Accutane

cric-croc said:
ok, my skin is slightly getting worse, several huge spots are appearing on my forehead and cheeks. it was also very dry in the first few days but now its back to normal. cannot wait until things improve!!!

It will. Just remember to moisturize heavily, leave your skin alone and take the blood tests.
 
I took Accutane and it was the best thing I've ever done.

Seriously, people now come up to me and ask me what kind of foundation I use and I get to tell them that I'm not wearing any! Mwa ha ha! :P

On the downside, I had to do two series of treatments and I did get a little moody - but I knew it was from the medication so somehow that made it better. I also used a ton of Blistex and other lip moisturisers and my eyes did get dry. But it was worth it - just make sure you have a great dermatologist, you follow all the instructions and get the blood tests.

Oh, and if you're thinking about starting - if you live in a dry and cold climate you might want to wait until Spring. Otherwise, your skin will be sooooo dry and itchy!
 
WhiteLinen said:
It will. Just remember to moisturize heavily, leave your skin alone and take the blood tests.

Especially your lips and eyes. Before when I was a teenager, my lips were extremely dry from using Roaccutane....
 
cygnenoir said:
I took Accutane and it was the best thing I've ever done.

Seriously, people now come up to me and ask me what kind of foundation I use and I get to tell them that I'm not wearing any! Mwa ha ha! :P

On the downside, I had to do two series of treatments and I did get a little moody - but I knew it was from the medication so somehow that made it better. I also used a ton of Blistex and other lip moisturisers and my eyes did get dry. But it was worth it - just make sure you have a great dermatologist, you follow all the instructions and get the blood tests.

Oh, and if you're thinking about starting - if you live in a dry and cold climate you might want to wait until Spring. Otherwise, your skin will be sooooo dry and itchy!

How long did it take for you to improve so well? I took Accutane from September/October 2005 until May 2006...it did have an effect on my skin, but my acne did not vanish.
 
WhiteLinen said:
How long did it take for you to improve so well? I took Accutane from September/October 2005 until May 2006...it did have an effect on my skin, but my acne did not vanish.

My skin became better pretty much immediately - a few weeks after starting the treatment. I took it for five months in 2004 (the time recommended by my dermatologist) and my skin looked great. Then, after six months I started getting acne again and while it was not as bad as it was previously, it was still annoying. I chatted with my dermatologist and she suggested doing another 5 months cycle - by that time it was a year later.

The second time seemed to do it. I do still get a tiny bit of acne here and there but it's nothing like it used to be. My skin has changed so much for the better. Even acne scars I thought I would have for life disappeared. :heart:

I can't stress enough the importance of having a great dermatologist. Previous doctors would never let me have accutane and always tried to give me antibiotics that didn't work. I finally went to a young female dermatologist and she was the first one who said "why not accutane?" She had lots of experience with it and was very careful about the monitoring.
 
How bad was your acne in the first place? It made my skin better, there's no doubt of that, but it didn't "miraculously cure" my skin. I'm getting a little bit fed up with not finding any way to get rid of it.
 
Well, to me it was terrible! But if I'm objective, it was worse than most but somewhere in between. :P

I didn't have that deep cystic acne that leaves little holes but at any given time I would have some acne all over my face. I have very pale skin that marks easily so after the acne would go away I would have a little scar for a month or two afterwards. This is still the case, I just have a lot less of them!

Accutane helped a massive amount but it didn't cure it completely. I do still get a bit of acne and I work really hard at keeping my skin clear.
 
cygnenoir you are absolutely right about finding a good derm. i have visited plenty and most of them, usually men and oldish were a nightmare: they tried to convince me that my skin was not too bad althought stressing the fact that i had deep acne scars and they did nothing to actually help my skin improve. and how can i forget how insensitive they were!!! they treated me like a silly little girl!

only 2 derms were nice and understood my problem; funny enough they were both women and the first one did a chemical peel on me which imporved drastically my scars whilethe second put me on accutane.

i am now on the second week of taking accutane and my skin is slighty dry, esp my lips, got worse in the first few days and today it seemed much better that yesterda and the days before.

I cannot believe how many years i wasted with incompetent doctors; if it wasn t for them my skin would be great by now!
 
also, i do feel a bit down, but have to admit that i always feel kinda sad in winter months. i totally wish i was
 
also, i do feel a bit down, but have to admit that i always feel kinda sad in winter months. i totally wish i was like some people who go always outside, do things, meet friends
 
also, i do feel a bit down, but have to admit that i always feel kinda sad in winter months. i totally wish i was like some people who go always outside, do things, meet friends and never get bored. in winter months i almost do nothing
 
also, i do feel a bit down, but have to admit that i always feel kinda sad in winter months. i totally wish i was like some people who go always outside, do things, meet friends and never get bored. in winter months i almost do nothing also cuz all my friends hve bf or gf and i am left behind...the negative thing about living in a big city i guess (rant of the day!)
 
cric-croc said:
only 2 derms were nice and understood my problem; funny enough they were both women and the first one did a chemical peel on me which imporved drastically my scars whilethe second put me on accutane.

What was the chemical peel like and is it expensive? I don't have a dermotologist, just the usual GP so I don't know where I'd go. How much did your skin improve?
I'm about 5 months into the treatment and all my spots have gone from my face/back except that for some reason I still have them on my neck!? I just have a lot of reddish dimply things which you can't totally see when I have foundation on but it still makes me very uncomfortable and ugly feeling.
My side effects were sore and chapped lips (blistex was great for sorting this out for me), I couldn't do exercise and get tired on my knees fairly easily and I've noticed that I cry a lot more at stupid things like music videos that aren't even sad?!? But that could be for any reason! Also, I was at a hospital for an ingrowing toenail and the nurse told me how she heard that roaccutane/accutane might be responsible for this.
Anyways, I'm really interested in trying to remove scars and redness. Can someone help me with this?
 
cric-croc said:
also, i do feel a bit down, but have to admit that i always feel kinda sad in winter months. i totally wish i was like some people who go always outside, do things, meet friends and never get bored. in winter months i almost do nothing also cuz all my friends hve bf or gf and i am left behind...the negative thing about living in a big city i guess (rant of the day!)

Ahhhh, I bet it's the accutane talking! Make sure you mention it to your doctor as it can be quite serious. :heart:

When I would feel blue I would just have to remind myself that it was the medication. For me that would make it better - I would just tell myself that it was better to be a somewhat sad person with great skin and that it was just a temporary thing. I do know that it effects some people worse than others.

Funny, I think I'm being punished for posting in this thread. I just got some horrible acne right in the middle of MY CHIN! That's what I get for saying that my skin is looking good, huh? ^_^
 
I'm on my 4th month of Roaccutane. My acne wasn't that severe so my derm just asked me to take Roaccutane once a week, 30mg a day, every month. I haven't got any more acne on my cheeks but my temples are still occasionally breaking out. Over-the-counter creams don't work for me cuz my acne is embedded in the skin; it appears as an irritaing bump without the pus. My lips are really dry and cracked though when I'm on ROaccuctane. No dry skin though.

My derm also treats me with the Aramis laser to reduce acne and IPL to get rid of the scars but neither seems to have any particular effect.
 
^ When I was a teenager, I used Roaccutane 3 times with each for 2 months. The third time is didn't come back. The roaccutane cleared it each time, but keeping returning once I stopped using it. Bare in mind that I had a huge amount of stress that time....
 
I was on Accutane twice over a period of like 2 years. The first time, my skin cleared up perfectly, but after about 4-6 months I started breaking out again. My doctor told me that sometimes people need to take it twice to reap the full benefits, so I went on it again. The only bad side effect I experienced was dryness, but I found a great chapstick that really helped out with that (it was a French one sold at Sephora... if anyone wants the name, I'll find it for you). I seriously tried so many chapsticks and it was the only one that really worked!

And about the whole depression thing... I was actually the happiest I'd ever been in my teenage years so far while on Accutane because my skin just looked so good and I was so much more confident! ^_^
 

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