[Personal] Anti-anxiety medication cleared up my hormonal acne in a month.

Beauty Tips For Body Care
Before this gets downvoted to the depths of Reddit hell, this post is NOT meant to get anyone rushing to the doctor to ask for anti-anxiety medication in the hopes of clearing up their acne. My goal is just to point out that acne and other chronic skin problems are often symptoms of underlying problems like stress, anxiety, food allergies, or illness, which can't just be fixed with the right moisturizer.So, 30F here. Since childhood I've had a moderate-to-severe anxiety disorder, which went undiagnosed until I was in my late 20s. I've also had hormonal cystic acne centred around my mouth and chin since I was 12, which was constant and always got worse around my period. This wonderful subreddit helped a lot with healing my breakouts and preventing scarring (hydrocolloid patches are a lifesaver!) but the breakouts never slowed down.Then, two years ago, I reluctantly started taking medication to treat my anxiety. My doctor put me on sertraline (a.k.a. Zoloft), starting at 25 mg/day and eventually tapering up to 150 mg/day. Within a couple of weeks, not only did I start to notice an improvement in my mood and my ability to handle stressful situations, but within a month my skin stopped breaking out.Stopped. Just like that.At first I thought it was a coincidence, but nothing else in my routine had changed, and the acne never came back. It's now been two years. My skin is far from perfect and I still get two or three pimples a month (again, usually around my period or when I'm under major stress) but the severity of my breakouts is not even a tenth of what it used to be. Now my main concerns are shrinking my pores and treating the scarring my acne left behind.I reported the acne improvement to my doctor and she thinks that my chronic anxiety threw my hormones into chaos, and that the hormones came back into balance when the medication stabilized my anxiety. That makes sense to me because my wildly irregular period also fell into a regular monthly schedule when I started the sertraline. (Birth control pills can also help acne by stabilizing hormones, but I never noticed an improvement in my skin when I took them and they really fucked up my mood. But that's a whole 'nother post.)Bodies are complex. Topical treatments like serums and moisturizers can be miracle-workers, but sometimes stubborn skin problems can be a sign that something else is going wrong on the inside. Listen to your body, and don't be scared to talk to a doctor or a therapist if you're having a hard time like I was. My only regret is that it took me until age 28 to ask for help.I also want to add that there are many ways to treat anxiety besides medication, but this is just what worked for me.Love and hugs to all of you in your skincare journeys. I love this subreddit, and I hope this post helps someone out there.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by fadetongue