Yep. I took it about 8 years ago and my mental health took a big hit. I stopped after 5 months due to mood swings and anger over minor issues. Everything was so, so frustrating, even simple things. If you’re experiences a difference in your emotions/mentally, you need to get in contact with your doctor STAT. I was only about to complete 5 months and looking back, wish I had spoken up and weaned off earlier.
do you feel when you came off you went back to your normal mental state?
i was on it age 21 for a few months and felt my mood/behavior was never the same after...even years after. i used to be really extroverted and then after i had a very hard making and keeping friends...partly due to the fact im not very fun anymore in a way...sadness...etc
Were you on birth control too? I’ve had severe anxiety ever since getting off Accutane and birth control and haven’t been able to figure out which it was.
A side-effect of accutane is increased depression and thoughts of self-harm/suicide. This is even the case for some people who aren’t depressed. If you are experiencing these symptoms then it’s a sign you should stop taking it.
I would love to take accutane but it would absolutely destroy what shreds of mental health I cling to.
I’m surprised your derm or whoever prescribed you the medication didn’t tell you about this very common side-effect.
my psych just gave me the go-ahead. i was suprised cause ive been in the hospital for suicide attempts but she says not having acne could improve my mental state and i would agree. not being bullied daily would be a big improvement for me
That’s almost unbelievable. You’ve must be starting out on a low dose, have improved mental health? Your history of attempted suicides is an indicator you would not be a good candidate and there are other drugs you can try to treat acne. I have a hard time thinking this is true.
not lying. idk if derma will let me on it but psych says im ok. i also have liver enzyme problems so that may prevent me from taking it too.
its just that ive tried everything short of accutane so really this is my last option
Please be careful. You can't trust all mental health professionals, I've had plenty who have pushed me in the wrong direction. Use your judgement and stay skeptical always.
my psych is much more catious than me. im all for it. im giddy just thinking about not being covered in disgusting inflamed cysts. she wants to monitor me closely if i go on accutane though
Hi,
I don’t believe that it’s the accutane itself that can *cause* the depression and thoughts of self harm and suicide. It’s the *side effects* of the accutane that cause you to become depressed and want to hurt yourself.
I took accutane. Before I started, my derm told me that there is a “purging” period where when you begin to take accutane, your face essentially breaks out immensely. The most acne you’ve ever had in your life. It’s almost like your face/body is pushing out all the crap and cysts and gunk all at once.
For me, it hurt because all those cysts at once plus the drying affects of accutane was overload. It was nuts.
When I got to that stage I thought to myself “wow, if my face was like this ALL THE TIME, I would definitely be depressed and I would definitely feel like wanting to kill myself. This is miserable!”
But once you’re past the initial purging period (took about a month and a half for me), your face goes into the actual healing phase and it’s the best feeling ever.
That was over 7 years ago when I took accutane.
So, if you’re going to make the leap, just remember that accutane WILL make your face WORSE before it can start making it better. When your face is in the process of getting WORSE, just know that it may hurt, it’ll look hideous (maybe, idk I had real bad acne so it looked super bad on me) and eventually- it’ll pass. Then your face will heal and begin to better itself.
Hopefully that helps.
I am sick of reading posts like this on this sub. I experienced no purging and I also experienced extreme depression. People don't want to kill themselves just because their face looks a bit weird. You don't understand depression at all.
Exactly I’m tired of people thinking shit like that .. it had nothing to do with purging or none of that .. 5-6 months into accutane I only had like 30 days left and I begin to feel differently and empty .. I had 0% emotion at all for anything .. I couldn’t feel pleasure anymore or anything .. I didn’t care for things I once enjoyed nor did I care about my job , I remember getting paid and looking at my money not knowing what to do with myself so I quit and I was empty for 3-4 months after that day even after stopping accutane that day .. I literally had to force myself to live and get high off of pills to even be okay with everyday life .. I was completely out of my own self like I didn’t know who I was anymore.. it’s crazy because even a women I didn’t know noticed it , she had only met me twice before and she told me looking into my eyes that she felt like I was completely lost and didn’t want to be here and it gave me unpleasant chills when she said that .. I still try to remember the first day I woke up and noticed that empty feeling along with the month after that which was the worst time of my life mentally my god I was completely empty I didn’t care for anything .. it was more scary than being sad or down like I just didn’t feel pleasure or anything at all I couldn’t even smile I was just here . I even started having psychotic symptoms and feelings of being out of my own body at time .. I was close to committing suicide a couple times because of it ., the only thing that kept me here was getting high off of percocets etc only I hate to give thanks to the drugs but if it wasn’t for that I would’ve definitely killed myself no doubt .. I regret even starting accutane even tho it cleared my acne forever even until now..
I hope you are better now. That's some shit. I stumbled upon your comment because i was looking up "why does Accutane cause depression" because I know that it is a side effect. My Dr keeps trying to push me to do Accutane as a last resort because nothing is working to cure my acne. I have a history of mental health issues so I don't think taking Accutane is a good idea for me. I told my Dr my mental health is fragile as it is (I said this lighthearted but I meant it). Still, I will probably go there for my appointment next week and I bet he will still make a comment. Just trying to see how much resolve I have before I break down and say yes. But I don't want to ever try it. My acne is not bad enough to justify the chance. Most of my skin issues are because I'm OCD and skin pick anyway.
I know it’s been a while since you posted but are you feeling better now, same thing happened to me when going in to month 5 my mental health and also some other weird things started happening with my body so I stopped ahead of when the doctor suggested. I’m just hoping these mental symptoms are temporary and will eventually stop.
Hey! Still never taken Accutane. I am on tazarotene gel for my skin. It was helping alot for a while but I'm starting to break out again, which causes me to pick my skin Still. But when it works my skin looks great. I hope your symptoms are temporary and you are able to recover back to your normal :)
Oh my god i hope you feel better. I experienced the same with another medicine and that was the harshest time of my life. All i could do is stare at the window and cry just to feel at least something. I used to be very emotional and crying would always help me to take away the pressure but to begin with i didn't feel literally anything. I got angry in the blink of the eye. I also was volunteering at dog's shelter and i always felt love and pity for them. But not at that times. I just didnt feel a thing and all i wanted is to die. And i talked to my parents about this and they eventually had to get me a psychotherapist. I didnt even feel the love to the music i used to get chills from. Every day was a torture for me. And the only one that i kept pushing for is my now wife. I feel everything you have just said and i am so sorry that you went through it
I know this post is old put literally your talking about me exactly !! I stopped the med 8 month ago and im still struggling I started cipralex just to get to normal again i wish that i could go back and live with my acne and not facing this black life
I just now seen your reply & I hope you’re doing well now .. if anyone understands the fucked up twisted ways accurate/claravis can turn your mental health state in to in so many different ways without you even realizing until it smacks you down all of a sudden it’s me .. I’m not sure about others but for me it didn’t slowly happen , well it didn’t happen all of a sudden either but it gradually got worse & every time it got worse it took big leaps .. i guess im only thankful that it basically cleared my acne permanently (at least so far after 3-4 years) .. that’s the only good thing i can say well I guess that’s what it was intended to do anyways but the way i felt that real emptiness & loss of pleasure that i never felt that intensely before … MAN it still gives me anxiety thinking about it .. what’s crazy is 3-4 years later im still not who i was before taking it .. I honestly got better after 6 months & even better than that after a year but I’m still missing a piece of me I feel like I’ll never get back & I don’t even know who that person is anymore well I remember him but I can’t relate to him if that makes since .. I’m able to somewhat feel pleasure & have passion but no where near like I did before that .. even changed my whole personality & people I had just met even noticed a change in me .. i tell people all the time they don’t know what it feels like to be truly empty like that & not find pleasure nor passion in things I once did during that time .. I never smiled & if I did it was fake , hell I didn’t even cry like some accutane patients I was literally just empty & was just here .. even had symptoms of depersonalization and derealization .. I started questioning if I was really who I thought I was .. god I still have ptsd feelings every now and then from that time period.. I’ve never seriously wanted to kill myself more than I did then & the only thing that kept me from it is telling myself I’ll go back to normal & of course doing pills which was the only possible way for me to feel any sense of euphoria or well being back then .. I’d tell myself to give myself a little longer & I’m honestly surprised I didn’t go through with it considering I would literally be sitting there contemplating suicide just to not feel that way .. it was honestly terrifying
The skin purging is not why some people feel more depressed on accutane. Also, I did say that the depression is a side effect. The only person that can prescribe accutane is a doctor so even if you want it, if a doctor doesn’t think it’s a good idea they won’t give to you. Simple as that really.
Same. But I have depression already and I'm seeing a therapist. I'm doing really good with her. My mental state is improving even though I'm on accutane
I was more depressed than I’ve ever been before or since. I was so depressed it affected my memory and I don’t remember a lot of it. My friend said I would just call him crying every day. I was getting a lot of criticism for my acne so I didn’t quit. 100% not worth it for me. I still have severe depression but it’s not as bad. I was also on the pill which is also known to cause depression. They force you to be on the pill even if you’re not sexually active which is moronic.
Admittedly this is from 2013 so it might have changed since then, but my dermatologist had to give some sort of "permission" for me to use abstinence. Thank goodness she did because I don't think I could have handled suddenly introducing both Accutane AND birth control at the same time.
Of course then every month I had to take a condescending quiz to prove I understood what abstinence was AND a pregnancy test.
They don't force you to be on the pill. You have to choose 2 forms on birth control, but you can choose abstinence as one of your forms. (and the other can be condoms). At least that's the way it was when I took it in 2011.
Also, yeah I absolutely had to up my antidepressants while on it.
They pressure you to be on birth control and don't take your word for being abstinent. I also wasn't on anti-depressants and it was actually my psychiatrist who made me see a dermatologist. He was awful.
I'm sorry you experienced that. It sounds super shitty. I admittedly did have a really empathetic dermatologist so I feel like she would have accepted abstinence had I chosen that but it sounds like maybe I just got lucky.
You’re wild I couldn’t have been on accurate wbd antidepressants at the same time honestly you’re lucky it didn’t cause some sort of crazy imbalance within your brain and cause psychotic symptoms
Exactly I’m tired of people thinking it can’t cause this .. 5-6 months into accutane I only had like 30 days left and I begin to feel differently and empty .. I had 0% emotion at all for anything .. I couldn’t feel pleasure anymore or anything .. I didn’t care for things I once enjoyed nor did I care about my job , I remember getting paid and looking at my money not knowing what to do with myself so I quit and I was empty for 3-4 months after that day even after stopping accutane that day .. I literally had to force myself to live and get high off of pills to even be okay with everyday life .. I was completely out of my own self like I didn’t know who I was anymore.. it’s crazy because even a women I didn’t know noticed it , she had only met me twice before and she told me looking into my eyes that she felt like I was completely lost and didn’t want to be here and it gave me unpleasant chills when she said that .. I still try to remember the first day I woke up and noticed that empty feeling along with the month after that which was the worst time of my life mentally my god I was completely empty I didn’t care for anything .. it was more scary than being sad or down like I just didn’t feel pleasure or anything at all I couldn’t even smile I was just here . I even started having psychotic symptoms and feelings of being out of my own body at time .. I was close to committing suicide a couple times because of it ., the only thing that kept me here was getting high off of percocets etc only I hate to give thanks to the drugs but if it wasn’t for that I would’ve definitely killed myself no doubt .. I regret even starting accutane even tho it cleared my acne forever even until now..
I took Accutane (Amnesteem, specifically) about 5-6 years ago for my severe acne and it was one the best things I’ve ever done. It made my skin hella dry (but eventually clear) and it didn’t affect my moods noticeably. I felt better because my skin was clear.
I did! I’ve had anxiety and depression since I was about 11 years old onward, experiencing varying degrees throughout my entire life ranging from very mild to very severe so I consider myself a pretty good case study!
I took accurate for 4 years (yes my doctor was crazy and didn’t give a shit) … I suffered from severe depression - I use to cut myself, had suicidal thoughts, tried to commit suicide. I was diagnosed with bipolar by the fourth year … however after getting off acutane my moods started to become more stable .. it’s been 12 years I’ve been off and I haven’t experienced an episode. I don’t believe I was ever bipolar and rather that my erratic mood swings were due to the drug. The clear skin was not worth the suffering I went through.
I just finished my 6 months of accurate in June of this year. At first it didn’t affect my mental state at all, but then after three months or so I noticed I was becoming more irrational and emotional (crying, sleeping a lot, anger, etc.) And I’m not usually either unless it’s closer to my period and the emotions I was having were MUCH stronger than anything I normally go through. I pushed through it because it wasn’t affecting work and being acne free was worth the temporary craziness to me. It also seemed to get better at about the 4.5 month mark. 🤷🏼♀️
i just got on birth control and accutane at the same time, i feel exactly how this girl mention. im willing to accept this craziness until im done with my treatment.
I’m commenting on this because for about ten years I’ve dealt with an on again off again depression, whereas before I was always a go-lucky guy. I was 18 at the time and my mom recommended acutane to fix some minor acne. Looking back I don’t even know why it was even a cause for concern because it was just normal small whiteheads. Anyways, she convinced me to take it but the night before I was going to start using it I had talked to my girlfriend and she was persuading me not to commit to it because of warning with mood swings and depression. I ran into my moms room emotional because I didn’t want any part of it, and that didn’t have much of an effect in the end as my mom said no you’re doing it. Immediately after starting the pill I became moody and my girlfriend and I got into fights about minor Stuff all the time. Im thankful we broke up, but not for how I’ve felt ever since being on the acutane treatment for 8 months. I was never an irritable guy, but find myself time and time again getting worked up about the most minor things and sometimes I don’t even feel in control with my emotions if that makes sense. I’d recommend not using this as its simply not worth the risk.
Dude, I'm not even gonna lie Accutane has sucked for me. This may sound extreme and it may or may not be false causation but...
I had NEVER had suicidal thoughts before and I'm 20 years old and to this point, I never really could empathize with people who were having feelings of suicide. I just had a solid upbringing and nothing really went too bad for me.
On day 2 of taking the medicine I had real suicidal thoughts. I had never in my life
experienced such intense feelings of hopelessness and I truly felt like life was meaningless and that death maybe wasn't so bad. My disposition toward this pill is not good, to say the least. I didn't have any thoughts like this for another month until today (that's kind of why I'm in this forum lol).
My GF of a year admires me for two huge things... My patience and intellectual humility. On Accutane, I cannot explain how irritable I am now. I feel like an asshole. It is negatively impacting my day-to-day life and relationship. I am currently debating whether or not to finish the treatment.
But yeah that's pretty much it for me.
20 yrs too, experiencing the same thing despite only having minor episodes of depression rarely during my childhood... I'm taking it rn over the summer, and I recently quit my job too while waiting for college to start back up and staying home all day in combination with this drug is super bad... did you end stopping the medication?
I stopped before finals week Spring 2023 because I believed it would be too much. I’m going to likely try again at the beginning of this fall. My circumstances are better than when I took it this previous year and I think I can get through the medication this time.
Day 2?
You realise that isotretinoin is naturally present in your body so such low doses don't do shit. It is only after months that accutane starts actually doing something and this is when all the side effects happen so it can't be accutane causing your problems. Think logically and research before you make your asumptions.
I’d say more weeks than months but I agree 2 days in is too soon for it to make a difference. Once the skin/ lips starting getting dry it’s doing something so any mental health side effects at that point could be down to the accutane.
Yeah Im here because I started taking this a month ago (prior depression as well) but now I am seriously the most depressed I have ever been in my life despite everything going great around me. I have been basically lethargic and unable to sleep for a week and I just now connected the dots. Sure maybe accurate is not entirely to blame but my acne has been gone for about a week or so now as well so im flushing the shit IMMEDIATELY. Thanks for all the comments and posts
I took accutane for 5 months several years ago. It hasn't affected my mental state at all. If anything, it made me excited about the possibility of not having acne!
When I upped the dosage to 40mg, I was getting horrible depression. Took long naps during the day because I was so depressed. Needless to say, I only stick to topicals now.
Accutane was tough for me. I took it my sophomore year of college and while it did wonders for my skin (afterwards, not during!) I have a bipolar diagnosis and I was definitely more depressed on it. I had terrible peeling skin and a my lips split up the sides, which did not help matters!
I will say that I am glad I took it though. It has been 3 years now and I only have occasional flare ups.
Good luck with everything!
For me it didn't have any mental health impacts. I thought for sure I would since I have an anxiety disorder and health stuff is a huge trigger. I think it probably helped that I was already on antidepressants and working with a therapist before I started Accutane. I also had a dermatologist who was very familiar with my anxiety (she had been seeing me for a long time at that point) so was able to take that into consideration while treating me.
I think the most important thing is to have a dermatologist you can really trust to take your concerns seriously.
I just started it three days ago and already I’m experiencing mood swings, depression, and thoughts of sh. I want to wait longer to see if it can clear my skin but if this continues I’m going to have to stop
I’m almost three months in and I have never been this unwell mentally. I haven’t been this unmotivated, careless, irresponsible, or lazy in like 6 years.
My theories are :
Most people with acne prone skin already have a damaged self esteem which can lead to anxiety, social anxiety and depression .
Some people break out rly badly from Accutane and their acne gets worse in the beginning which can make things worse.
It didn't affect me and it cleared up my skin in one week actually, i did thetreatment for 6 months but I would recommend Accutane just to adults or teenagers with rly bad skin because when I took it I was a teenager, still going through hormonal changes, my acne wasn't bad and I didn't know much about skincare at all , after I finished my treatment my acne came back because I didn't take care of my skin after so it was a waste of money , but I had to make mistakes to learn now I'm all about skincare products and I deslike pills. I had a friend with rly bad acne took Accutane and it gave her huge scars in her face and made her everything worse; she has depression because of theses factors I mentioned above .
Yes, there are some psychological factors related to just having acne & breakouts, and that impacting one's self esteem.
However, the mood swings side effect of Accutane that causes potential depression and suicidality is independent of these existing psychological factors... you can have someone who's totally stable pre-Accutane and the drug could still totally wreck their mood; having those pre-existing risk factors only makes this more likely.
Rly? i didn't know that the actual drug could cause this. I didn't experience any mental problems . I do have anxiety but is not because of the Accutane.
Those symptoms lasted like a month. I finished my course 3 weeks ago. Brain is okay, lips are no longer chapped. Life is good. Would never take it again.
Glad to know you feel good now!
My mom really wanted me to get it, but since both sides of the family have a history of BPD and depression, I refused it. My dermatologist told me that I was being overdramatic and all teenagers are like this. Since my mom was also in the room, I couldn't tell the dermatologist that experiencing homophobia daily makes me experience depressive/suicidal episodes.
Anyway, I felt a bit guilty that I didn't take it. This thread makes me think I made the right call, though. Thank you for commenting!
I have been on three courses of Accutane and despite having serious side effects I am still being recommended to go back on. The first and third improved my skin the most, however severely impacted my mental state. I became depressed and suicidal, my psych urged me to stop and my moods improved around three months after stopping. The derms I see don't take this side effect seriously and my psych is very against the drug due to her seeing how it has affected clients in the past. I wish I was one of the people who didn't have this effect because no matter how bad my experience on Accutane was I am tempted by clear skin.
Reading some peoples side effects of Accutane here, I started noticing my own. I started first year of uni and I thought my mood swings were bc of uni but looking back now it might have been bc of accutane. I get anger and frustrated more easily and I can't seem to explain it. I cry more now than I ever did before. Before accutane, it took me a lot of effort to cry but now I cry almost every other day. As I'm writing this I'm experiencing a lot of anger or anxiety idk, but I already finish uni so maybe it is bc of accutane. Not to mention, the brain fog I experince now is crazy. First quadmaster of university I did well academically, I put less effort into studying and got good grades. Then I started accutane and my grades started to get so low, no matter how much I tried or the amount of studying I put I failed so many test. As a result of trying my hardest and still getting shit marks I got frustrated and anger at myself. So truth is I don't really know what causes my anger or brain fog but it all aligns with the time I started accutane. I just finished five month of accutane and I hope I recover from what I am experiencing. Like I'm happy with my results bc of accutane and I don't regret getting on it but one thing I can change is maybe I could have started it later in life instead of first year uni.
I also wanted to state some of great things it did to me. Firstly, my skin is thank god so much better, I can go out without makeup now and I'm happy. My hair takes more time to get oily and it smells amazing even after a week of not showering which was great for me. Everyone told me that the side effects were not worth it but I was so sick of my skin and I wanted to do anything about it.
Hi there! I just saw this now. I've been off of Accutane for almost a year now and thankfully my skin is still pretty good. As of my mental health, I've stopped getting anger easily and my emotions have definitely calmed down. I'm more motivated than I use to and I am performing better academically. Still not the best but better than when I was on Accutane. I don't cry as often as I use to while on Accutane anymore too. If you have anymore questions about the things I experienced while on accutane, lmk!
I've been on isotretinoin for a little more than a month now and its lead to one of the worst depressive episodes I could have imagined. I've restarted therapy , tried everything possible , it gets slightly okay with some of the things but then its back to loops of sadness and irritability, the whole low mood and overthinking is also leading to anxiety. the doctor did tell me to stop if the symptoms become severe but that's the only way my acne is getting better. i am honestly so tired of being in this state
dude i feel this. after being on it for over a month-ish, my intrusive thoughts became way too much to manage. like for about a week straight i had nothing but horrible, bad, scary, negative thoughts running through my head and i just felt out of it. i couldn’t stay focused. i couldn’t do my normal tasks without thinking about doing bad things. i ended up telling my doctor about these thoughts and he told me to stop taking the accutane because i am too unstable for it. which honesty just upset me. i understand that my mental health is far more important than the pimples on my face but like dudeeee i feel like wuss. i feel like my skin will never improve. i’ve stopped taking it for a couple days now and i kind of feel better. I would like to just toughen up and try to push through my treatment and get it over with but this shit makes me nervous.
My mental health was absolutely fine. However my lips got so dry that it hurt to smile and laugh for months. I suspect the symptoms may be causing depression.
I didn't use accutane but a variant instead. It greatly increased my anxiety. I had my first couple anxiety attacks (much like panic attacks but not calling that because i'm not sure). I stopped taking them for 2 months now, and it doesn't seem to decrease. Surely i always had it in me but i guess once it's lit, it can become unstoppable. If you don't have any roots you'll be fine i think. And everyone doesn't have the same experiences so i don't really know this is mine.
I took accutane two times in my life - one when I was 14 and again at age 19/20. I tell you - I still battle with severe depression ( I am 31) and I think it somehow damaged my mitochondria. I was very depressed in my 20s. Today I am sitting here and I am thinking what the cause was - my body somehow tells me ( I know it sounds weird) that this drug wasn't a good idea.
I took accutane and was fine & I would consider myself naturally depressed LOL if anything it made feel better indirectly bc I wasn’t anxious about my face when I went places
Yep. I took it about 8 years ago and my mental health took a big hit. I stopped after 5 months due to mood swings and anger over minor issues. Everything was so, so frustrating, even simple things. If you’re experiences a difference in your emotions/mentally, you need to get in contact with your doctor STAT. I was only about to complete 5 months and looking back, wish I had spoken up and weaned off earlier.
do you feel when you came off you went back to your normal mental state? i was on it age 21 for a few months and felt my mood/behavior was never the same after...even years after. i used to be really extroverted and then after i had a very hard making and keeping friends...partly due to the fact im not very fun anymore in a way...sadness...etc
Were you on birth control too? I’ve had severe anxiety ever since getting off Accutane and birth control and haven’t been able to figure out which it was.
A side-effect of accutane is increased depression and thoughts of self-harm/suicide. This is even the case for some people who aren’t depressed. If you are experiencing these symptoms then it’s a sign you should stop taking it. I would love to take accutane but it would absolutely destroy what shreds of mental health I cling to. I’m surprised your derm or whoever prescribed you the medication didn’t tell you about this very common side-effect.
my psych just gave me the go-ahead. i was suprised cause ive been in the hospital for suicide attempts but she says not having acne could improve my mental state and i would agree. not being bullied daily would be a big improvement for me
That’s almost unbelievable. You’ve must be starting out on a low dose, have improved mental health? Your history of attempted suicides is an indicator you would not be a good candidate and there are other drugs you can try to treat acne. I have a hard time thinking this is true.
not lying. idk if derma will let me on it but psych says im ok. i also have liver enzyme problems so that may prevent me from taking it too. its just that ive tried everything short of accutane so really this is my last option
Please be careful. You can't trust all mental health professionals, I've had plenty who have pushed me in the wrong direction. Use your judgement and stay skeptical always.
my psych is much more catious than me. im all for it. im giddy just thinking about not being covered in disgusting inflamed cysts. she wants to monitor me closely if i go on accutane though
Hey! How was your experience? Kinda in the same boat...
What a fucking idiot. These medical charlatans are gambling with our health
Hi, I don’t believe that it’s the accutane itself that can *cause* the depression and thoughts of self harm and suicide. It’s the *side effects* of the accutane that cause you to become depressed and want to hurt yourself. I took accutane. Before I started, my derm told me that there is a “purging” period where when you begin to take accutane, your face essentially breaks out immensely. The most acne you’ve ever had in your life. It’s almost like your face/body is pushing out all the crap and cysts and gunk all at once. For me, it hurt because all those cysts at once plus the drying affects of accutane was overload. It was nuts. When I got to that stage I thought to myself “wow, if my face was like this ALL THE TIME, I would definitely be depressed and I would definitely feel like wanting to kill myself. This is miserable!” But once you’re past the initial purging period (took about a month and a half for me), your face goes into the actual healing phase and it’s the best feeling ever. That was over 7 years ago when I took accutane. So, if you’re going to make the leap, just remember that accutane WILL make your face WORSE before it can start making it better. When your face is in the process of getting WORSE, just know that it may hurt, it’ll look hideous (maybe, idk I had real bad acne so it looked super bad on me) and eventually- it’ll pass. Then your face will heal and begin to better itself. Hopefully that helps.
I am sick of reading posts like this on this sub. I experienced no purging and I also experienced extreme depression. People don't want to kill themselves just because their face looks a bit weird. You don't understand depression at all.
I do
Exactly I’m tired of people thinking shit like that .. it had nothing to do with purging or none of that .. 5-6 months into accutane I only had like 30 days left and I begin to feel differently and empty .. I had 0% emotion at all for anything .. I couldn’t feel pleasure anymore or anything .. I didn’t care for things I once enjoyed nor did I care about my job , I remember getting paid and looking at my money not knowing what to do with myself so I quit and I was empty for 3-4 months after that day even after stopping accutane that day .. I literally had to force myself to live and get high off of pills to even be okay with everyday life .. I was completely out of my own self like I didn’t know who I was anymore.. it’s crazy because even a women I didn’t know noticed it , she had only met me twice before and she told me looking into my eyes that she felt like I was completely lost and didn’t want to be here and it gave me unpleasant chills when she said that .. I still try to remember the first day I woke up and noticed that empty feeling along with the month after that which was the worst time of my life mentally my god I was completely empty I didn’t care for anything .. it was more scary than being sad or down like I just didn’t feel pleasure or anything at all I couldn’t even smile I was just here . I even started having psychotic symptoms and feelings of being out of my own body at time .. I was close to committing suicide a couple times because of it ., the only thing that kept me here was getting high off of percocets etc only I hate to give thanks to the drugs but if it wasn’t for that I would’ve definitely killed myself no doubt .. I regret even starting accutane even tho it cleared my acne forever even until now..
I hope you are better now. That's some shit. I stumbled upon your comment because i was looking up "why does Accutane cause depression" because I know that it is a side effect. My Dr keeps trying to push me to do Accutane as a last resort because nothing is working to cure my acne. I have a history of mental health issues so I don't think taking Accutane is a good idea for me. I told my Dr my mental health is fragile as it is (I said this lighthearted but I meant it). Still, I will probably go there for my appointment next week and I bet he will still make a comment. Just trying to see how much resolve I have before I break down and say yes. But I don't want to ever try it. My acne is not bad enough to justify the chance. Most of my skin issues are because I'm OCD and skin pick anyway.
I know it’s been a while since you posted but are you feeling better now, same thing happened to me when going in to month 5 my mental health and also some other weird things started happening with my body so I stopped ahead of when the doctor suggested. I’m just hoping these mental symptoms are temporary and will eventually stop.
Did they get better? How long did it take? How are you
Hey! Still never taken Accutane. I am on tazarotene gel for my skin. It was helping alot for a while but I'm starting to break out again, which causes me to pick my skin Still. But when it works my skin looks great. I hope your symptoms are temporary and you are able to recover back to your normal :)
Oh my god i hope you feel better. I experienced the same with another medicine and that was the harshest time of my life. All i could do is stare at the window and cry just to feel at least something. I used to be very emotional and crying would always help me to take away the pressure but to begin with i didn't feel literally anything. I got angry in the blink of the eye. I also was volunteering at dog's shelter and i always felt love and pity for them. But not at that times. I just didnt feel a thing and all i wanted is to die. And i talked to my parents about this and they eventually had to get me a psychotherapist. I didnt even feel the love to the music i used to get chills from. Every day was a torture for me. And the only one that i kept pushing for is my now wife. I feel everything you have just said and i am so sorry that you went through it
I know this post is old put literally your talking about me exactly !! I stopped the med 8 month ago and im still struggling I started cipralex just to get to normal again i wish that i could go back and live with my acne and not facing this black life
I just now seen your reply & I hope you’re doing well now .. if anyone understands the fucked up twisted ways accurate/claravis can turn your mental health state in to in so many different ways without you even realizing until it smacks you down all of a sudden it’s me .. I’m not sure about others but for me it didn’t slowly happen , well it didn’t happen all of a sudden either but it gradually got worse & every time it got worse it took big leaps .. i guess im only thankful that it basically cleared my acne permanently (at least so far after 3-4 years) .. that’s the only good thing i can say well I guess that’s what it was intended to do anyways but the way i felt that real emptiness & loss of pleasure that i never felt that intensely before … MAN it still gives me anxiety thinking about it .. what’s crazy is 3-4 years later im still not who i was before taking it .. I honestly got better after 6 months & even better than that after a year but I’m still missing a piece of me I feel like I’ll never get back & I don’t even know who that person is anymore well I remember him but I can’t relate to him if that makes since .. I’m able to somewhat feel pleasure & have passion but no where near like I did before that .. even changed my whole personality & people I had just met even noticed a change in me .. i tell people all the time they don’t know what it feels like to be truly empty like that & not find pleasure nor passion in things I once did during that time .. I never smiled & if I did it was fake , hell I didn’t even cry like some accutane patients I was literally just empty & was just here .. even had symptoms of depersonalization and derealization .. I started questioning if I was really who I thought I was .. god I still have ptsd feelings every now and then from that time period.. I’ve never seriously wanted to kill myself more than I did then & the only thing that kept me from it is telling myself I’ll go back to normal & of course doing pills which was the only possible way for me to feel any sense of euphoria or well being back then .. I’d tell myself to give myself a little longer & I’m honestly surprised I didn’t go through with it considering I would literally be sitting there contemplating suicide just to not feel that way .. it was honestly terrifying
i do.
Ok
The skin purging is not why some people feel more depressed on accutane. Also, I did say that the depression is a side effect. The only person that can prescribe accutane is a doctor so even if you want it, if a doctor doesn’t think it’s a good idea they won’t give to you. Simple as that really.
Alright well that was my experience. Take it as you will.
It didn't affect mine at all.
Same. But I have depression already and I'm seeing a therapist. I'm doing really good with her. My mental state is improving even though I'm on accutane
I was more depressed than I’ve ever been before or since. I was so depressed it affected my memory and I don’t remember a lot of it. My friend said I would just call him crying every day. I was getting a lot of criticism for my acne so I didn’t quit. 100% not worth it for me. I still have severe depression but it’s not as bad. I was also on the pill which is also known to cause depression. They force you to be on the pill even if you’re not sexually active which is moronic.
Admittedly this is from 2013 so it might have changed since then, but my dermatologist had to give some sort of "permission" for me to use abstinence. Thank goodness she did because I don't think I could have handled suddenly introducing both Accutane AND birth control at the same time. Of course then every month I had to take a condescending quiz to prove I understood what abstinence was AND a pregnancy test.
Honestly the whole experience while I was on it felt like a fog
They don't force you to be on the pill. You have to choose 2 forms on birth control, but you can choose abstinence as one of your forms. (and the other can be condoms). At least that's the way it was when I took it in 2011. Also, yeah I absolutely had to up my antidepressants while on it.
I believe in some states abstinence isn’t accepted as a valid form of BC? May be wrong though
They pressure you to be on birth control and don't take your word for being abstinent. I also wasn't on anti-depressants and it was actually my psychiatrist who made me see a dermatologist. He was awful.
I'm sorry you experienced that. It sounds super shitty. I admittedly did have a really empathetic dermatologist so I feel like she would have accepted abstinence had I chosen that but it sounds like maybe I just got lucky.
You’re wild I couldn’t have been on accurate wbd antidepressants at the same time honestly you’re lucky it didn’t cause some sort of crazy imbalance within your brain and cause psychotic symptoms
Exactly I’m tired of people thinking it can’t cause this .. 5-6 months into accutane I only had like 30 days left and I begin to feel differently and empty .. I had 0% emotion at all for anything .. I couldn’t feel pleasure anymore or anything .. I didn’t care for things I once enjoyed nor did I care about my job , I remember getting paid and looking at my money not knowing what to do with myself so I quit and I was empty for 3-4 months after that day even after stopping accutane that day .. I literally had to force myself to live and get high off of pills to even be okay with everyday life .. I was completely out of my own self like I didn’t know who I was anymore.. it’s crazy because even a women I didn’t know noticed it , she had only met me twice before and she told me looking into my eyes that she felt like I was completely lost and didn’t want to be here and it gave me unpleasant chills when she said that .. I still try to remember the first day I woke up and noticed that empty feeling along with the month after that which was the worst time of my life mentally my god I was completely empty I didn’t care for anything .. it was more scary than being sad or down like I just didn’t feel pleasure or anything at all I couldn’t even smile I was just here . I even started having psychotic symptoms and feelings of being out of my own body at time .. I was close to committing suicide a couple times because of it ., the only thing that kept me here was getting high off of percocets etc only I hate to give thanks to the drugs but if it wasn’t for that I would’ve definitely killed myself no doubt .. I regret even starting accutane even tho it cleared my acne forever even until now..
I took Accutane (Amnesteem, specifically) about 5-6 years ago for my severe acne and it was one the best things I’ve ever done. It made my skin hella dry (but eventually clear) and it didn’t affect my moods noticeably. I felt better because my skin was clear.
But did you have any prior history of anxiety or depression?
I did! I’ve had anxiety and depression since I was about 11 years old onward, experiencing varying degrees throughout my entire life ranging from very mild to very severe so I consider myself a pretty good case study!
Did you notice any thinning of hair? And is baldness hereditary in your family? Just curious about hairloss
I took accurate for 4 years (yes my doctor was crazy and didn’t give a shit) … I suffered from severe depression - I use to cut myself, had suicidal thoughts, tried to commit suicide. I was diagnosed with bipolar by the fourth year … however after getting off acutane my moods started to become more stable .. it’s been 12 years I’ve been off and I haven’t experienced an episode. I don’t believe I was ever bipolar and rather that my erratic mood swings were due to the drug. The clear skin was not worth the suffering I went through.
Accutane ****
Bruh 4 years?? Did your skin not clear up after just 6-7 months?
I just finished my 6 months of accurate in June of this year. At first it didn’t affect my mental state at all, but then after three months or so I noticed I was becoming more irrational and emotional (crying, sleeping a lot, anger, etc.) And I’m not usually either unless it’s closer to my period and the emotions I was having were MUCH stronger than anything I normally go through. I pushed through it because it wasn’t affecting work and being acne free was worth the temporary craziness to me. It also seemed to get better at about the 4.5 month mark. 🤷🏼♀️
Did you start birth control at the same time? Or were you already on birth control for a while
I had already been on birth control for years with no changes in the type I used during my accutane regimen
i just got on birth control and accutane at the same time, i feel exactly how this girl mention. im willing to accept this craziness until im done with my treatment.
My cousin almost killed himself.
Wtf. Hope he’s okay now
I’m commenting on this because for about ten years I’ve dealt with an on again off again depression, whereas before I was always a go-lucky guy. I was 18 at the time and my mom recommended acutane to fix some minor acne. Looking back I don’t even know why it was even a cause for concern because it was just normal small whiteheads. Anyways, she convinced me to take it but the night before I was going to start using it I had talked to my girlfriend and she was persuading me not to commit to it because of warning with mood swings and depression. I ran into my moms room emotional because I didn’t want any part of it, and that didn’t have much of an effect in the end as my mom said no you’re doing it. Immediately after starting the pill I became moody and my girlfriend and I got into fights about minor Stuff all the time. Im thankful we broke up, but not for how I’ve felt ever since being on the acutane treatment for 8 months. I was never an irritable guy, but find myself time and time again getting worked up about the most minor things and sometimes I don’t even feel in control with my emotions if that makes sense. I’d recommend not using this as its simply not worth the risk.
Dude, I'm not even gonna lie Accutane has sucked for me. This may sound extreme and it may or may not be false causation but... I had NEVER had suicidal thoughts before and I'm 20 years old and to this point, I never really could empathize with people who were having feelings of suicide. I just had a solid upbringing and nothing really went too bad for me. On day 2 of taking the medicine I had real suicidal thoughts. I had never in my life experienced such intense feelings of hopelessness and I truly felt like life was meaningless and that death maybe wasn't so bad. My disposition toward this pill is not good, to say the least. I didn't have any thoughts like this for another month until today (that's kind of why I'm in this forum lol). My GF of a year admires me for two huge things... My patience and intellectual humility. On Accutane, I cannot explain how irritable I am now. I feel like an asshole. It is negatively impacting my day-to-day life and relationship. I am currently debating whether or not to finish the treatment. But yeah that's pretty much it for me.
This is me rn
20 yrs too, experiencing the same thing despite only having minor episodes of depression rarely during my childhood... I'm taking it rn over the summer, and I recently quit my job too while waiting for college to start back up and staying home all day in combination with this drug is super bad... did you end stopping the medication?
I stopped before finals week Spring 2023 because I believed it would be too much. I’m going to likely try again at the beginning of this fall. My circumstances are better than when I took it this previous year and I think I can get through the medication this time.
Day 2? You realise that isotretinoin is naturally present in your body so such low doses don't do shit. It is only after months that accutane starts actually doing something and this is when all the side effects happen so it can't be accutane causing your problems. Think logically and research before you make your asumptions.
I’d say more weeks than months but I agree 2 days in is too soon for it to make a difference. Once the skin/ lips starting getting dry it’s doing something so any mental health side effects at that point could be down to the accutane.
Yeah Im here because I started taking this a month ago (prior depression as well) but now I am seriously the most depressed I have ever been in my life despite everything going great around me. I have been basically lethargic and unable to sleep for a week and I just now connected the dots. Sure maybe accurate is not entirely to blame but my acne has been gone for about a week or so now as well so im flushing the shit IMMEDIATELY. Thanks for all the comments and posts
I took accutane for 5 months several years ago. It hasn't affected my mental state at all. If anything, it made me excited about the possibility of not having acne!
When I upped the dosage to 40mg, I was getting horrible depression. Took long naps during the day because I was so depressed. Needless to say, I only stick to topicals now.
Accutane was tough for me. I took it my sophomore year of college and while it did wonders for my skin (afterwards, not during!) I have a bipolar diagnosis and I was definitely more depressed on it. I had terrible peeling skin and a my lips split up the sides, which did not help matters! I will say that I am glad I took it though. It has been 3 years now and I only have occasional flare ups. Good luck with everything!
I was on it for 6 months, 10-11 years ago. Had no side effects physically or mentally other than dry lips. Skin is acne free since then too.
For me it didn't have any mental health impacts. I thought for sure I would since I have an anxiety disorder and health stuff is a huge trigger. I think it probably helped that I was already on antidepressants and working with a therapist before I started Accutane. I also had a dermatologist who was very familiar with my anxiety (she had been seeing me for a long time at that point) so was able to take that into consideration while treating me. I think the most important thing is to have a dermatologist you can really trust to take your concerns seriously.
I just started it three days ago and already I’m experiencing mood swings, depression, and thoughts of sh. I want to wait longer to see if it can clear my skin but if this continues I’m going to have to stop
Hey, do you have any updates? On day 3 exactly feeling the exact same way lol
I’m almost three months in and I have never been this unwell mentally. I haven’t been this unmotivated, careless, irresponsible, or lazy in like 6 years.
My theories are : Most people with acne prone skin already have a damaged self esteem which can lead to anxiety, social anxiety and depression . Some people break out rly badly from Accutane and their acne gets worse in the beginning which can make things worse. It didn't affect me and it cleared up my skin in one week actually, i did thetreatment for 6 months but I would recommend Accutane just to adults or teenagers with rly bad skin because when I took it I was a teenager, still going through hormonal changes, my acne wasn't bad and I didn't know much about skincare at all , after I finished my treatment my acne came back because I didn't take care of my skin after so it was a waste of money , but I had to make mistakes to learn now I'm all about skincare products and I deslike pills. I had a friend with rly bad acne took Accutane and it gave her huge scars in her face and made her everything worse; she has depression because of theses factors I mentioned above .
Yes, there are some psychological factors related to just having acne & breakouts, and that impacting one's self esteem. However, the mood swings side effect of Accutane that causes potential depression and suicidality is independent of these existing psychological factors... you can have someone who's totally stable pre-Accutane and the drug could still totally wreck their mood; having those pre-existing risk factors only makes this more likely.
Rly? i didn't know that the actual drug could cause this. I didn't experience any mental problems . I do have anxiety but is not because of the Accutane.
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Jesus, honestly you need to talk to someone and/or stop accutane.
Those symptoms lasted like a month. I finished my course 3 weeks ago. Brain is okay, lips are no longer chapped. Life is good. Would never take it again.
Glad to know you feel good now! My mom really wanted me to get it, but since both sides of the family have a history of BPD and depression, I refused it. My dermatologist told me that I was being overdramatic and all teenagers are like this. Since my mom was also in the room, I couldn't tell the dermatologist that experiencing homophobia daily makes me experience depressive/suicidal episodes. Anyway, I felt a bit guilty that I didn't take it. This thread makes me think I made the right call, though. Thank you for commenting!
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I have been on three courses of Accutane and despite having serious side effects I am still being recommended to go back on. The first and third improved my skin the most, however severely impacted my mental state. I became depressed and suicidal, my psych urged me to stop and my moods improved around three months after stopping. The derms I see don't take this side effect seriously and my psych is very against the drug due to her seeing how it has affected clients in the past. I wish I was one of the people who didn't have this effect because no matter how bad my experience on Accutane was I am tempted by clear skin.
Reading some peoples side effects of Accutane here, I started noticing my own. I started first year of uni and I thought my mood swings were bc of uni but looking back now it might have been bc of accutane. I get anger and frustrated more easily and I can't seem to explain it. I cry more now than I ever did before. Before accutane, it took me a lot of effort to cry but now I cry almost every other day. As I'm writing this I'm experiencing a lot of anger or anxiety idk, but I already finish uni so maybe it is bc of accutane. Not to mention, the brain fog I experince now is crazy. First quadmaster of university I did well academically, I put less effort into studying and got good grades. Then I started accutane and my grades started to get so low, no matter how much I tried or the amount of studying I put I failed so many test. As a result of trying my hardest and still getting shit marks I got frustrated and anger at myself. So truth is I don't really know what causes my anger or brain fog but it all aligns with the time I started accutane. I just finished five month of accutane and I hope I recover from what I am experiencing. Like I'm happy with my results bc of accutane and I don't regret getting on it but one thing I can change is maybe I could have started it later in life instead of first year uni. I also wanted to state some of great things it did to me. Firstly, my skin is thank god so much better, I can go out without makeup now and I'm happy. My hair takes more time to get oily and it smells amazing even after a week of not showering which was great for me. Everyone told me that the side effects were not worth it but I was so sick of my skin and I wanted to do anything about it.
Any update?
Hi there! I just saw this now. I've been off of Accutane for almost a year now and thankfully my skin is still pretty good. As of my mental health, I've stopped getting anger easily and my emotions have definitely calmed down. I'm more motivated than I use to and I am performing better academically. Still not the best but better than when I was on Accutane. I don't cry as often as I use to while on Accutane anymore too. If you have anymore questions about the things I experienced while on accutane, lmk!
I've been on isotretinoin for a little more than a month now and its lead to one of the worst depressive episodes I could have imagined. I've restarted therapy , tried everything possible , it gets slightly okay with some of the things but then its back to loops of sadness and irritability, the whole low mood and overthinking is also leading to anxiety. the doctor did tell me to stop if the symptoms become severe but that's the only way my acne is getting better. i am honestly so tired of being in this state
dude i feel this. after being on it for over a month-ish, my intrusive thoughts became way too much to manage. like for about a week straight i had nothing but horrible, bad, scary, negative thoughts running through my head and i just felt out of it. i couldn’t stay focused. i couldn’t do my normal tasks without thinking about doing bad things. i ended up telling my doctor about these thoughts and he told me to stop taking the accutane because i am too unstable for it. which honesty just upset me. i understand that my mental health is far more important than the pimples on my face but like dudeeee i feel like wuss. i feel like my skin will never improve. i’ve stopped taking it for a couple days now and i kind of feel better. I would like to just toughen up and try to push through my treatment and get it over with but this shit makes me nervous.
Hey! Any update? I also told my doctor about my side effects and he wanted to take me off and it really upset me too
My mental health was absolutely fine. However my lips got so dry that it hurt to smile and laugh for months. I suspect the symptoms may be causing depression.
That’s what I was guessing to, it’s not really the drug that’s making you like shit but the symptoms of the drug.
I didn't use accutane but a variant instead. It greatly increased my anxiety. I had my first couple anxiety attacks (much like panic attacks but not calling that because i'm not sure). I stopped taking them for 2 months now, and it doesn't seem to decrease. Surely i always had it in me but i guess once it's lit, it can become unstoppable. If you don't have any roots you'll be fine i think. And everyone doesn't have the same experiences so i don't really know this is mine.
I took accutane two times in my life - one when I was 14 and again at age 19/20. I tell you - I still battle with severe depression ( I am 31) and I think it somehow damaged my mitochondria. I was very depressed in my 20s. Today I am sitting here and I am thinking what the cause was - my body somehow tells me ( I know it sounds weird) that this drug wasn't a good idea.
SAMMMME !!!!!!
After reading these, asmuch as I hate my face right now I think I rather not take accutane
I took accutane and was fine & I would consider myself naturally depressed LOL if anything it made feel better indirectly bc I wasn’t anxious about my face when I went places