| Product: |
My Experience of Acne |
| Date: |
19/08/07 (12576 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Clear Skin
Disadvantages: Dry Skin, Lips and Eyes and change in mood
Hi,
I have had acne since I was about 12 (I am 22 now) and had always hated it, back in my early teens I had tried various creams and a few anti-biotics (I forget the names) which hadn't ever had a significant effect. I then started to take Doxycycline when I was 19 which cleared up my skin very well and had no real side effects apart from the fact that it interferes with the pill at the beginning of using it. The problem was that if I stopped taking it then the acne would come back almost immediately, after 3 years of taking it I changed doctor and asked if there was a treatment that would clear up my acne for good so that I could stop taking tablets altogether- this is when I first heard of Roaccutane.
I was told that I would need to be refered to a skin specialist at the hospital because the drug was quite strong but that after taking it my acne should be cleared up for life, I was happy with this and while waiting for an appointment read up on Roaccutane on websites like this one, there didn't seem to be many terrible reviews and everybody agreed that it did clear up the spots so when the skin specialist offered it to me I agreed and signed the various forms to agree that I would not get pregnant while taking the drug.
I was on a very low dose (around 30mg I think) but this did not stop the side effects really kicking in. I started to get much drier skin. Stupid things like normally I have to wash my hair every day but within a few weeks it only needed washing once a week because it just wasn't greasy. My lips got very very dry, Vaseline just wasn't strong enough and the only thing I did find that would stop them being quite so dry was Blistex, this was a life-saver but I was still having to put it on approximately every half an hour or the feeling was unbearable. I also got very dry eyes and would go home from work (in an air conditioned office) which bright pink, sore eyes!
These wern't the main side effects however, the worst part was my mood, I was very down generally and a few months into the treatment I began to cry a lot at anything and everything (apparantly this isn't a known side-effect). I used to be someone who never cried and would certainly avoid crying in front of people but after a few months on this drug I would be in the middle of a normal conversation with someone and begin to cry, then I would get so fustrated that I would cry more. It was not pleasant.
I realise i have talked a lot about the side effects and not about the actual acne, as a drug for clearing up acne it is brilliant, my spots did get worse in the first month but after that they cleared up slowly and steadily, I ended up with perfectly clear skin and although it is 6 months since I stopped taking roaccutane I have only had 1 spot in that whole time- something which I love, I always said that I looked forward to the day when I could moan about having 'a' spot! So in that respect I think it does exactly what you would expect of it. Having a pregnancy test with a nurse every month was also a novel experience!
Overall however I have not had a good experience of it, even now writing about it I find it hard to believe that things were really that bad and I was the one that went through it (and my long suffering boyfriend) so I understand that most people will think it doesn't sound that bad or that it is an exageration however the side effects I describe really were very bad and my last trip to the hospital after 4 months on the drug I was in tears (yet again) asking to be taken off it. Unfortunately 6 months on I am still very susceptible to crying and will often sob my heart out without really knowing why I am upset, which is the worst bit.
Roaccutane has definately changed my life, it has changed my skin for the better but changed my mental state for the worse. Personally I would never recommend anyone go onto Roaccutane, certainly not without trying everything else first and always bear in mind that most of what you are experiencing is because of the tablets, my boyfriend often had to remind me of this during the times I was crying for no reason what-so-ever.
Summary: Good so long as you are prepared for the side effects
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pilchard105 - 04/12/08 Hello,
Unfortu nately I cannot find my original details for my dooyou account to write an update (it was me that wrote this article) so I have registered again in order to update it.
In reply to Pandoradan, it was not the depression which I was commenting on it was the random crying. Most of the time when I was crying I was not depressed- I could be in the middle of a perfectly normal conversation and I would start to get tears- this would continue until I was properly crying, even though I was still happy. This led to me getting fustrated and then crying through fustration. According to the doctor the depresion is very well known but random crying is not (I think he gave a proffesional name to random crying but I forget what it was).
In reply to Ben (omfg) I did not feel suicidal because I had very good friends and family around me who were very aware of the possible side effects and would often remind me that it was the drugs that were making me upset and that I actually had a lot to be thankful for. I personally would not suggest that anyone who is depressed already, starts taking this drug. You would not believe how much a tiny pill can change your whole mind and body.
As a general point, a year after I last took the drug my acne has returned back to the way that it was before roaccutane, I am sure that I could go back to the doctor and be put back onto it but I would now far rather suffer through it. To be honest I have not been back to the doctor at all because I am now too scared to take any acne drugs. The random crying continued even after I had finished my treatment until I went back to the doctor begging for some help, I eventually was taken off the pill and now have an implant (implanon) which calmed it down- not much help for the boys i'm afraid.
I'm glad my review has been read, I hope that it gives a fair outline of what I went through and at least makes people think twice before starting the drug. I have always been of the attitude that 'it will never happen to me' and so did not think that the side effects mattered very much, something that I really regretted after a few months and still have some regrets about now.
If you do start to take it just remember that it may be the drug that is making you unhappy not life.
Good Luck,
Rachael. |
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