I developed adult-onset acne 3 years ago, though it wasn’t even a fraction as bad as the poor people in those pictures had it. It killed my self-esteem and it wasn’t until I turned 25 (I’m 26 now) that I let people take photos of me as I was just mortified at how I looked. I had always had smooth, pale skin that I never exposed to the sun so to see all those horrible red spots all over my face was almost traumatic. I stopped going out unless it was to see my GP and if anyone came to the house to see me I’d cake my face in makeup, which wasn’t a good idea as most makeup blocks your pores and has greasy ingredients in it.
My GP was really helpful and we tried every pill and cream that he could think of but nothing worked. I used to put super-strength peroxide on my spots and even neat alcohol but even they didn't work so my GP referred me to a consultant dermatologist at a local private hospital. (If I had wanted to be seen by an NHS consultant I would have had to wait around 5 months.)
My dermatologist was really understanding. After taking a complete history of my skin problems she decided to try me on a combination of an anti-biotic and an Azelaic acid cream. It took 2 months to really start to work but after that my skin cleared up totally and now I hardly ever get any spots. I use the cream twice daily and take the anti-biotic at night and have been ever since I saw the dermatologist. On a bad day I might wake up with 2 tiny spots which will go away within a week which is a 1000% improvement!
(Most people who go to a dermatologist with severe or treatment-resistant acne are prescribed a drug called Roaccutane which has some nasty side-effects, including depression and psychosis. In about 85% of cases it is effective and only one course is needed. The reason I wasn’t prescribed Roaccutane is that I have mental health problems that cause me to be both depressive and psychotic and the dermatologist didn’t want to risk aggravating my condition.)
If you want to see how my skin is now, have a look on my profile picture thing.
I take it all back. My skin is fucked currently as I'm on my period. I've given up drinking milk and eating chocolate and when I'm not menstruating that has helped my skin a lot. After a while I stopped the creams and now only take an anti-inflamatory called Lymecycline. So I'm pretty much spotty for at least one week out of four but the rest of the time I'm OK thanks to the diet changes.
