Accutane! Here's my honest experience.
I walked into the dermatologist's office and sat down while I looked down, as I had been used to doing for years (natural instinct, if you will). She came in, introduced herself sat down and all of this with the look on her face that I had gotten very used to seeing. I had gotten used to it, but it doesn't mean it didn't hurt any less.
It was everywhere. My entire face was red, full of very large cysts, pustules, papules, blackheads, whiteheads, scars, you name it. My face was so swollen, it looked like I fell face-first into a wheelbarrow full of bees. As you can imagine, I don't have any photos of me at this time seeing as how I would throw myself onto the floor or anywhere else out of sight whenever a camera was pulled out.
When asked about my diet and skin regimen, she was shocked. I had a great diet, took great care of my skin, took every precaution; she could tell that I knew my stuff. I had given her a history of all the other medicated creams and pills I had taken prescribed by my doctor or a previous dermatologist that gave up one me. So in other words, everything. She said all that was left to do was Accutane.
Accutane is a medication that you take every day that's supposed to help the most severe acne.
Does it work? for the most part, yes.
Is it worth it? The answer to that question is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, fuck no.
First of all, there is a folder that they give you:
AN ENTIRE FOLDER ON THIS, with a booklet...and forms...to fill out.
A booklet of twenty pages that explains all of the side effects and precautions (oh and about one page or two on acne itself).
-It may alter your mental health: you might become depressed. TELL YOUR DOCTOR OF YOU HAVE A HISTORY OF DEPRESSION, because if you have, it may come back and/or get worse.
- Are you sexually active? IF SO YOU ARE SCREWED.
then the rest of the booklet is explaining all of the possible methods of birth control and how you should either not have sex or use as many forms of birth control as humanly possible.
If you by chance DO indeed get pregnant while on this...
Luckily for me, I'm not sexually active, so I had nothing to worry about.
But if you are there's this form to fill out:
That tiny picture you see on the top right hand corner, you see on the package of the pills, well, everywhere.
Oh and here's the form that absolutely everyone has to fill out of you are to use Accutane:
There's even a Do's and Don'ts page. Seriously.
Oh and here's something they don't tell you: It's a form of mild chemotherapy that's used for brain, pancreatic, nerve and other cancers.
So after I stated taking it, here are the side affects I had:
- Dry, chapped lips. To the point of them cracking and bleeding. I recommend Burt's Bees lip chap, made the world of a difference when I started using it, read my previous post for more information!
- Dry, itchy skin. I'd get rashes on a few spots on my body. I found using a loofah and body wash from The Body Shop really helped, I saw a significant change in my skin when I started using it.
- My face would get red at first, after the redness went away my skin was pale/yellowish, and swollen.
- My gums were constantly bleeding.
- Dry nose. (handy tip: get a q-tip, some vaseline or thick petroleum jelly and there you go)
- Horrible joint pain. At one point my mother had to help me put my bra and shirt on because my arms and shoulders hurt too much. Walking or standing for too long got unbearable.
- Exhaustion. All the time.
- I was sick pretty much every other week, being bed-ridden for almost a week whenever I did get sick.
- My hair thinned out...quite a bit.
- My eyes hurt all the time and they were dry all the time.
- Forgetfulness. I forgot everything, all the time.
- I had suffered from depression in the past and the medication brought it back for a while.
- I had some SERIOUSLY bad mood swings...I would get angry and kinda violent at the drop of a hat.
- I had constant headaches.
Those were the worst ones that I can remember.
Oh and I should probably mention this:
THEY DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW IT WORKS. I don't know how that didn't horrify me when I signed the form. The fact that I had to sign a form alone should have been a major red flag.
You have to get monthly blood tests to make sure your liver isn't failing. That was not an exaggeration. You can only take Accutane for 6 months at a time (one "treatment"), for fear of the safety...of your internal organs. I was on a pretty high dose for 7 months. Was not fun.
Did it clear my skin? Yes. It takes about 6 months for it to get out of your system, so at the end of those 7 months being on it and the 6 months of it getting out of my system, my skin was clear. But then it came back. Was it as bad as when I started the treatment? No, but it still came back pretty bad. I had to seriously think about whether or not going on Accutane for a second round was worth it. I decided not to go on it a second time.
Once I found out my blood type and started eating for my blood type (which has been very recent), I saw a drastic change and my skin majorly cleared up. I have a wheat and corn sensitivity an I can't have most dairy. It was difficult at first, but it's been worth it.
Those pustules you see on my face? I had a muffin, and a bagel with some cream cheese the night before. I also cheated quite a bit on thanksgiving. See how much food can make a difference? When I eat properly for my blood type, my skin is beautifully clear, just the scarring is left which I'm going to start working on soon. It looks DRASTICALLY better, though.
I know this was long but I really do hope that this helps just one person out there who has horrible acne and is debating on starting Accutane. Really try everything else first. I recommend getting a blood analysis first and trying to eat for your blood type. You never know, It might work for you the way it did for me.
It's funny, now I really do wish that I had a photo of just how bad my skin used to look before so you could see the drastic transformation.
Hope this helps someone out there!
Let me know what you think! Have a great night guys :)
