My Acne Journey

My relationship with my skin and my body over the course of my life has been… complicated! To say the least! I’m sure you can relate. I was blessed with many good genetics, but clear skin was not one of them. Around 7th grade the pimples started showing up. Not all over, more like one giant zit at a time. I remember going to the bathroom one day during lunch and seeing a very large pimple staring back at me, right in the middle of my nose. I squeezed it, and long story, it was like a volcano erupted on my face. I went home that afternoon, cried in my mom’s arms, and she ordered me the Proactiv skincare system which was all over TV at the time. And man did that stuff work! You see, adolescents tend to get acne because hormones ramp up like crazy during puberty and contribute to increased oil production in the skin. By the time I got to high school, I had some of the clearest skin around! Sure, my skin was red and oily due to the harsh peroxides and acids I was using, but it was a small price to pay at the time for relatively pimple-free skin.

I went off to college, and one thing lead to another, and I started taking birth control. It was the responsible thing to do! My doctor did not mention any side effects to taking it, so I was all in! I continued for years along with the Proactiv. The skincare was very expensive so I tried ditching it every so often, but every time I did the acne came back. So birth control + Proactiv it was, all throughout college and into my early 20s. Hey, it worked! I am weirdly grateful for clear skin during that time, since I had very fragile self-esteem and body image issues and acne could have derailed my self-confidence entirely. But I was also unknowingly contributing to the degradation of my own health and setting myself up for even worse acne and body imbalance down the line.

Once I got a job, I was on my own for finances and insurance. Birth control started costing me $100 per month. No, thank you! I didn’t have a boyfriend at the time, so I stopped taking it. Four months later, my skin exploded, but in a different way than before. I would get really painful cystic acne on my chin and cheeks. I was still using Proactiv, but it was no match for this stuff. I got back on birth control, and it helped, but only a little. I started seeing a dermatologist and he gave me antibiotics for a while, and also cortisone injections when big cysts would pop up. It was expensive, but I would do anything to keep my acne at bay.

I kept up with this for next five years or so. My skin wasn’t terrible terrible, but it was not really clear (Think: maybe 3-4 zits at any given time). I tried so many different diets and supplements hoping it would clear my skin. All sort of vitamins – Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, “Clear Skin” formulas, you name it. I’d spend hours watching Youtube videos of people sharing the “secret” that healed their acne (with very convincing before&after photos I might add), and I’d try it myself, only to fail again and again. I went paleo. I went vegan. I went dairy free. Gluten free. Sugar free. While eliminating gluten and dairy helped tremendously with chronic stomach aches, my skin remained the same. I even tried every skincare brand under the sun, even the expensive ones, to no avail.

I forget exactly when or how I stumbled across Dr. Jolene Brighten’s book Beyond the Pill, but I am not kidding when I say this book completely opened my eyes what was happening in my body and was the turning point in my lifelong battle with acne. In the book, Dr. Brighten explains how birth control works by suppressing your body’s innate hormone production and over time leads to many many side effects like nutrient depletion, loss of libido, and depression (just to name a few!). She also introduces the concept of Post-Birth Control Syndrome, which is what your body experiences as it transitions off the pill and back to its regular (or in many cases, irregular) hormone production. Things finally clicked. I wasn’t just imagining all my symptoms! At this point in my life I had gone on and off the pill many times. I could only imagine how much distress I put on my body. I was ready to get off birth control for good. I followed Dr. Brighten’s protocol in the book, and my period came back right away (thankfully!) but unfortunately my skin didn’t improve much. There was a missing piece to the puzzle I had yet to discover.

I wallowed in the land of “maybe my skin will be bad forever and I just have to accept it” for many more months, and then one day as my hope was dwindling to an all-time low I came across Dr. Stacey Shillington’s 7-Week Clear Skin Program (advertised to me on Instagram – thanks, insta!). I watched a free video where Stacey explains the various root causes of acne (such as inflammation in the gut, insulin dysregulation, stress, poor detoxification, and poor skincare) and immediately in my heart I knew that this woman was going to help me clear my skin, once and for all. I will share many more details about the program in a future post, but the gist is it’s a combination of supplements, diet, skincare, and self-love practices that are specifically targeted towards healing the skin and fixing root causes. Stacey’s motto is that “There is always a reason for acne, and therefore there is always a solution.”

If you can relate to my story on any level or are feeling hopeless that you’ll never get the clear skin you want, please don’t give up hope. There is still hope, I promise! If you are currently on the birth control pill or have recently come off it (or are thinking of getting on it), you MUST read Beyond the Pill. It is a very matter-of-fact book that won’t shame you one way or another. It simply gives you the facts about birth control, so you can arm yourself with information and make the right decision for your body.

Next, I cannot recommend Dr. Stacey’s program enough. I am now five months into the program and my skin has never looked better in my adult life. It is by no means perfect, and I am still making progress with smaller bouts of acne and hyperpigmentation (and venturing into the world of natural anti-aging!). But I can say I finally feel “free” of the hold acne has had over me for years and years. Yes my skin has visibly improved, but I also feel more love and acceptance towards myself than I ever have before, and that mental boost is just as important to my wellbeing as my diet, exercise routine, or supplement regime.

If you have read all the way to this point, (first of all – thank you for reading!), I want to you know that whatever you are dealing with, YOU CAN HEAL! Acne is just one visible thing we can suffer from. There are so many other invisible things we can suffer from, too. We are all struggling with something, invisible or not. You are loved, and worthy of love, despite any imperfections, and in fact it’s the imperfections that make us real humans ❤️

With love,

💚Katy