Regarding the side effects I only had a dry skin and lips nothing else! It is really importent that they don't scare you and that you don't focuse on them because I think they got a lot to do with your mind. My whole treatment I was just thinking about when it will get better never of side effects and maybe that's why I didn't get any (apart from dry skin and lips which really isn't a big deal). :) I hope I didn't write too much and that my experience helped you in any way! I really suggest accutane especially to people who have been suffering from acne a long time and no other treatment worked out for them. I know how horrible is to have acne so just have faith and try to think positive(even though it's hard at times) and believe me it will get better!

Accutane did everything I thought I would. At first it seemed to make my acne worse. for month 2-4 I was taking 80mg of isotretinoin and still getting huge breakouts- worse than before i started. However once month 5 came along, suddenly all the breakouts stopped. I did 6 months of Accutane and now 2 months later i have yet to get a single zit since month 5. 3 month of no zits? I'm crying tears of joy; It made the side effects worth it. I haven't had skin this clear since before puberty. The worst side effects for me were horrible cracking/peeling lips and constant bloody/scabbing nose. I literally could not leave my house without a tube of vasaline. I had situations where I would have to leave work or school to go back to my house to get my Vasaline bc my lips were bleeding so bad from being dry. I also experienced rashes on my hands and arms, a messed up menstrual cycle, constipation, dry scalp (which was actually nice because i have oily hair), and sore joints. The pregnancy tests and blood draws were terribly annoying but understandable considering the birth defect risk. overall- worth it (as long as I never have to do it again). However, prepare yourself for the side effects.

The choice I made to start taking Accutane was not one of my best. I used to have very severe acne, to the point where I was the second most acne riddled person in middle school. but since then, while I still have it and get breakouts from time to time, I haven't considered it a problem since. However, when I heard that Accutane was pretty much the cure for acne, I decided it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Ohh but it did. I knew it had risks when I started, but those risks and side effects are very rare. I figured what were the chances they would happen to me? I was only on it for a little over a month, and the problems only became apparent to me when I stopped. It caused severe anxiety, a massive change in personality, and I felt like I was losing touch with who I am. When I made the choice to stop, some of the more serious problems showed up for a little bit. I started hearing things that weren't real, I lost my appetite, and I became one of the most irritable people you could ever meet. After talking to my doctor about these symptoms I was experiencing, I was told that it was causing a condition called psychosis. If I had continued to take these pills, I would have had to live with that for the rest of my life. Taking Accutane is like a Russian roulette and I got the bullet. Now that I've been able to clear my head, I noticed the memories I made while taking Accutane just don't feel real to me anymore. It was like I was watching a movie; I remember, but I know it wasn't real. While my head was under this spell, I managed to make some of the worst mistakes in my life. My friends had stopped wanting to be around me because they didn't like how I was acting. There was a girl who I really liked who stopped wanting to be around me because I started acting weird and creepy. I put a couple people in prison because I was in a bad mood. I was so filled with emotion, I cried more on Accutane than I had since I was six years old. I probably scared the shit out of this girl too, because she wants me to stay out of her life now. I had so much anxiety about it and I kept on bothering her about how she doesn't want to hang out anymore. Nothing felt worse than to have someone who once enjoyed your company start avoiding you at all costs. Once I realized how much I've been scaring her, my anxiety got worse and I had the first anxiety attack that I've ever had in my life. I felt like the worst person in the world and thought they should lock me up. After stopping the pills, I had to go to therapy for the first time ever, and I was put on a new medication to fix the problems that the old one caused. The thing is, for most people Accutane really works! But after experiencing the worst of the side effects first hand, I just can't recommend it. I don't wish to have my experience shared by even the worst of my enemies. It was the strangest point in my life and I regret the decision to take it more than any choice I've ever made. Even with my head cleared, I'm still going to have to deal with the consequences of my actions while I was on it. My college room mate switched on me, and now I'm going to have this girl hating me forever. I'm just glad I stopped taking it in time. I got a taste of what living with psychosis can be like and I swear if I had to live like that forever then I would have ended myself.

Ive been battling severe acne since 2013. I'm now 19 years old and have been on accurane since January 2017. I wish I could post my before and after. Its amazing. I had cystic acne that destroyed the texture of my skin. I ALWAYS had at least a couple big painful cysts on my face surrounded by various smaller bumps. I was on Tetracycline which failed to make any difference whatsoever. I took the leap to Accutane and my acne was completely cleared in a matter of 3-4 months on it. After time, my acne scars have significantly faded as well and my skins texture is smooth and my skin is actually glowing! This however is an extremely powerful drug that effects more than just the skin. Some minor side effects ive personally noticed is increased hair loss, dry skin for the first few weeks and extremely dry, unrepairable lips. I cannot repair my lips no matter what i try or how much i spend. I assume as long as im taking accutane this problem will be persistent. The major side effects occur mentally. I would honestly probably look for another method of clearing acne if you have any prior mental health issues. I never considered myself depressed before accutane. Probably about 3-4 months in I was diagnosed with depression and put on anto depressants. They failed to work and at about the 6 month mark on accutane i grew extremely suicidal. This past christmas I attempted suicide. And i still live with perpetual suicidal thoughts. Since May 2018, ive been having panic attacks. This has brought on a whole new list of side effects such as having no energy, inability to sleep and at times extreme, overwhelming thoughts of suicide. I find myself uncontrollably crying every single day. This is not necessarily the cure for self-esteem issues caused by acne. Please consider ALL the possible side effects before starting this drug. Because you will most likely be on it for years and the cons can start to definitely outweigh the pros. I have decided against discontining my use of accutane simply because i think if I stopped my acne would come back further damaging my self esteem. I really don't understand why this is prescribed so easily to teens. Teenage acne is normal. Accutane should only be prescribed as a last resort. While It 100% has worked for my teenage acne, the side effects will be taken through my adult years.

Taking this medication was a horrible mistake. I took it for a year, and a year after being done with medication, I still experience awful side effects. Joint pain, tingling in body, dry mouth and DRY EYES. These are only some side effects I'm still experiencing after taking it. On top of all, my acne came back. This medication is NOT worth all the pain you will endure during and after taking it. If I could go back in time I'd never take Accutane.

I was on accutane when I graduated high school (2015). I had bad hormonal acne, back acne and chest acne. I decided to go see a dermatologist because I decided I try with one since all my life I've treated my acne with home remedies, over the counter products and creams(it helped temporarily). I walked into the dermatologist explaining my situation I remember telling her "I'm tired of not having clear skin like my friends" I got to a point where seeing my skin full of acne/white heads was normal and I never really knew how bad it was until I tried ACCUTANE. Long story short the dermatologist looked at my face my back and my chest and right away told me about accutane she explained to me allllll the dryness it caused and side effects. I was put on birth control while i was on it. After the 2 month I saw AMAZING improvements my pores were smaller my skin was glowing!!! I had so much confidence in myself like never before! After finishing my 6 months on a 40mg... (20mg was my starting point) I was so happy i was going to be off of it!! 4 months passed and my acne came back only on my right side (that was always my acne problem) for some dumb ass reason I tried birth control again and it was such a horrible mistake!!! I now have acne all over my chin and jaw my cheeks as well it wont go away... I would hate to go back to accutane :(