my skin is driving me crazy!

[forever_waiting]

i am now 21 and while my skin in general is clear since my teenage years, i always seem to have very problematic spots- they're not like normal breakouts, but they show up in seperate places and are alway very red, sore and angry. they take days to calm down and the skin around the area becomes dry and flaky. i already suffer with anxiety which i know is a contributing factor to skin health, and because i have naturally very pale skin it causes me a lot of problems with self-confidence too. i constantly have to cover my face with make-up or wear hats that hide a lot of my face if it's particularly bad, which in turn only makes it worse.

 

about a year ago i had a very bad breakout on one side of my face which developed into open sores that bled and wept when i touched them. i was told by my doctor that it was impetigo- he prescribed me 250mg of fluclaxocillin tablets 3 times a day and it cleared up within 10 days. then about 3 months ago i had the same symptoms return, and was prescribed 500mg of fluclaxocillin 4 times daily. again it cleared up completely within a week. after both incidents my skin was completely clear for about a week after i stopped the tablets, which for me is incredibly rare. during that time i felt a lot happier, my confidence was boosted and i went out more. but the angry spots always seem to keep coming back and the last couple of days i've noticed some of the similar symptoms showing up AGAIN.

 

i feel like i am fighting a losing battle. i noticed that the impetigo occured both times when i was very stressed and had a poor appetite, and i also read that anxiety causes people to pick at and aggravate the skin without realising they're doing it. i've tried catching myself out when i do this, and i've also tried all kinds of creams, lotions and tricks to keep my skin clear but it only seems to work for a short time.

if it hasn't gotten better by tomorrow i'm going back to the doctor, but i'm considering asking for referral to a dermatologist so i can hopefully get a long-term solution. i've read that a lot of the time, the root anxiety has to be treated with counselling in order to cure it completely.

 

i just wondered if anyone with anxiety problems has gone through similar? or if anyone has any advice on other things i can do to stop this recurring?

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[alphamale]

doxycycline 100mg/day can be take for long-term theraputic supression of your infection. you have a bacterial infection of the skin and this is very hard to get rid of. you'll have to be on long term drug therapy. ask the dermatologist, they know about all this stuff.

[forever_waiting]

that sounds likely as i've been suffering this problem for so long. i'll definitely get referral to a derm. and see what they say about it.

does this also mean you don't think the anxiety has anything to do with it? if it can be cured simply with drug therapy, i would be a lot more relieved to carry it out without needing counselling on top of it.

 

thanks for your reply

[alphamale]

that sounds likely as i've been suffering this problem for so long. i'll definitely get referral to a derm. and see what they say about it.

does this also mean you don't think the anxiety has anything to do with it? if it can be cured simply with drug therapy, i would be a lot more relieved to carry it out without needing counselling on top of it.

 

thanks for your reply

you have a bacterial skin infection that may or may not be worsened by anxiety. studies have shown that increased stress and anxiety can worsen many types of medical problems. basically you need to see a skin doctor. they see this stuff all day and will be able to help you. most likely you'll need some sort of drug therapy

[Thaddeus]

I used to suffer from eczema on my hands and it was hell. The itch was so bad I'd scratch in the middle of the night without even realizing I was doing it, only to eventually awaken and find that I had pretty much shredded the skin right down to the muscle. And it still itched! The only thing that quelled the itch was to run my hands under scalding hot water. Hurt like hell, but at least it deadened the nerves enough that I was able to get some sleep.

 

I tried everything you can think of, from acupressure/acupuncture, oatmeal, Chinese herbs, hypnosis, guided imagery, a dozen (or more) different kinds of so-called "natural" remedies... I even tried a faith healer once.

 

None of it made any difference whatsoever.

 

The only thing that worked were strong steroids prescribed by my doctor and dermatologist.

 

If someone's telling you that it's due to anxiety, they're talking nonsense. Anxiety will exacerbate it (as it will with any health problem) but research suggests that the real culprit of eczema is in your genes.

 

Impetigo, if that's what you have (sounds like it), can be treated with antibiotics

[forever_waiting]

Thaddeus, thankyou for your reply. that sounds positively awful- i've never had eczema, but i can relate with that frustration of trying everything you can think of and never getting anywhere.

 

i had my appointment with the doctor yesterday- since i last posted the symptoms actually started to clear up very rapidly on their own, whereas before they kept getting worse until i took the antibiotics.

 

the infection seemed only slight this time, but because of the repeat flare-ups over such a long period and the condition of my skin otherwise, i was told it's more likely i have bacterial acne. so i was prescribed an antibiotic called Lymecyclide, for a whole year

it's a daily pill and apparantely it will keep the infections at bay with a constant small dosage over a longer period instead of one hit with a strong dosage everytime i have a flare-up. the only thing i was told about it was that unlike the fluclaxocillin which works very rapidly, lymecyclide takes about a month before you begin to see the first results, but after that there will be consistent improvement of the skin.

 

when i got home i looked up the antibiotic on the internet- from what i've read (and it was only a small amount on a couple of websites), people who suffer very bad acne and some rosacea that have been prescribed it have given very mixed results. a lot of them said that it either didn't improve the skin at all or that they had very bad flare-ups when they first took it. some said it made things worse overall, and the ones that said it did work well found that as soon as they came off it their skin was worse than before within a matter of days.

 

so now i'm just really confused as to what my reaction will be to this lymecyclide. my condition isn't nearly as bad as a lot of acne sufferers and i don't get any of the major symptoms, so i don't know if it will be knocked out easily or whether it will trigger even worse symptoms. to be honest though i think that because when i was on fluclaxocillin for that short time and my skin was completely clear, my acne may be mild enough for this to actually work long-term. i was told by the doctor that i should take it for two months and see what happens, at which point i can either keep repeating the prescription for the year, or decide on an alternative option if it isn't working.

 

i'm picking up the prescription tomorrow- i'm just hoping if anything that the pills don't taste horrible if i have to take them daily for an entire year