Severe Acne is a Heartbreaker
I saw a polite, soft-spoken boy this week with severe cystic acne.
“How long have you had acne?” I asked.
“For about two years.”
“Have you been treating it?”
“Yeah. Actually I’ve spent so much money on acne medication that my mother made me get a part time job to start paying for it,” he replied.
He had deep red pitted scars on his face, chest and back. It broke my heart.
If you have severe acne, please listen to me –
- It is not your fault. No amount of pizza (however greasy) or chocolate can cause acne.
- Stop scrubbing. Apricot scrubs, sugar scrubs, or other abrasive treatments will only serve to make it worse. Your acne is not caused by dirt or by being unclean. Hormones, genetics, and trapped bacteria cause acne.
- If you have severe acne, like my patient, then topical treatments such as Proactiv®, and even prescription topical medications such as Retin-A® are not enough.
- Acne can be painful, disfiguring, embarrassing, and permanently scarring. Don’t try to fix it on your own. You need a physician’s help.
There are literally hundreds of companies (many who spam me everyday to get me to mention them here) willing to sell you stuff for your acne. If you have mild acne, most of these products would help. However, if you have severe acne like the patient in the photo, then you need prescription oral medications such as oral antibiotics (doxycycline, tetracycline, or minocycline) or isotretinoin (Accutane® or Sortret®) to treat your acne.
If you are a parent, then please call your child’s pediatrician or dermatologist today for an appointment. Not tomorrow. Today. Adolescence is hard enough; there is absolutely no reason to suffer with severe acne. And no reason to get a second job to pay to fix it.
My husband tells me he had acne like this as a teenager. Amazingly he doesn’t have many scars from it. Poor kid. It’s tough just dealing with an “ordinary” zit.
I can fully relate to that kid. I had severe acne as a kid (I still suffer from time to time now). It destroys your self confidence and I literally did not dare to talk to women for fear of being rejected!
I tried all the topical creams, lotions, ointments and face scrubs and none of it worked. I even bought this expensive book from the states which claimed to be able to control acne through diet. It would have meant cutting out literally all the foods I enjoy like tuna fish so that was out.
I did 2 years of all the different cycline drugs and they didn’t help. Then, finally, I was put on a course of Accutane. It works very well and cured my acne but it is brutal stuff. It damages women’s babies if they are pregnant and I had so many blood tests it’s not even funny. My tryglycerides (whatever they are) were through the roof and I had to stop. Nowadays I use a benzyl peroxide 10% cream to keep it at bay. It’s good but dries out my skin and stains clothes and pillow cases! Oh the joy of bad skin!
Christian
It’s so sad that his mom made him get a second job to pay for his treatments… how cruel!
Good post. That picture is definitely severe. Thankfully, my skin has never been that bad.
When I was younger, I always thought it was me. (Like you said) I thought it was my makeup, diet, face wash, everything. I couldn’t figure it out. I never did get any treatment, because my parents never offered to take me.
Recently I was looking at pictures of my dad’s side of the family, and guess what? They all had acne. So it really is genetic.
The only thing that seems to help me, is if I drink a lot of water.
Dr. Val,
It might not be the mom that is cruel, but the fact of life that the family didn’t have the money to pay for it.
Amka
rlbates-
Thanks for stopping by. You have a wonderful blog at Suture for a Living.
christian-
Acne usually (not always) get better as you get older. Benzoyl peroxide is a good (cheap) way to manage it.
Dr Val-
The whole thing really broke my heart.
Emiline-
Genetics is probably a bigger factor than any of the diet, etc. Glad to hear that yours got much better.
Amka-
I don’t actually know if it was a case of an unsympathetic parent or just that they didn’t have the money. It is frustrating that many acne treatments are very expensive and not entirely truthful about the results you can expect. Unfortunatly true about a lot of things in life.
Boy, can I relate. I had severe acne as a teenager, too. Add to that my lack of team sports skills and good grades, and … well… the girls weren’t banging down the doors for a date with me. Thank goodness it got all better (and with that, so did my social life).
Your post is excellent, and you make a great point — adolescence is hard enough without untreated severe acne.
hi,
i had the same acne problem once. and i went to the clinic (general family clinic) and took the medicine that the doctor gave (doxycycline) for 2 months, and i asked for another 4months before i thought of stopping the a/b medication. during taking the a/b, i changed my facial cleanser (typical OTC) to DOVE soap (peeling/soft), after read from several reviews over the website of its effectiveness for acne-prone skin. after not taking the a/b, i took topical erythromycin +zinc[zinc helps reduce scarring they say], and after 2 months without i realized, my friends told about the improvemnet of my skin condition, 2months.. well maybe 3 months, and i bought another bottle of the solution as a prophylaxis of further breakout. and now, [once i beleive i cant eat chocholate, nuts, or spicy food, even oily], i just eat anything i want [ mind, i have diabetic type 1], and theres not even a single breakout! OMG!. my target is now, just to reduce the scarring, =)
hi i think acne is very common problem am suffering from it from a long time since school days in beginning it was severe doctor gave benzoyl peroxide and doxycycline it worked,today am 24 but this also not working but now i get acne only on my upper lips n chins ,around mouth m applying benzoyl peroxide 2.5% and cetaphil cleanser with neutorgena toner.
Thank you for writing this, and your excellent no-BS blog. I am 32 and still controlling adult acne with the help of a dermatologist. When I was sixteen, I took the money from my after school job and made my first appointment. I had already been dealing with acne since age 11. It is money well spent if you can afford it, and indeed cheaper than chasing a cure through countless product lines and misleading advertising that only exacerbate the problem. Thanks again for your sensitivity to this issue.
@Doctor David
Unrelated-to-this-article side comment: Are you saying that you had a lack of good grades (along with a lack of sports skills), or that “good grades” negatively affected your chances of getting a date?
I find it incredibly difficult to believe that your good grades scared away potential dates, and honestly, your belief that it did comes off as sexist (or perhaps you were only attracted to airheads).
Isn’t it altogether possible that you only had good grades because you used the time that would have been spent on dates, studying instead? That makes far more sense.
Perhaps you should be grateful for your good luck, Doctor.
I am a teenager and I have had really terrible acne since the age of nine. I’ve been to the doctor and been prescribed so many different medication for it, it’s unbelievable. They ALL helped my face but they didn’t help my chest back arms and shoulders. I booked an appointment with the dermatologist and I don’t know what to expect.. If it is anything like the doctors “Here, we don’t care, have another drug” I will be VERY angry. Acne is so depressing and emotionally destroying that I don’t even like to go to work nowadays. Never mind going out to have a good time. When I was younger I didn’t go to school because I was being bullied because of it and I would sit and cry in my room. I just hope there is something they can do.. And maybe fast?