Home treatment for acne may be the way I control my acne today, but it is not the only method that helped to clear my skin. I have been through a plethora of treatments along my journey to clear skin, and for each round, some of them helped reduce the amount of acne I had later on.
I have lived with this skin disease for at least 20 years. Yes – the medical community now recognizes it as a disease! Since the age of 8, my acne grew progressively worse, and by the time I reached adulthood, it had turned into a battlefield of cysts.
Today, I am happily married, content with life, and confident about myself and my appearance. But a few scars remain that betray the past history about my struggles externally – and internally – with my appearance.
How could I ever express how damaging it was to my self-esteem to have severe acne.
It simply amazes me – the number of ignorant people out there (with clear skin) – who just plain don’t understand that washing your face isn’t enough to make your zits go away! Over my lifetime of living with acne, I have received every possible piece of advice on how to treat my acne, and always from someone with clear skin.
Oh, the injustice of it.
At age 8, I had a pimply forehead and my math teacher told me to drink more water and get more sleep.
At age 12, my family friends mentioned to my parents in front of me that I had a lot of acne. No, really?
When I was 15, I broke out in cystic acne during the most sensitive time of my life. Aren’t the teenage years bad enough without having to deal with pimples too?
I took antibiotics recommended by my family doctor. They didn’t work. I hated going out in public and getting "analyzed". If there was a home treatment for acne, where was it?
Next, my mother sent me to see a Chinese herbalist. He prescribed a herbal remedy for acne that had to be prepared a certain way and taken everyday.
In the well-known tradition of the "Yin and Yang" philosophy of balance in the body, the herbalist explained that my body was internally “hot” and certain foods could make it worse.
The heat would try to escape through the skin, resulting in acne. It tasted terrible, and still my cysts did not go away.
I was vehemently scolded for picking at my face and interfering with the herbal remedy. He was partly right. I was a picker. Even so, I don’t think it was strong enough for the type of acne I had.
And so from health expert to health expert I travelled. Trying this, trying that. If there was a home treatment for acne, or natural cures for acne, no one pointed the way. I always wanted to hide.
Out of desperation, I even mail-ordered Acne-Statin from the late-night tv advertisement shows. I wanted anonymity. I didn’t want people to see me buy embarrassing acne products from the store. It didn’t matter anyway – my family went on vacation and my busy-body neighbor took care of the mail and found out.
When we returned, my neighbor handed me my Acne-Statin delivery package and said I should change my pillow cases and explained that dirty pillows cause pimples. Again, break-through advice from someone who’d never experienced a single zit in her life.
And so I lived with my cysts right through university, through graduate school, and part-way through my career.
My daily armor was coverup, concealer, foundation, powder – you name it, just to hide my imperfections.
I avoided sunlight like a vampire. What a shame. I loved swimming, but that was a definite “no” since my makeup would disappear, and people would see the real me.
Finally, I found an aesthetician, Alba, who specialized in persistent acne, natural cures for acne, and offered some of the best acne medications (I believe) from Europe. The woman knew everything. She educated me, enlightened me, saved me.
Alba taught me the differences in skin according to ethnicity – caucasion, asian, black, Hispanic, etc. I learned about proper food, diet, and nutrition – although western medicine declares there are no studies to prove the connection. I learned about regular daily plumbing (cleaning out your bowels).
As a matter of fact, did you know many serious diseases originate from bowels that are not emptied everyday? I learned about stress, hormonal cycles, irritating products, colon cleansing, and dermabrasion.
My education from my aesthetician about the human body was far more valuable than the products and services I paid her for.
Not only did she work with me, she encouraged me, gave me confidence, showed me pictures of previous patients with worse acne than myself, who'd been successfully treated by her. Everyone needs some hope.
Later on, I'd be able to find my own home treatment for acne.
For 3 weeks, Alba gave me products with varying concentrations of benzoyl peroxide and pH levels. My skin was monitored, and the strengths were increased over time, and then reduced as my skin got better and I no longer needed such strong creams to control my acne.
I was also given numerous herbal supplements to clean out my liver, bloodstream, and bowels for a short period of time. Completely safe – never experienced any side effects at all, despite all the warning and harping from disbelieving practitioners. In fact, I felt much healthier.
From time to time, a few cysts did return, and each time it seemed suspiciously related to 2 factors: stress and fatty foods. Now I never overindulge.
Currently, my home treatment routine for acne consists of 2 regular items. One is the cheap BP cream from the grocery store to control blemishes during stressful times.
I couldn’t afford my aesthetician’s products, they were getting too expensive for me. But I do return to her for products and services from time to time to show my gratitude.
The second home treatment for acne (since I’ve become even more budget conscious), is rooibos tea, a South African tea that naturally has no caffeine.
It’s been scientifically proven to calm your central nervous system, ease acne and eczema, fill you with anti-oxidants, and a host of other good things. It costs me all but 15 cents a bag (in Canadian dollars too)!
I try to drink 8 glasses a day of this tea or water (another great home treatment for acne), and I empty some tea into a spray bottle. I spray the tea on my face as a cleanser - it removes makeup fabulously - and I leave splashes of it on my face and let it dry naturally.
Rooibos tea controls oily skin like nobody's business.
I only bring out the potent stuff (BP) if I can’t get my pimples under control.
So there you have my story. It hasn’t ended yet because the home treatment for acne, or maintenance if you will, continues.
Like I mentioned on my
homepage,
the human body is complex. Study it. Learn everything you can. I hope you can use this site as a tool to find the treatment, or treatments, that will work for you.
Questions? Feedback? Stories? All comments are welcomed and appreciated.
