Proactive a long term detriment?

F

FREERIDER

New member
I am compelled to ask this question after experiencing and noticing on others the long term effects of proactive (and perhaps BP in general) once use has been terminated. I had minor acne before taking proative and took it only because I was greedy and wanted 100% clear skin. After a year of bleached shirt collars and sheets, I stop using proactive. Two weeks later I broke out like I've never seen before. Scared, I went back on proactive for another 2 years. Finally, I ran into some literature that painted BP in a negative light. I decided to quit proactive for good. I broke out again something awful. But I persevered and promised myself I wouldn't use the stuff ever again. That was 2 years ago and my acne is worse than ever before. I can achieve 90% clarity via a very strict diet. But one slip up and my face is a battlefield.
Now my reason for not thinking I am an isolated case is that I've observed the same thing in every other person I know that has used proactive then stopped using. My sister used to get 1 pimple a month, if that. She started using proactive just because it was in the house. After 2 years of use, I convinced her to stop using it. Now her face is terrible, sorry to say. No one can understand what happened to her. Two of my frienRAB who stopped using it went from near blemish-free skin to bad acne. I
 
My acne didn't get worse when I stopped using proactiv, I just became sensitive to it. When I was on it, I never used the lotion. Only the cleanser and toner. I ended up getting an eczema type reaction to it, and decreased to 1 time a day. This worked for a while. Than it was 3 times a week. Than 1 time a week. Finally I had to stop. I can't even use BP products at all now.
My skin was about the same when I stopped using it. In fact, it actually looked a bit better, because it wasn't irritated. I ended up tapering it off because of a reaction, but maybe this is a way to not have the bad rebound acne like you have had. Just a thought.
 
Proactive was useless and a waste of time when i tried it. I used it for a month and saw little change in my acne problem. After I stopped using proactive, my acne seemed to have increased. I was dissappointed that I would have to keep using proactive to fight off the acne. Proactive does not provide a long term solution. You would have to keep using it everyday to keep the acne down, but if you stop using it then you could have a bad outbreak.
 
I used proactive for the longest time with minor success, then one day i started breaking out in massive cysts(the kind that are the size of a dime. it was at that point when i seeked out a dermatologist and they told me all proactive was was watered down bleach and in the long run you do waaay more damage than good. Now i have to by a 150 dollar face washing kit from the dermatologist and go in for regular appointments where tey put aplhahydroxyacid on my face for a few minutes. and it is still no perfect. Diet does not affect your acne, my dermatologist said its moreso the preservatives and chemicals of similar function in the food that affect it. My best advice is to not use proactive at all and seek the help from a dermatologist or doctor.and if u go to the dermatologist i hope you are rich because if you have no health care it will cost you an arm and a leg
 
I have to say I had the same experience! I used proactive for years and it cleared up my (mild) acne. I thought it was great. I came off it recently after reading some information regarding the damaging nature of some of the ingredients and my acne flared up like never before!! I ended up on oral antibiotics (which didn't seem to help) and eventually had to resort to using BP again. I'm only just getting things back under control. I don't know if this is an actual trend, but it was definitely my experience as well.
 
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