Punch. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

My dermatologist and parents were both saying "Accutane is a last resort, your skin is not so bad..." blah blah blah. The fact is that I have had acne since I was 15, and although an objective external observer may say that it wasn't too bad, that was irrelevant. It killed my social life and made me a recluse. My problem, maybe, I am too shy and need to just 'get out there'. Whatever, I just needed clear skin.

One day I went to my ripoff of a dermatologist, and luckily for me he caught me on a REALLY bad day, then finally relented after I begged to be put on the 'Tane. That was in February 2008.

For the first 3 days, my skin magically cleared, but this was not a slam dunk. It did come back, and I was shattered and thinking to myself "not another f*cking phoney treatment...". HOWEVER I gave it time. I'm not going to deny it, I looked like a beetroot for the entire treatment. My skin was extremely dry, and for my skin piling on the all-hailed moisturisers such as as Jojoba Oil didn't help. It made me look greasy, but didn't soak in and truly moisturise. So I was a beetroot, but after the 3-day clearup and breakout for 3 weeks afterwards, my face finally decided to get with the program and get rid of the acne.

As far as exercise goes, it seemed like the best thing for me to do was absolutely nothing. Eat healthily and keep the body clean, but don't exercise to 'clear out the pores' and so on. All that did was further irritate my already-irritated skin.

So, my last day on the prescription was October 5, 2008. Since then I've been getting less-and-less red. For the last few months the redness has basically gone, and my skin *is* clear, and for the first time in my life I've actually been complemented on it. I've gained confidence and been able to go out and socialise without feeling like I don't deserve to be there. WARNING: there are occasional breakouts if you eat badly, and don't keep washing your face regularly (non-irritating cleanser + sunscreen/moisturiser is still crucial!!!!)

Accutane has given my life back. I wasn't in the 'severe' acne category, but it's not about that. It's about how it makes you feel inside. After all acne is not a fatal disease, just a disfiguring one that kills your self-esteem.

I know there have been horror stories, but PLEASE for your own sake if you're wavering about whether or not to go on Accutane, I urge you to go for it. If you've tried out the weak treatments and they don't work, i.e. your acne is not severe but persistent as hell, but you know it's taking a heavy toll on your social life, take the plunge. It'll most likely be the best decision you ever make. I know it was for me.

There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Milly. My skin is clearer than it has ever been.

When I first started, I had a headache (mild to moderate) for about a week. It went away. I did experience some dry eyes (drops once a day cured it, and it got better with time). During my entire course I did experience chapped lips and my nasal mucus was always blood stained from the dryness.

I discovered that if I took 800 mg of vitamin E daily, I did not experience dry or flaky skin. In fact, using moisturizer once a day was all I needed. The eczema on my arms returned after about 3 months of treatment and I used over-the-counter cream for it per my dermatologist.

Since stopping treatment, I have not experienced any ill effects at all. My skin is clearer than it has EVER been. I started getting cystic acne in the 5th grade and this is the FIRST time I have ever been acne free. Even my blackheads are gone. I have gotten just a few pimples, but they are so small that I usually don't even notice them unless I take a very close look in the mirror. Even then, they don't grow or hurt. My pores, now empty, don't look like the craters I use to have on the apples of my cheeks and sides of my nose.

Winter. My skin is lovely today. No actives, no noticeable red marks, and no noticeable scarring.

I got the dry eyes, nose, and lips they talk about in the packet. I got the rash on my hands. My healing slowed to a halt (you can still see a purple mark from a blister I got in November). I'd get stiff if I sat in the same place for too long, and my fingers would hurt if I spent too much time thumbing away at the video game controllers. I was always thirsty, my face flushed easily, and for some reason I became really sensitive to cold weather. Weird. So I had a handful of side effects, and when I write them out, it looks like a big fat paragraph...but I didn't find them upsetting or surprising, and I was never in enough discomfort to think about stopping the course. In fact, I thought they were kind of interesting. It was a nice excuse to pay attention to my body and really take it easy.

My main issue was being tired. I started taking what I call "Accutane naps," which is when you lie down for a 20 minute nap and you're completely gone for 3 hours. I was always tired by midnight, which for a college kid is embarrassingly early, and I felt like I could sleep and sleep and it would never be quite enough.

Results

I started out with severe cystic acne, the kind that hurts to the touch. On my first dermatology appointment, she counted literally hundreds of lesions on my face and took a "before" picture that would frighten children. I also had shiny, oily skin and a lengthy list of antibiotics and topicals that hadn't worked.

My skin is lovely today. No actives, no noticeable red marks, and no noticeable scarring. My skin is even and smooth to the touch. For someone who wanted clear skin as desperately as I did, this is an unspeakably wonderful gift. I haven't been this happy in years.

I was fortunate to have a knowledgeable and sympathetic dermatologist. She was very cautious about my dose and always made sure I was feeling ok. I was also fortunate that my body handled Accutane well throughout the course. I'm hoping for continued good health and gorgeous skin in the years to come.

Erino. My skin is now smooth and clear without a blemish in site!

Hello! I want to add to this post because before I started Accutane, I was excited, afraid, hopeful and reading other people's posts about their experiences really eased my mind. I am 29 years old. I started suffering from severe cystic acne at 20. I had perfectly clear skin through my teen years and was suprised when I started breaking out as an adult. I tried everything from over the counter products to monthly skin peels and micro dermabrasion. The peels seemed to work. I wasn't completely clear, but at 26 (when I started the peels) it was the only thing that had an effect. I had laser treatment, which my doctor said would smooth my scarring and erase the red spots the acne had left behind. It only made my acne flare up worse than ever and after shelling out thousands of dollars, my skin was now to sensitive to undergo my peels. As a last resort, I begged for Accutane. I underwent a 6 month cycle of Accutane. 40MG twice a day.

My skin is now smooth and clear without a blemish in site! The only side effects I experienced were dry lips (eased by an over the counter miracle in a bottle called Aquaphor), slight mood swings during the first 2 months, and some hair loss. Ok, so the hair loss does seem kind of scary. I had what seemed like tongs of it coming out in the shower, but it wasn't noticable to other people.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! For the fist time in 9 years, I can go out without makeup and feel confident. The 6 months flew by! At first I didn't see a difference. My acne wasn't better, but it wasn't worse. At month 4, my skin started to clear. By month 5, my acne seemed like a bad dream.

Good Luck on your journey. I am so grateful for this medication and I hope that it works as well for you as it did for me.

Lilly. I love Accutane.

I'm a 15 year old girl who took accutane because i had extremely persistent acne but not that bad at all. (it was very easily covered with makeup and i never had too many just a few smaller ones)
I LOVE ACCUTANE. it worked wonders and i am so happy i did it. the 5 months went by soo fast and the only side effect for me was the dry/chapped lips which i could keep under control with alot of chapstick. i took 90 mg a day. if your wondering whether you should do it, DO IT. its so worth it. my skin is beautiful now. it may get tough and my acne got worse in the beginning but it really cleared up amazingly in the last month. one again, its soo worth it.