In another thread about age some people started talking about acne. So I've decided to start a thread on the subject.

This sudden burst of hormones can be a real hassle. Until my grad picture I remember having a scared face from acne with purple marks everywhere. And since it started when I was 10 I got teased a lot and for a long time. No cream of watching what I ate every did the trick. In secondary 5 (terminal high school year) I took Mynocin (?), which helped relieving some of the scars. But apparently I has WAY too much hormone and a few weeks after I stopped the treatment I started having acne on my cheeks (I was nearly 18), which had never happened.

So I took the radical solution my sister also took: Acutane. When nothing else works, it seems to be the only way to get rid of acne. However beware: you CANNOT become/get someone pregnant or else the baby will be terribly deformed - the pills I took had a "no pregnancy" pictogram on each individual pack. Also your skin will become dry (the product extracts all the sebum in your body) and some side effects include depression (it hasn't been a problem for me).

So for those of you right in their puberty: be strong! It's a long and tedious process, but one always overcomes acne.

Any other tricks people should be aware of?

I don't have any other tricks to get rid of acne, but I do have tips for people who have it.

I've learned from experience that you have to use cold water when washing your face when you have acne. Warm water can make things worse.

When you have acne, try to avoid touching your face (other than washing it or applying acne cream/treatment to it) as much as possible. The oil from your fingers touching your acne makes it get worse pretty quickly.

Don't Masturbate. That really helps a lot.

Sword legion : Seriously? You REALLY believe it influences acne?

PacmanandMariofan : I found that the worst part is actually "playing" with the pimples. It leaves scars that hardly go away.

Good thing is it usually does leave in early adulthood. That being said, cutting up almost all fat can help... though sometimes it's just purely hormonal and something like acutane is needed.

No stress though, many teens have used it and it's what you might want to do if you find acne is really bothering your life. I still think the best solution is being ok with your acne while it lasts... though I understand that bullying and other things make that hard.

janus :

Yes.

I seriously believe it influences acne.


. . .

Nice counter argument by the way. I was really impressed by how you logically debunked my urban myth, which only idiots like myself would believe and spread forth. I clearly have no other purpose than gaining mere pleasure out of suppressing another's existence in such posts. Otherwise I would agree with you.

I still have acne myself. My acne gets so bad that my doctor ended up putting me on some medication a while back that controls my acne. I also make sure to use medication for my face when I can... I mean I turn 20 in a couple of months so sometimes it's just one of those hormonal things more than anything.

Sword legion : Though there are acne sites that bring it up as a possibility, there has never been a medical study that has been able to link masturbation as any significant contributor to acne. The concept started when it was shown that having elevated levels of testosterone can result in pimples, and it is known that masturbation does increase testosterone. There are 2 problems with the masturbation hypothesis. 1st being the level of testosterone released is only very temporary. You would have to be a chronic over-masturbator for the amount of testosterone to affect your body chemistry hormonally to the point to where it would worsen acne. The second problem is the amount of testosterone released in occasional masturbation is little enough to be cleared and balanced in your system within the half hour (reapply the chronic over-masturbator comment here as well).
I am not saying that you are wrong. There are many acne sites that say it has an effect, and some health sites too. But I never rely on internet sites (no matter how credible they seem) when it comes to medical (or any science, for that matter) claims. In any site that I found that even goes as far as to swear by it, I have noticed that none of them provide links to the original medical journal that links these two things. In almost any case, when no source making a claim provides the original journal, that is usually a red flag.
Another thing that I have noticed is that if masturbation really does have any significant effect on acne, why do we not hear about newlyweds who tent to have sex frequently report an increase in acne. A person's body isn't going to just know that they are having sex instead of masturbating and just release a different amount of testosterone. Acne should be plaguing sexually active couples if there is a significant link.
But this topic really doesn't have much legitimate research for anyone to say conclusively that it does or does not, so there very well might be a legitimate link. But until there are some peer reviewed medical journals published that successfully demonstrate such a link, I remain skeptical but not convinced/unconvinced either way

rcarter2 :

Who needs to know about chemicals and all that sort of stuff to say whether it happens or not? It's not that hard to see yourself if constant masturbation causes acne increments or not. . . that's how I know. . . not just some website. . .

I'm just posting my observation so that maybe some kids on this place who want the truth and don't want to go through what I did can keep both their minds and their faces clean.

Newlyweds, I don't know about, haven't researched and have no experience in. I would guess that there is a reason that big time masturbators have the issue and newlyweds don't. I could probably look it up online, and find a good explanation. And it would probably be denied by people who don't want to believe it more on account of what they want to believe than what's real. Since most people on this site, let alone those who participate in debates last I checked didn't care about the way things really are. I have no reason to really post more than my opinion and leave. That's how I am here, and I'm not going to bother defending statements I made in the first place based on experience or whatever. When I made the statements first I believed they were valid and that's why they were made.

I did suspect that newlyweds didn't have acne issues. But maybe There's some important chemistry between the two that makes it different. I know one thing. When I masturbated no one was keeping me warm at night.

I have horrible acne. I've been using Proactiv for about a month now and it is helping, but only slightly. I'm considering Acutane but the stories I have heard make me shy away from it a little bit. I have a dermatologist appointment coming up so I'll see what they say. Other than the dry face you didn't notice any other side effects?

tgags123 : There is of course the pregnancy problem. You absolutely can't get/get someone pregnant at the risk of having the baby horribly deformed. I also heard stories about negatively affecting mood.

But if there is no history of serious depression in your family, believe me using Acutane is well-worth is. Just make sure you have a good body lotion (St. Ives isn't petroleum-based)

janus : I went to the dermatologist the other day. She said she wants to put me on an oral antibiotic + topical treatment first and then go to Accutane in 2 months if I don't improve. The only problem is that I can't swallow the antibiotic. The pill is huge and I just can't get it to go down. I can swallow smaller pills like Advil and stuff no problem, but this pill is enormous. Which leads me to my question - how big is the Accutane pill? It may sound like a weird question but I seriously can't swallow this other pill and I might just tell my dermatologist that I want to try Accutane now if the pill is smaller.

I never recalls had acne, because when I get a pimple form on my face, what I do is what doctors don't recommend but 90% of us still do it because we don't care, I normally PPP those pimples out and get all the stuff out, although it will leave a scar for a couple of days, but it will be worth it, better than spending pointless money and better to deal with than having the stinking acne on your face.

So, he's a solution from Dr. IB.. Pop the pimple and say, screw every other solution, they all cost too much. That's your cure of your acne problems.

First of all let me point out that there is a difference between types of acne.

Regular acne, which are blackheads and whiteheads on the surface of your skin, is more easily treated at home. Salicylic acid is one of a couple things that is clinically proven to clean your pores and prevent acne. This can be found in products labelled "cleanser". For typical acne (not severe) you will want a cleanser that is around 2% salicylic acid. Use this every day consistently (in the shower is easiest) and it will make a difference. I use this daily. The good news is it does not have to be from any specific brand to work, so it is often really cheap!

Cystic acne forms deeper under your skin, is difficult to pop, and can be very red and swollen looking. Cystic acne is more serious and can lead to infections and scarring, so you should see a doctor about this. You will be prescribed a steroid face cream. If it's extremely severe, a doctor can also inject the hormone treatments under your skin.

Another tip is to wash your pillow and your pillowcases often. Your face spends about a third to half of your time smushed up against your pillow. If it's covered in bacteria, it could actually be the cause of most of your acne. I've even heard of some people putting a fresh cover or towel over their pillow every night and seeing results from that.

Annette : I guess I had a mix of both then. But cleansers were never efficient; I guess I had too much hormone.

But thanks, that was very instructive .

From what I have been told, a good facial cleanser and exfoliator every morning, use one of those vibrating cleansers. And wash your face regularly at least thre times a day.

All those over the counter 'solutions' used to make my skin worse. 
Mild soap and water worked best for me.

I have acne and i'm mostly getting bullied because of it. I use medication for it, it helps a lot. It's almost gone, i only have a acne beard (i made that one up, because i have acne all around and on my chin).

I use those wipe things. Forgot what they were called. My acne isn't TOO bad. I usually get it on my forehead, but it's nothing too major. I'm supposed to use the wipes every day but I either forget to use them or ignore them and use them every other day instead. Oops.

When the first signs of acne showed up my parents flipped. I was told to wash my face vigorously on pretty much a daily basis. They also taught me how to manually dig out blackheads with my fingernails before they got too bad.

And so I followed their advice and I have never seen any significant case of acne on myself in....ever!