Ollie

Age at interview: 16

Age at diagnosis: 13

Brief Outline:

Ollie has had acne since he was 13. After various topical treatments from his GP failed to work, he was referred to a dermatologist for Roaccutane (isotretinoin). He had a very positive experience with the medication and the medical staff he saw.

Background:

Ollie is aged 16 and a secondary school student. He is of White British descent.

More about me...

Ollie’s acne began when he was 12 or 13. Having acne at a young age was difficult for Ollie because his peers did not have spots yet. Ollie’s acne is now primarily on his face, but he has had it on his back and chest. His parents were the ones that suggested taking him to see a GP, as both his mum and sister had had acne in the past. From the ages of 13 to 14, Ollie tried prescribed topical treatments. These were good at treating existing spots but did not prevent further breakouts. His acne got worse and at age 15, his GP referred him to a dermatologist for a course of Roaccutane (isotretinoin). He had to have blood tests taken to confirm his eligibility before being given an 8-week course. Ollie’s skin responded really well and cleared up. He had some side effects, such as dry lips and skin, and sensitivity to the sun. However, Ollie found these side effects manageable and even enjoyed the fact that he got a sun tan that muted the redness in his skin. After his first course of Roaccutane, Ollie’s acne came back and he was referred for a second course. He found the process of obtaining Roaccutane quite long as he had to wait three to four weeks to get the appointment at the dermatology clinic. However, the consultation itself was quick and he feels that the treatment was worth it. 

Ollie finds that oily foods can sometimes trigger spots. He maintains a routine of washing his face every morning and evening. Ollie finds that shaving his face can be quite uncomfortable as it aggravates the skin and it can also cause acne scarring. Ollie had some scarring on his back from scratching his spots, but the first round of Roaccutane helped treat those scars. Ollie sometimes found it hard to accept that others have clear skin and are unaffected. However, he believes that acne is only temporary and that people are generally more understanding of it because it is very common. 

Ollie’s experience with healthcare professionals was great overall. They gave him all of the information he needed and made his acne a top priority. Ollie also thinks that the Internet is a great source of information and support, even though he does not make much use of it himself. Ollie’s advice to young people with acne is to go see a GP and not to be embarrassed by acne. He advises parents to be supportive in going to the GP and obtaining dermatology referrals. Furthermore, Ollie believes that schools can do more to support young people with acne, such as hold assemblies, lead workshops, send out newsletters, or promote online resources to spread awareness and information.

Ollie explains about different acne spots.

So, I think you can get, like I was saying before, sort of yellow infected ones which are not particularly nice, and I think that comes from the sort of the sebum, or the whatever it is, the pus is, I don’t know conglomerates and scales over, and that’s quite horrible, and those obviously look the worst. And then you can also get…I do-, obviously I don’t know the medical terms, but I know you get red ones, which are the most uncomfortable I find, and they're really painful, and they're sort of more like l-, sort of less of like a pustule, and more of like just a lump. Seems like obviously quite a small… like a spot, and those are a lot harder cos you can't really like break the skin of them or anything like that, and they're really painful during shaving and stuff like that. 

Ollie’s acne is sometimes itchy but he tries not to pick it.

Well personally I don’t really pick my spots that much. The reason why my back got so bad with all the scarring and stuff with that is that it just used to get quite itchy so I just used to scratch and not really care. But I don’t feel much of a temptation for picking spots just because it's quite painful and it's not very nice, and I found that they come back worse and you can end with huge ones if you, if you have a cluster of spots and then you pick them all away, and it leads to scarring of course and you get more yellow – the pustule ones – from picking, cos I think the dirt or whatever infects it. So, actually I think the problems of picking your spots definitely outweighs the enjoyment you get from picking them. 

Some of Ollie’s family members had acne but he didn’t know much about it when he started to get spots.

I didn’t really know that much. I mean I was sort of eleven, eleven or twelve, or I think I was probably…probably means I was still in primary school, or just, just coming out of primary school. So, I didn’t really know that much probably because I got it so early that maybe if I'd gotten it later I'd be more aware of stuff like that. And even with my sister with acne and my mum with acne, is I didn’t really know how like, how varied the spots you actually get are, and that they're painful and sort of what to do about it, and that probably led to the reason why my acne got quite bad before I actually did something about it. And I think it sort of takes…your acne has to be of a certain level, and that you actually go and try and get treatment cos I definitely think even if it's not that bad and it doesn’t affect you too much, it probably is worth getting at least some, some sort of cream or something like that, and if it gets worse obviously you go further and get…maybe get a referral like I did, something like that.

Ollie found that some medical treatments were easy to use on the face, but not for areas such as the back and shoulders.

I think with the back and the chest acne it's sort of, it's harder to have topical stuff, cos if you have to put it on yourself it's quite hard. I mean it's not too hard but it's, it’s different to having it on your face, and as well sort of topical stuff's a bit harder to put on cos it's over a…especially on my back it was pretty much my shoulders completely, all the way along there, which is a lot a…a bigger area. So, topical stuff isn't, isn’t as good I don’t think, so it's better to take pills and stuff like th- for that. But because I only had a bit on my chest and not, I mean not too much on my face at that point, then it was fine to just put loads on my back. But it's a lot better to, I found anyway, to take Roaccutane (isotretinoin) as the pill because that just, it basically just clears up, it up everywhere, and you don’t even need to focus on specific parts of your body or anything like that.

Ollie had positive experiences with his dermatologists understanding about how young people might feel about their acne.

I know there's obviously a massive range in how people feel about their acne. A lot of people, destroys their confidence I think, and with some people they don’t really mind too much. And the, obviously the dermatologists and the GPs know that whole range, and so they treat everyone as sort of like that their acne is a priority, which I mean in a dermatology clinic that’s…you go there to get your acne sorted out and although it was sort of slow to get the appointment, but that was just because it's quite a complex thing to do. To get the actual treatment was really, really fast after I got there, and obviously they make it a priority; they know that for some people it's really, really… impacts heavily on their life, so that they know how to get it quickly and so and I thought they were really helpful and really understanding overall.

Ollie had a second course of isotretinoin when his acne started to come back.

I think it's most people, cos you have a first course over eight weeks or something, and with most…it's something like sixty percent of people, that’s all they need, but with the other forty percent it's that, it’s just you need a second course cos it's …I think it's just you have acne slightly worse, and you need to obviously take a second course just to make sure that everything's cleared up, cos it works with your sort of layers of skin and by you sort of lo-…you sort of lose layers, or like lose layers of spots and that’s basically how it works, and if your spots are very resilient and keep coming back then you need a second course just to make sure that everything is completely cleared up. And I suppose that’s why I started getting it the …after the first course, it’s cos it didn’t clear everything up. J- so, on the under my skin there were still spots which then led to getting spots later, and then a second course and then having it all cleared up in the future.

So, was the second course something that you anticipated or that your dermatologist had told you to expect?

Eh- the …I think generally I wasn’t really…I’d, I thought that my courses were completely finished and I thought I was done just because my skin was completely fine, or appeared completely fine, so that’s why I didn’t really hear about anything. And then it started to come back, and I think the reason why I didn’t get it straight away and why it took me a while is cos my skin was completely clean, so it looked like I wouldn’t need a second course. So, it sort of like finished everything and that was all done and I didn’t, hadn’t seen my GP for a while, and then they started to come back, and then I had to go get it. So, I suppose if I actually still had spots after my first course it’d probably be better cos I would be…I would’ve started my second course earlier cos we would’ve known that I needed, I needed one.

For Ollie, shaving with acne can be painful and leave scars.

Was pain or soreness part of the acne for you?

Yeah and [laughs] and it still is unfortunately. It's just, you know just particularly nasty spots randomly breaking out - sometimes several, and sometimes only one – it's really, really painful especially with shaving as well, as that can be quite …cos you're sort of like, you know you're chopping them all off which is really unpleasant. And especially if sort of you knock it or pick it or whatever is it makes it worse and it can be really, really painful and uncomfortable. But i- it's not…I mean it's manageable but it's definitely uncomfortable, so I much prefer not to have any, any sort of thing. 

Could you tell me a bit more about shaving and sort of how you dealt with that whilst you had sort of active acne?

When my acne was quite bad, with shaving it was actually sort of…because I was breaking out a lot of sort of yellow-heads and not very nice, sort of looking infected, and with shaving it actually seemed to clear my skin up a bit because it, it got rid of all the horrible bumps and stuff like that, but that leaves behind quite bad scarring, cos I'm sure like on my cheeks and stuff like that there is a bit, and that’s probably is from shaving, and as I said it can be pretty painful. But yeah sh-, it's not particularly bad except it does make your…cos I sort of had a bit of redness around my chin, and shaving makes that quite a bit worse I think. But it's not, it’s not too bad shaving with acne except it can lead to scarring and a bit discomfort pretty much.

Ollie thinks it’s useful to have someone in the family who has had acne.

It's made me quite happy that they…that my sister…I mean I'm sure in many families, probably even going just to cousins, somebody will have had acne, and somebody will have had treatment for acne at some point in their life. So, it's a lot…it's really nice to have somebody that…and I mean even a friend or anyone, that you can talk to about it and that will give you advice, and that’s really, really useful. As or as, if you don’t have somebody then the internet is, you know just as good or, or may-maybe even better in some, some instances. So, you definitely do have support, and I haven’t found it negatively impacting any sort of relationship with my family because they know what I'm going through, and it's not, it is on…I mean it, it's not really something for people to have an argument about really. May-maybe on the sub, maybe teasing or some-something like that maybe between siblings or something, but definitely nothing deeper than that.

Ollie suggests doing an assembly or workshop to support children in school with acne.

Could you say a bit more about what you think maybe schools could do around acne for their pupils?

Yeah. I think it's always quite hard when talking about stuff in schools because in terms of assemblies and things like that, is a lot of people don’t listen, and sort of zoning… including me I admit sometimes sort of zone out, I don’t really pay attention. But I think…and also with doing like workshops and stuff like that, taking out, time out of lessons especially in this sort of period is really, really difficult. But I think that for something like acne and something that can be so… affect somebody's life so much is it's very important that you do maybe take some time out. Well that’s probably, probably at the beginning of the year have a workshop with people coming in and talking about acne and stuff like that, cos even now I know of a lot of people who have pretty bad acne that could sort it out themselves, and are too embarrassed or afraid to actually do it, and I think…and it does affect their life quite massively. And even then I think a workshop, like an hour-long workshop, or maybe even in assembly cos it would reach some people; or like a newsletter or something like that, or promoting online sort of support would definitely, definitely, really, really help people.

Ollie thinks many people don’t seek help because they are embarrassed. He advises people to get help and thinks seeing a GP can be “life changing”.

Well I think the main thing is…I've mentioned it many times – is just go, go see your GP; go see a doctor, talk to somebody, go on the internet, whatever to try and get treatment because so many people…and I know of so many people who are really afraid of going to see their GP to get treatment just cos they're awfully, awfully embarrassed of their acne. And I understand that people are embarrassed but it's something that the benefits of going to see your GP and the results of seeing your GP and maybe being referred, it can, it can be life changing in some instances cos it can change how you look. I mean obviously it changes how you look minimally, but if you have really bad acne it completely changes how you look, and how you act as well with your confidence and stuff like that by getting treatment which it always works for everybody.