THE BEGINNING OF ADULT ACNE

I started developing acne when I was a teenager. All throughout high school I would get little bumps but it never really became cystic until after I reached 12th grade (I was about 17 years old). During this year in school I went through a traumatic experience that set me up for years of chronic acne well into adulthood. 

I was struggling with high school both socially and academically. My strong desire to be the prettiest and smartest made me this horrible, nasty drama queen and as a result of my strive to be better than everybody else, I was bullied and isolated for the majority of my last year of High School. It felt like the entire world hated me and that was something that actually broke my soul from a very young age, I had believed that my worth was measured by people’s validation of me. Not only was school difficult, but my family was disappointed with my school marks (I felt the immense pressure especially coming from an Asian background) and so due to constantly disappointing everybody around me I just felt worthless... This ongoing stress led me to make the irresponsible decisions of resorting to quick fixes such as multiple rounds of antibiotics and hormonal birth control pills. I was desperate and blindly put my faith in these general practitioners and dermatologists that truly did not care about me. As a result, my mild pimples formed into severe cystic nodules because with all of these harsh medications, I unknowingly destroyed my gut. I failed to look deeper.

I was young and naive. Every single time I asked for professional help, these dermatologists and doctors quickly looked at my skin and said, “Yes. You definitely need to go on a course of antibiotics and your skin will clear right up”.  They didn’t ask about my diet, my skincare, stress levels, bothered to check my hormones etc. Nothing. Nada.

Of course, at 13-15 I listened without asking for a second opinion from another professional in a different field (granted, I couldn’t afford a naturopath or integrative doctor at a private clinic) and hopped right onto minocycline and

“YAY it cleared my skin! Woohoo beat that acne!!” … or so I thought. . . .

Since stopping my first course of antibiotics (doxy and minocycline), my acne soon came back months later. So I went to another dermatologist (truly believing they could help me) and again was described antibiotics, this time a longer and stronger course. What I didn’t know was that this would eventually lead to severe long term side effects. No one had informed me, not even my doctors or derm that antibiotics would ruin my gut (they didn’t tell me to take probiotics either, its crazy I know). So a few years later, I’m left with digestive problems and cystic acne all over my face. 

Fast forward, I’m in my first year of university (I’m noww 18). Everybody around me has clear skin and here’s this me with pimples all over . I was defeated. I skipped many days of uni, made lame excuses not to go to work and made up lies about being sick to my friends because I was ashamed of how ugly I looked and felt. 

Every morning, I struggled to get up because it meant I had to stare back at the mirror only to see a monster… Washing my face meant I would feel all the large sore bumps on my cheeks and forehead. I was no longer myself… I became this quiet and depressed girl who wasn’t fun anymore. I lost my bubbly, fun, loving self. This was a really dark period of my life and so many times I wanted to take Roaccutane/Iso but forced myself to remind myself what had happened to my brother. Click here for a full reason why I didn’t want to take it.

Every day involved crying but one day, I just felt so sick of it all.

Sick of hiding and sick of crying myself to sleep. So in came my crazy idea- starting a instagram blog!

I started uploading photos of my bare skin and taking people on my journey whilst using the acne.org regimen. Scroll all the way down to my old IG posts and you’ll see the ridiculously good progress but that was short-lived unfortunately because healing needed to start from within. I learnt that while skincare was important, it could only do so much. I had to support my body in other ways: I had to change my diet, my sleeping patterns, support my liver (especially having eaten loads of processed foods and literally pumping my body with harmful synthetic hormones that put so much work on my organs), practise self love, exercise more, heal my gut etc. All these atomic habits helped me understand that investing in my health and putting in the work will change the game for me and it truly did. This is why I do what I do on my page.

I have finally equipped myself with the right methods to heal. It’s crazy how much I’ve grown. Honestly, I began my blog to overcome my fears, and didn’t even know that people would be inspired by it. So when people started commenting and privately messaging me that I’ve helped them love themselves a little bit more, knowing that they’re not alone I knew what my new mission in life was. 

In a world that is so focused on external beauty and these unattainable standards, I aimed to put it all publicly out there to shatter society's perception of beauty. Not just for myself, but for all the other people in the world as well.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming along on this journey of self love with me. This acne positivity movement is only going to get bigger and better from here on out.

SKIN UPDATE! WHAT IS WORKING FOR ME NOW

1.What helped you the most in healing your cystic acne? Definitely @zilchacne and 2.5 % benzoyl peroxide lotion (though I might add, BP has always worked for me but it didn’t work after I broke out from Milk Thistle. Bp wasn’t strong enough because my acne was coming from an internal issue so I had to address my acne by healing on the inside) I saw drastic improvements after a week on natural herbal supplements called Zilch Acne.  Please refer to my highlighted stories on my instagram @prettyprogress23; it will show you my progress journey + reviews from my followers.

2.What is Zilch acne?  Zilch is made up of 17 super potent herbal ingredients that work to reduce inflammation, clear heat and toxicity in the skin and body and promote blood circulation for healing. 

3.How many did you take a day? In total I took 8 tablets a day (4 in the morning and 4 at night with water) I had severe acne then, if you mild then you won’t need 8 per day.

4. How long have you taken Zilch for and have you stopped? I took Zilch for a solid 7 weeks then weaned off them by end of month three. I stopped Zilch for almost 8 months+, and now I occasionally take them as a supplement whenever my body needs a pick up. My skin is relatively clear now :)

5.Do you have to take Zilch forever? No. After your acne has healed you won’t need to take Zilch anymore (unless you mistreat your body through poor diet, lifestyle or other harsh skin products etc its only natural for the acne to come back in that case) 

6.Does Zilch work for everybody? Of course not. Everyone’s acne is due to different causes.