zits
 

Anyone here suffer (or has suffered) from adult acne?

I know zits are a fact of life, but being in my mid-20s, I find it downright embarassing. I've grown really self-conscious about my appearance, to the point where some days I don't like leaving the house.

My skin was pretty normal through my teens - just the occasional pimple here and there, the usual growing pains. It became slightly worse after college, not so much in volume, but in frequency. Still, it was manageable and I didn't let it bother me. Then, when I landed in Taiwan last summer, my face just exploded. The areas along my jawbones are horrendous, my neck (the area between my chin and adam's apple) looks like a mogul run on a ski slope, and I can't remember a day without at least one fat bump on my eyebrow. The centers of my cheeks now have some moderate scarring from the whole affair.

Truthfully my personality is such that I don't let my acne bother me too much. I get on with my life, working, dating and drinking, and fortunately I haven't had any bad encounters over my zit situation. What troubles me, however, is how sudden the outbreak was. Even more frustrating is how helpless I feel when I take every precaution possible, yet still wake up with a fresh batch of gleaming whiteheads across my face.

Finally I got my hands on some medication that has helped tremendously. I went through several months of different cleansers and zit creams before a doctor prescribed liquid benzoyl-peroxide, which has cut back the severity and duration of infections. Nightly use of Differin has kept those little red warning bumps from erupting into full-blown catastrophes. Yesterday was the first day in about seven months - no exaggeration - that I didn't have at least one new zit upon waking up.

Still, I've got a ways to go. My skin isn't nearly as bad as some that I have seen, but it's still splotchy and wretched-looking. There's still hope yet. :greenface :cool:

See you need to come back to the states , you are alergic to Taiwan !! ;)

I never really had any breakouts as a teen...but now I get small ones sometimes, at age 40! It only happens when I don't drink enough water, though. Exfoliating regularly helps me a lot, too.

It seems fairly obvious it's a lifestyle thing that's causing the zits. Maybe you need to have a look at how your diet has changed etc and maybe try testing different things till you find the one that's causing the problem.

That's the best advice I have for you. Sorry it probably wont help too much.

Actually I find diet really has no effect on my breakouts ... for about six weeks I paid attention to what I've been eating but the results were pretty marginal. Recently, when the acne situation has improved the most, I've been pretty loose about my diet (although I generally eat pretty healthy). I will say that I haven't been drinking as much lately, and last Thursday's binge didn't seem to cause any damage.

I will say the one direct link I have found is the amount of sleep I get. However, I wish I had more control over that aspect of my life ....

Is there any correlation with weather? I'd think dryer climes would be better than humid areas. Also, certain medications can cause it. When I started one there was about a month of zits. Pretty weird since I never had them before in my life. After that they went away again.

This has worked wonders for my kids I would give a try if I were you:

http://www.proactiv.com/

but i've had so much better luck with the ladies here :3_eyes: :D

I disagree completely. I talked to my dermatologist and he told me for some people (like me!) no matter how good you wash or how healthy you eat, acne in your genetics can overcome all that lifestyle changing. I had acne off and on in high school but this year at college has been the worst, so bad that my dermatologist suggested I use accutane (isotretinoin) which is regulated by the government. It was worked for all its patients I believe, but it is so strong that all your acne is cleared up in 5 months (they say forever!) but you need to get blood work done every month. This is because accutane has been known to cause severe depression and even has lead to suicide. Gotta be careful.
So I'm going to start it in May and hopefully be clear by September when school is in full swing.

Stress also causes acne. A move to a far away place and starting a new school or job...smells like stress...

I was just putting it out there fresh. It's apparent that different doctors suggest different causes for things like acne, and also that there are different causes for different people.

With a move so large, and if the acne has only started since, I'd say it's obvious that something to do with the move is causing it. It's just a matter of what. Moving from the US to Asia would mean complete lifestyle change and therefor lots of different things could be the cause.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence that genetics kicked in at the time of the move.

I have been blessed with good skin and hope that it stays that way, but I do have problems here and there. This is what I recommend:

Soak some cucumbers in cold water. Put the cucumbers on the more "red" areas just to soothe the skin. Save the cucumber water and wash your face in it - it really sooths sore, blotchy skin.

Any product with tea tree oil in it is amazing.

If you see a zit getting ready to rear its ugly head, right before you go to bed, put some toothpaste on it. Usually dries it up no problem.

Good luck!!!

I vote for a change in cosmetics...soap, shampoo, shaving creme, after shave, cologne, toothpaste and maybe the water.

WHAT !!!!???? No PICS ??????

DUDE !!!! I thought we were FAMILY ( celler cousins or some such !!!)

Kissin' Kuzins, Zip.

Kissin' Kuzins

Speakn' for your self there Bruce ???

EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

You didn't talk like that when we were alone in that foxhole.

But YOU droped the soap !!!

On purpose, kuzin.

That could be your trouble. Hmmm... maybe you've contracted the ghey?

Haaaahaahahahahahahahahahaahaha

I don't know why, that made me laugh out loud really hard. And I have a horribly sore throat, so it fuckin hurt too.

Don't worry, dude, I don't think that's my beef. Every chick here is rail-thin and amazingly hot; even if i caught the ghey I wouldn't be able to resist a sample every now and then. :eek:

I asked the doc about Proactiv and Accutane and those other popular treatments, but he suggested trying a few milder medications first, thus the benzoyl-peroxide and Differin. An acne forum I read recommended Cetaphil cleaner/moisturizer, but that's not available here so I had to have a friend ship it over from the U.S. And so far so good.

zip, if you really want some photos, PM me and I'll be glad to share some. The girls here have really shed their conservative ways in recent years....

Hey breakingnews, haven't seen your posts in a while but I wanted to bump this because I will be on my 5th day of Accutane (isotretinoin) tomorrow and hope that after the 5 months of blood samples my acne will be all cleared up for good, all the low and medium care acne meds don't help or just keep it static and unimproving.
Have anything, uh, substantial to say about accutane?

I always thought I had an acne problem. Then I moved to Vietnam and they went away. Moved back to Norway and they came back. Turned out I was allergic to dairy (which I didn't eat in Vietnam). Now that I've cut it out my acne is gone. You should probably get tested for allergies.

If you start thinking about killing yourself, discontinue the medication.