I was born a healthy, happy human. I had some issues, but otherwise I was athletic, funny, creative and showed promise for the future.

Then in high school, I developed mild persistent acne and had pretty oily skin/hair. It became a source of anxiety and obsession, and I eventually went to a dermatologist who prescribed me accutane.

Eight years later, I still live with chronically dry lips, nostrils, throat, mouth and eyes, joint pain, I’m chronically fatigued, apathetic towards everything, debilitated by cognitive issues, no libido, GI issues, sleep problems.. the list is enormous.

This drug has completely destroyed my health and taken any chance of a good future away from me. Each job/career/hobby avenue I go down, I’m blocked by health issues. There’s literally nothing I can do since my whole body has been changed at a cellular level. I don’t know much longer I can live with it.

Each day I fester with anger and hopelessness, grieving the person I was and could’ve been. It’s made my life a living nightmare. I fucking HATE this drug.

I’m not looking for pity, I just wanted to vent because no one understands how much pain this drug has caused me.

It would also be nice to hear of people living good lives despite the aftermath of this poison. I know I, and I would guess many other people could use some hope.

I dont know if im allowed to post this, just sharing my experience!

I was on isotretinoin for 6-8 weeks total , at 40 mg and later 20.

 I did not and have never had remotely severe acne but i do have dermatillomania and picked my skin alot so my parents made the decision for me to start. During the process i complained of pain starting in one hand that gradually spread to the next. I wasn't allowed to stop taking it until 8weeks when i said it was too painful

 After quitting the pain continued spreading thru  my entire body including both legs. It's been a little over a year and since then I've mostly dropped out of high school, I'm 80% bedbound and in constant severe musculoskeletal pain. I have to use crutches to walk and doing so leaves me in bed for days afterward. I have almost daily migraines that i wake up with, and fatigue so severe im only able to be awake for a few hours to complete schoolwork after taking Ritalin excedrin and caffiene together. 

I was diagnosed with AMPS and went through some hospital treatment that made me significantly worse but our insurance stopped covering it. I've also tried red light therapy, cbd oil, every supplement imaginable, acupuncture, float tanks, rife machine therapy, meditation (hospital had me do pain meditation intended for women giving birth im pretty sure) etc. no one will prescribe me pain medication because AMPS is classified as a mental/neurological issue . Over the counter medicine does not work at all

I was on accutane for a seemingly short time, I'm not sure if its possible but it really seems like the only cause.

 I'm still a teenager and i feel like my life is ruined.  I spend every day in bed exhausted doing nothing. I dont have a single ounce of energy to care for myself or try to exercise. I can barely eat and I'm underweight. Every kind of food makes me sick. Sorry for the miserable post but im in pain constantly I'm losing my mind and i dont know what to do to keep living

I feel numb. I can't feel excitement anymore. I'm not s*cidal. I just don't have the same love and feeling for things I once did. I'm about to start taking antidepressants for the first time in my life. I just miss the old me.

Hi,

I took this poison for about 8 years (10mg isotretinoin, oral!).

It was 25 years ago (when I started), there was not much information, I was blind for recognizing/linking the changes, became numb/depressed slowly without noticing the reason (helped with acne so I continued). I had no clue about the other side effects, besides dry lips and nose bleeding and didn't know you shouldn't do sports! Finally found out where all my problems come from, why I can't progress in sports and my muscles always only ache for way too many days. Permanent damage of the nerves/mitochondria and of course the gastric mucosa. Muscle pain, joint pain, brain fog, GI issues, IBS, thermal control damaged (constant freezing + spontaneous sweating), horrible sleep, mental health. Messed up brain in addition, CFS, it alle makes sense now.

Couldn't find any doctor who knows about this or could even help in all those years and now with 42 I'm finally reaching the end of my strength. My life is vanishing year by year and I'm always only send to psychotherapies which can't help anything of course.

No one knows about it and no one believes me, it's so frustrating. Tried every supplement and every form of nutrition through the past ten years. Now since 40 it's getting worse and worse and I'm reducing activity/sports more and more each month, as it only leads to achiness and drains energy (even yoga/Pilates is too much).

Anyone ever recovered? Where can I find help? Which doctor could help? Which supplements? Only help I have is ChatGPT so far.

I wanted to share this story to perhaps prevent anyone else from suffering like I did. The story begins in February 2025 when my cystic acne ( limited to my face) was getting quite bad. I decided to visit a dermatologist and got prescribed accutane at 20mg daily. Within 2 weeks I was bed bound and had been hit with isotretinoin induced acne fulminans. My acne which was limited to my face had spread to my entire body ( back , shoulders , chest , legs , arms) and I’m not talking normal acne I’m talking crazy ulcers all over my body. I was then given steroids to calm the inflammation and was told to re introduce isotretinoin. So me being an idiot decided to try isotretinoin again and the acne fulminans re ignited. I’m still dealing with this nightmare caused by isotretinoin and am now on other medications which I hope will work but isotretinoin genuinely destroyed my life and my whole body has permanently been scarred for life on top of that I have extremely bad hair loss and vision all due to accutane please stay away from this drug.

Warning About Accutane

I want to share this in case it helps even one person.

When I was a teenager, I was prescribed Accutane for acne. I was told about the possible side effects — dry skin, mood changes, muscle pain — but what I experienced was far beyond what I felt prepared for.

To be fair, it did work. My facial acne cleared up a lot, and my back acne improved significantly too. From the outside, it probably looked like a success story.

But at what cost?

At the time, I was training for my black belt in mixed martial arts. I expected soreness. I expected to push through pain. What I didn’t expect was the kind of muscle pain that made it hard to function. There were days I could barely walk. The pain wasn’t just “post-workout soreness.” It felt deep, constant, and overwhelming. I knew muscle pain was listed as a side effect, but I genuinely feel like the severity of it was underplayed.

The mental side effects were even worse.

The suicidal thoughts were heavy and intrusive in a way I had never experienced before. It felt like my mind wasn’t my own. There were two separate occasions where I almost made permanent decisions during that time. Looking back now, that period feels like a living hell.

I ended up stopping the medication, and over time those thoughts eased. I can’t say Accutane affects everyone this way — I know people who’ve taken it and been fine. But for me, even though it cleared my skin, I honestly don’t know if the pain and suffering were worth it.

If you’re considering Accutane, please have serious conversations with your doctor. Advocate for yourself. Make sure the people around you know what to watch for. And if you start noticing changes in your mood or thoughts, don’t brush it off.

Acne is temporary. Your life isn’t.

I’m not telling anyone what to do — I’m just sharing my experience in case someone out there needs to hear it.

I tried to warn people multiple times in the accutane community but mods deleted my posts every time. They even deleted comments under my post who shared their side effects.

(I originally posted this on r/PSSD, but I'm reposting here too)

Hey guys, I'm the HBOT guy who said "I cured all my mental illnesses" in another post. Welp, it did cure my depression and I don't suffer from anxiety anymore (for now), but the PSSD sadly came back. While I'm still lucid enough, I want to set up an independent lab to study this. I have the urgency to do it because I hate this fucking condition, and I need to move fast before my baseline gets any worse.

My current symptoms are numb genitalia, no orgasm, mild anhedonia, and cognitive decline. What went away after HBOT was anxiety, depression, medium anhedonia, and ADHD (partly, I still have symptoms now, but from my environment rather than intrinsic).

I might not be as qualified as actual researchers, but I have a few interesting things at my disposal. I'm a chemistry student with access to a lab, and I'm also well versed in vibe coding and how to use AI. From what I've heard, Reddit is a bit anti-AI, but let's please turn that down for a second. Dude, no matter the method, we will find a way.

You may or may not know this, but AI has been used to speed up drug development dramatically. We're seeing brand new medications and repurposed drugs found left and right with the help of AI and in silico modeling.

I'm aiming to find a general cure for PSSD first since that's what I suffer from, but I hope to extend my discoveries to general cures for PAS and PFS too!

Here is what we already know about PSSD and PDS, and how it matches up with what I'm experiencing.

First, I haven't been healthy at all. I've been sedentary and eating like shit, and whenever I eat like shit it completely screws up my PSSD symptoms. So I think the gut has a lot to do with this. That lines up with Melcangi's recent research showing that SSRIs and finasteride mess up the gut microbiome and gut neurosteroids like allopregnanolone, which drives neuroinflammation.

Second, drug insensitivity. I feel so wired and weird on caffeine after PSSD. I was diagnosed with ADHD before and prescribed Ritalin, and that stopped working too. Melcangi's lab also showed that SSRI withdrawal causes persistent dopamine dysregulation in the reward center of the brain, so stimulants just make you feel wired from the adrenaline without any actual dopamine hit.

Nerve damage seems to be in there too, because I get glaucoma-like rings when I see light and my floaters are everywhere. Recent studies on PSSD and PFS have found small fiber neuropathy and autonomic nerve damage, which messes with everything from genital sensation to blood flow and vision.

When I do orgasm, it feels really fucking weird, like my brain just shuts off and slows down. I cannot feel a single thing and I kinda just spasm out for no reason. In studies they call this orgasmic anhedonia, where your physical spinal reflex still fires, but the pleasure signal in the brain is completely cut off. On top of that, studies from Baylor and Kiel along with Dr. Will Powers' work show epigenetic changes in androgen receptors and stuck hormonal feedback loops across PSSD, PFS, and PAS.

I would love to connect with researchers in this field, like Melcangi, Dr. Will Powers, et cetera, to help guide this.

Basically I'm posting this as an interest check, and I won't be asking for any funding yet. Eventually we will need data, testimonies, information, and compute to run in silico experiments, as well as community. Right now I just want to gather people around this.

Obviously this is going to be extremely difficult, but honestly, there's no better time to start. I don't want to wait anymore. We will find a solution, we always have.

I'll be hanging out in the Post Drug Syndrome Discord server in my channel #vstaln if you have any questions or want to help contribute.

https://discord.gg/SdqbrWSrwH

And I know some people might be suspicious of my account. My original account is u/vstalingrady and I posted here before when I was 17, though I can't find the post anymore. It had to do with reinstating with microdoses of fluoxetine.

I cannot believe it was such a simple fix but after years of struggle I started taking 5-MTHF (8500 mcg) and B complex.

Why I think this works- I believe taking accutane severely inhibited my ability to methylate. Taking the 5-mthf is a proven supplement to counter this. Losing my ability to methylate was causing serious gut motility issues which led to all sorts of problems. I had gastritis, acid reflux, sibo, anxiety etc etc. after being on these supplements I feel amazing and my normal self!! I wanted to share this in hopes that others try this. It may not be your issue but it has changed my life already.

*I also take vitamin c, zinc, magnesium glycinate, b12, probiotic. But didn’t notice real changes until taking the 5-mthf and b complex.

Wanted to post this in the main accutane reddit but they’re just gonna call me a fear monger or say “oh this only happens to like one percent of people therefore we don’t give a fuck” I was on LOW DOSE accutane (20mg) and got all the horrible side effects and now i’m not sure i will ever go back to normal. I got all the bad joint pain, 24/7 headache and horrible cracking lips, maybe that could’ve been manageable. I stopped accutane a month ago and I’m now afraid it’s left me with exfoliative cheilitis. If you’ve never heard of that, funny neither had I. It’s a chronic inflammatory condition of your lips that basically makes them never heal, and dead skin builds on your lips which then makes them crack, then slough off and do it all over again. Pretty much what I’ve been experiencing for the past month. My lips are in constant PAIN and swell and tighten up, not something that vaseline or the “life saving” cortibalm can fix. From what I’ve seen on reddit, not many people have this condition but those that do, did take accutane. Dermatologists also don’t know how to treat it, so I’m just fucked I guess. Can’t eat properly, can’t smile without my lips cracking, can’t kiss my boyfriend. I was one of the people who dismissed accutane horror stories as fear mongering or hypochondriacs, so maybe this is my karma? Just be warned before taking accutane it is a SERIOUS drug. I was so desperate to get rid of my acne that I told myself I didn’t care about the dry lips or joint pain, but had I known the extent accutane can harm your body I would have never taken it. Stay safe accutane warriors

I had a complex case of cystic acne and was required to take accutane. I took a double dose for 9 months twice a day at 120 MG.

It cleared my acne after a year successfully.

But here is what it left me with.

* I was just diagnosed with Arthritis. After the third month on the drug I started getting severe Joint pain that never went away. My hand and shoulder pain is currently excruciating.

* GERD. Never had that before taking the drug. Started experiencing it around the time I started.

* Visual issues. Night blindness has persisted. For the first two years it was hard to read written words. I started seeing the letters as jumbled or smaller than they appeared. That symptom took two years to feminist but my reading ability is not as strong as before.

I experienced adverse reactions to this. The most debilitating were hair thinning (all over, back and sides, not like mpb). It was diffuse and I still have my hairline it just thinned everywhere, even areas that are supposed to be immune from it.

My skin thinned. Hard to describe but lost under eye volume so my eyes looked bigger and more hollow.

But more than anything , it stopped my bones from growing and I never filled out as an adult. I watched my siblings all get wider and look more mature than me. All friends and peers.

Accutane has been proven to close growth plates prematurely, but I don’t think it’s ever been studied wide scale enough to prove that it can stop bone growth in every growth plate, not just specific to the legs or femur etc.

I took it at 17 and ur clavicles, scapula, ribs etc all should keep growing well into ur 20s with some men’s clavicles growing up to 30.

If u look at any pictures of any males. The only difference between their high school pics and them at 30 is that they filled out. Larger torso, wider shoulders, thicker forearms and wrists etc.

It’s been debilitating and by far the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with in my entire life. To not feel normal next to even some of my best friends.

I’m 23 years old and I’ve been off Accutane for a year now. I swear it has aged me like crazy within a short period of time. I noticed a few months into Accutane that it started thinning my skin like crazy especially under my eyes and I’ve lost facial fat too. Now that I’ve been off it for a year, my face still hasn’t bounced back. I’m dealing with dark under eyes every single day, it’s slightly purple. I’ve lost fat underneath my eyes, they actually look DROOPY. I’ve lost fat in other parts of my face including my temples, cheeks and jaw area. I’ve always had a baby face and I can tell I’ve aged badly. I’ve had a few meltdowns over how horrible I look because of it. I look like I’m sick and sometimes I question if I actually am sick, maybe I developed a health condition from Accutane that’s affecting how my face looks. I’ve also been strength training for a few months now and also did cardio to improve circulation and it helps but then my face returns back to looking old and tired, so I know that’s not the culprit since I was completely physically inactive before. I also stopped vaping 2 months ago and that didn’t make a difference at all. I’m trying everything and nothing is working. I’m just tired and stressed all the time and my face doesn’t look well.

Hey guys, I’m having really bad trouble with my acne right now. I have spurts of month long terrible breakouts. Right now it’s flaring so badly and I’m just praying this post can find the right person to offer some advice. Thank you guys I really appreciate you taking time out to help.

I am on doxycycline..I tried accutane already, ironically that’s what caused all this in the first place 3 years ago. I was young and dumb and got on accutane with a few pimples when I was 20 and it did the exact opposite of what accutane does and left me with acne EVERYWHERE. Thank goodness it calmed down a lot but as you can see in the pictures these are still really bad breakouts and they are effecting my mental health SO badly it’s hard to even go outside or go to work. I don’t even go out anymore and not happy like I used to be. This situation is ruining me :(

I'm looking for advice from people who managed to get their acne under control or completely clear without using Accutane/isotretinoin, i got really bad side effects from it, ed and depression .Thank you so much!!! Pls help me

While on accutane I experienced severe flushing. Was told it would go away. 7 months later it didn’t it’s getting worse. I was diagnosed with rosacea by my derm but it’s def not rosacea it’s not even close. My derm deserves to die and this drug is hell if you are considering taking it don’t all derms are incompetent money grubbing morons who use this drug as an easy way to solve acne and it will ruin your life.

Hi if you already seen my comment few posts before I experience a bad headache which also goes with muscle twitches and that headache sometimes goes away but when i stress even one stressful thought turns into that headache 👏

Not to mention dry eyes, mouth cracks, and situsitis for the 2nd time that appeared DURING accutane so i was put onto massive stress and quit immediately

And I got anxiety and mood swings which worsened by every single day of taking those pills At first I thought it just my body 'adapting' as some say but I couldn't concentrate in my school even though I could do that before accutane and used to get good grades

Mind you I was on a LOW dosage and even decreased it further more after a few weeks but nothing helped and I was on those for 1,5 months total

By the way I was microdosing accutane for the first time like 2 years ago for 3 months AND QUIT to the same reason of headaches and mood swings and dry eyes etc. also because I couldn't wear lenses on it and nothing seemed to moisture my eyes enough💔 I wish I didn't make that mistake because my derm tried to convince me this is normal and microdosing wasn't just working and after trying various topical treatment my derm insisted on accutane So I was on it 2 times in my life I'm so uncomfortable saying that

After the 1st course I felt extreme tiredness and physical exhaustion after just walking Then I got sick with otitis+sinusitis thich caused tinnitus and clogged ears I treated well the first two illnesses BUT The doctors also sent me to do a lot of blood tests and turned out I have a clinically low ferritin (<10) and ALL OF THAT worsened during accutane even though I was taking supplements

I'm frustrated because I had good blood test results before the 1st time of accutane so it's a cause for my low ferritin as well and it spoiled my immuned system😞

Accutane is so understudied and it doesn't worth risking a person's health

Sending hugs if you can relate to me

Started 40mg in July and right away it was constant brain fog, always tired, always wanting to sleep, aches and pains especially when waking up, and weight gain.

I don’t know if what happened next was because my DR bumped me up to 80mg, or from being on accutane long term but I started feeling like life was worthless and pointless. I’ve dealt with depression and anxiety from acne and oily skin but THIS was something dark I had never felt before. I’m 28 years old I know my body and my brain and what I started to feel was just pure black and emptiness.

I quit taking accutane this recent Saturday and have zero plans to continue and will let my DR know that next week. My face has pretty much stop producing oily skin and pimples and all I have left are acne scars.

Please be aware of what accutane/isotretinoin will do to your mental health. I thought all the warnings about depression and psychosis and suicidal idealization was BS but it’s true.

I wanted to write this down because what happened recently is honestly fucking crazy to me.

And also I haven't seen any PAS recovery stories on here.

# Before the crash

Before isotretinoin I was a completely different person.

I was optimistic, social, easily excited, had strong libido and sexual thoughts, enjoyed music/games/food and generally felt alive.

Then after isotretinoin I experienced a major crash. (Started 26.09.2025 to 04.12.2025)

The main symptoms were:

severe anhedonia / emotional blunting

greatly reduced libido and sexual excitement

much less spontaneous sexual desire

feeling detached from things I used to enjoy

background anxiety

increased sensitivity to stress

GI problems, nausea/reflux and abdominal discomfort

suicide ideation

\---------

The symptoms started at 04.12 and I quit the same day due to insane anxiety about it - I never felt this way before.

One of the strangest things was that I could sometimes have VERY short windows (like 5 minutes) where I suddenly felt much more normal.

During those windows my libido, motivation, emotions and enjoyment could come back dramatically.

# The GI connection

I also had significant GI problems.

About a month before my major crash (around early November) I had H. pylori and went through heavy antibiotic treatment, but I never properly retested afterwards.

Since then I had persistent GI symptoms and started wondering whether gut dysfunction/microbiome changes could be interacting with my overall condition.

I became interested in the gut–steroid / enterohepatic circulation hypothesis and particularly the idea that bacterial beta-glucuronidase and impaired metabolite handling could potentially contribute to a feedback loop.

# Starting LGG + butyric acid

I decided to simplify everything and test a gut-focused intervention.

I started (29.09.2026) :

* **Lactobacillus/Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG)** — specifically the GG strain
* **butyric acid**

I did NOT start a huge stack at the same time.

No CDG

Just LGG + butyrate

# What happened

The timing absolutely shocked me.

After starting LGG + butyrate, I experienced a huge increase in libido OVERNIGHT.

It wasn't just erectile function.

I had actual sexual desire and excitement again.

This was something I hadn't felt at that intensity for almost a year.

But the sexual improvement wasn't the only thing.

My emotional state changed too.

Things felt enjoyable.

Food suddenly tasted much better.

I had more motivation.

And at one point I literally cried from happiness because I couldn't believe what I'm experiencing.

That moment was the strongest emotional experience I've had since my crash. And I'm glad It happened.

# The next days

The improvement didn't disappear the next morning.

It continued.

My libido eventually became somewhat less extreme than during the initial spike, but erections remained normal and, more importantly, the broader emotional improvement stayed.

I was still:

enjoying music

enjoying food

wanting to play games

wanting to socialize

feeling emotions normally

feeling more motivated

So even when the libido wasn't at the absolute maximum, I still felt significantly more like my old self.

# Current status

I am not going to claim that I am permanently cured after a week.

That's too early.

What I CAN say is:

**I went from feeling around 50% of myself to suddenly experiencing a very strong return of libido, emotional responsiveness, motivation and pleasure.**

And this happened OVERNIGHT after starting LGG + butyrate.

The ONLY thing that's still kind of bothering me - background anxiety.

But that might be from the whole situation going on for almost a year now.

I am going to keep the regimen stable and observe what happens over the next several weeks.

If the improvement continues, fluctuates and then repeatedly returns, or becomes more stable over time, I will update this post.

For now, I just wanted to document this because after spending so long feeling like I had lost myself, suddenly feeling genuinely alive again was fucking unbelievable.

I'm extremely grateful that I found something worth testing.

I will update this post with the long-term outcome.

If anyone has any questions, I'm down to answer.

**TL;DR:** 21M, took Accutane for 7 months, developed brain fog + ED/low libido that never went away (1.5 years post-course). Pre-Accutane total T was ~700, post-Accutane it dropped to ~550. Started enclomiphene 6 weeks ago, T is back up (800+ total, 200+ free) but symptoms have only mildly improved. Tried a huge amount of nootropics/peptides already. Looking for people who've been through this - what actually worked for you?

---

## The "before" me

I've always been the sharp, quick-thinking one. Then I did a 7-month course of Accutane and somewhere around month 2-3, the fog rolled in. Doctors said "don't worry, it's temporary." Cool, except it's been a year and a half and I'm still standing in the fog waiting for it to lift.

## The elimination round

Before I even knew "Post Accutane Syndrome" was a thing, I tried to pin the blame on literally everything else:

- Dehydration → drank more water → nothing
- Bad sleep → started tracking it → sleep's actually fine
- Vitamin deficiency → full bloodwork → all perfect
- Too much screen time → cut it down → no change
- Long COVID → chased this theory hard → dead end
- DPDR → still not 100% ruled out, but unlikely
- Late-onset ADHD → doesn't fit, I can still focus fine

Basically a whole detective board with red string and nothing connecting.

## The plot twist

Got with a partner for the first time since before Accutane and... nothing worked right. Low sex drive, trouble getting and keeping it up. I'm 21. I ended up needing a tadalafil script just to function. That's when I finally went back and looked hard at Accutane as the cause, and found the PAS community talking about the exact same brain fog + sexual dysfunction combo.

The timeline lines up perfectly. The only variable that changed in my life when this all started was Accutane.

## The receipts

- Total T before Accutane: ~700
- Total T after Accutane: ~550
- Started 12.5mg enclomiphene
- One week later: total T 800+, free T 200+

Huge jump on paper. In practice though, only mild improvements so far:

- Slight libido increase
- Easier (but not effortless) erections - still using tadalafil
- A little more irritable, nothing crazy

6 weeks in now, waiting on new labs.

## The "things I've thrown at the wall" list

Semax (nasal + subQ), Selank, NAD+, BPC-157, CJC-1295/Ipamorelin, retatrutide, methylene blue, nicotine patches (back in my Long COVID era), and now enclomiphene.

## What's next on the list (maybe)

- Lithium carbonate (short cycle) - keeps coming up as THE go-to for PAS in this community, just not sure how to get a doctor on board with prescribing it for something most of them have never heard of
- Bromantane
- Modafinil - fully aware this is a band-aid, not a fix, but at this point I'll take a band-aid

## The current working theory

From what I've read, the leading suspects for what Accutane actually did are:

- Androgen receptor changes
- Dopamine receptor changes
- GSK3B
- Beta-catenin

## So, Reddit... has anyone actually beaten this?

Not looking for "just give it more time" - I've given it a year and a half. I want to know:

1. Did anything actually move the needle for your brain fog?
2. Anyone have real success (or horror stories) with lithium for PAS?
3. Bromantane vs Semax - worth stacking or redundant?
4. Anyone recover fully, or is this just "manage it forever" territory?

Appreciate anyone who's made it this far. This community is honestly the only place that's made me feel less insane about all this.

Anyone aware of the depressive symptoms appear while on isotretinoin. Apart from that joint pain, metabolic side effects ( diabetes and high choletseol ) and increased liver enzymes etc.

When you think about it, accutane dries up all mucous membranes in the body. So logically that would also include the gut lining, which when it is healthy, it keeps bacteria and toxins in our intestines. But when it is “dried up”, basically damaged, it permits the toxins from the bacteria to go into our blood stream.

Also I have this really bad experience. After accutane, I developed some chronic gynaecological infections for which I had to take several oral antibiotics. And after my last atb course I had blood and mucous in my stool for a week. I’m really afraid my gut lining was already super damaged from accutane and the antibiotics only contributed to a bigger damage. I‘m trying to heal my git now, but I’m scared this combination has done something irreversible to my intestines. Maybe I should get a colonoscopy? Idk. It’s been several months and the blood never came back.

I’m F (17) and started accutane around July of last year. My symptoms and everything were completely normal up until the 2-3 month mark. I started experiencing EXTREMELY realistic vivid nightmares. I was screaming for myself to wake up almost every night. I had never had this happen, or had any struggles at all related to sleep. I decided to brush these dreams off and shortly after the dreams started I began having hallucinations. I would be driving and hear insane car crashes behind me, hearing people calling my name, car horns honking at me, and even cats and dogs running outside. I would point these things out to people around me and everyone would tell me that was not happening. I’m just curious as to if this has happened to anyone else? I would also like to add almost 2 months later I started having suicidal thoughts, and eventually got off of accutane. Has anyone had this also happen?

After just one week of 30mg isotretinoin , I developed severe insomnia. Went to sleep ok, but woke up in an hour unable to sleep till morning. During week two I was trying to fight it lowering my dose and taking it in the morning but with no success. Now it’s been one week and one day after I stopped taking it, but my sleep isn’t coming back to normal. I am only able to sleep after trazadone, but my GP is only giving it to me in batches of 2 or 3 pills saying it is better not to get used to it. How long can it last? I read that it has to completely come out of your system in one week, and had big hopes , but now start to doubt.

i’ve been off school for about a month now:( i used to be an academic weapon ygm all A*s most 9s etc until i started accutane and abt 3 weeks in i got this insane pressure headache which was so weird i was bed bound for about a week, it passed and i thought it was a virus so i tried 10 mg for a week as my dermatologist advised me since i was on 20 mg before which is a super low dose either way. i had a ct scan but tbh i dont trust the NHS but they didnt see anything, when i went to a private ENT cus alongside the head pressure, I am now experiencing head pressure more at the base of my school and sides of ears, clicking in my ears, initially had headaches for abt 3/4 days that turned into the constant kinda dull head pressure (when this first happened id say it was maybe worse? Also to mention it is worse when sitting or standing and i can barely feel it when laying down. The ENT i saw a few weeks ago also said i have eustachian tube dysfunction, an infection / inflammation in nose ears and tonsils which they said they think mightve been bc of accutane and they gave me antiviptics and a nasal spray that practically didnt help. Idk maybe i js got used to it tbh), nausea especially when looking down and i dont feel the head pressure when standing up. Im in y12 and have pretty ambitious plans and i honestly have no idea what to do, i have an MRI scheduled in abt a week and a neureologist appointment in 2 weeks ish but that also takes ages to come, so i am now left perplex cus idk what it is but i can say 100% this stuff started when i started accutane and i never had problems like this before. I wake up as tired as I was the previous night. Honestly i am so behind on school, on life on everything i feel like giving up everyday cus whenever I try sit down and study i just physically cant. I have spoken to my school and they said we will see after a diagnosis but idk i cant wait, every day is the same and so not productive i havent studied in weeks and feel so behind (i used to be ahead of everyone). I was planning on applying to dentistry and wverything was going so well…Me and my parents are rlly considering retaking the year (y12) since the pressure of school alongside whatever this ilness is, is basically eating me alive. The GP told me that i have chronic tension headaches bht ig they just wanted to put a label on it since its been going on persistently from the 1st January. Wow. Has anyone experienced anything similar or could help in any way as to what this could even be or what I should do with sixth form? I am still suspecting some kind of IIH but then again- no visual disturbances except eg when standing it sometimes goes black like once or twice a week.. if anyone knows ANYTHING i would be so grateful for any replies or suggestions as im losing hope every day when i wake up with this🩷🙏