Acne: My story

From the age of about 10 I started to get my first spots, as I entered secondary school these became a regular thing. I only tended to have the odd spot here and there, but never did I have clear skin. One or two days since then have I had almost clear skin and boy did it feel good! Well over the past 3 years these spots which I regarded as normal became more frequent in numbers. I could have it on my forehead chin, and cheeks on a bad day. This is when It started to affect me, I wanted it gone as it was not something I wanted to have to live with for the rest of my life. I'm not someone who wears a lot of makeup to school and it begun to really upset me and have me feeling very self conscious all the time. I feel like people judged me on it as I knew it didn't look good, but I never asked for it, so why should it affect who I am?




My acne is mostly on my cheeks and skin. But I also had acne on my back, for about 5 years I found myself self conscious in summer as my shoulders were exposed and my spots could be seen by anyone and everyone. Spots on the back? How odd! You hear about spots on the face but people tend to avoid talking about acne on the back and you never see it in person. It wasn't painful when I lied down but it was always there and started to irritate me. As my acne on my face expanded so did that on my back, from my shoulders to my waist.











I have tried so many products out of boots/superdrug/lush etc, but these just made me frustrated as I felt they have little or no affect on my skin. I'd watch beauty gurus saying how all these products had worked wonders for them,seen great reviews online, but they didn't work for me. Well all this changed last November after I had seen a new beauty guru talk about using the contraceptive pill for her skin. I never go to the doctors so I plucked up the courage to ask my mum if we could go as she's always busy. To my relief she said yes! And then my medication chapter began.

P.s I still use these products!

My doctor first confirmed for me that yes it was acne and not just spots, that I should have come
sooner, that it's very much treatable. First of all she gave me a a cream called Duac, how excited I was! Yay a cream that to cure spots how simple and wondrous  Well the result was that I was left lying in bed with tears streaming down my face as I felt like I'd stuck my face in a furnace. This stuff was good, but too good for my sensitive face. It worked well on my back but I couldn't be bothered with the fuss and pain (I'm a germ freak!).

Then we moved onto the pill. The ever dreaded question of ''Are you sexually active?'' came up in conversation, it's an important question nevertheless! These seemed much more simple, pain free, just take it routinely every day. After 3 months of treatment my acne seemed to finally improve, spots on my back retreated to my shoulders and disappeared, the spots on my face became smaller and less fierce.

Another thing I find is that my diet affects my acne, when I drink water/eat more fruit my skin appears clearer, In comparison to eating chocolate and junk food which break me out. On a handout my Doctor gave me it said some rare causes of acne are makeup,sweating,tight clothing, sugar diets, milk and picking spots. But I'll tell you something even if you manage to lead a life without all of this you can still get acne! It may improve it but might have no difference whatsoever!

My skin today (after 4 months treatment)

Now nothing in life is perfect, my face and back are still likely to get the odd spot day to day, but I'm now learning how to control it. Different things work for different people, and I'd like to say that I'm not bashing products just stating what affect they had on my skin. Same with the drugstore products I still use some of them daily and will talk about that more in the future if your interested. But if you have been suffering for acne for a while I do suggest going to the doctors if drugstore products don't work for you. As you can see my skin is starting to improve (loss of inflamation) but I'll keep you updated on my journey as my skin still has breakouts and scars, so I have a lot way to go yet.

Do you have acne? What products/treatments work for you?