WHEEEE DRUGS!!! .....the legal kind, of course =D

I started taking a new pill on Friday. I''l explain a little bit about it.

I have pretty bad acne. So I was prescribed some pills and creams and such to help out the situation. I used them for about a year, and they kind of helped, but not all that much. So my dermatologist wanted me to move up to something stronger.

My mother had already tried this stronger pill herself to help with a skin condition. However, it turned out she was allergic to it (which made things worse), which means that I'm probably allergic to it. So that medication is out of the question.

With that out of the way, the only remaining stronger medicine is a little once a day pill called Accutane. Now, Accutane is powerful stuff. Supposedly, after a few month's doses, one is cured of acne; it completely goes away, no longer needing any further use of gels or pills. That's pretty cool, and is why I'm taking it.

There are, however, a few side-effects. For one, it really dries out your skin. But that's not a big deal; it's pretty easily remedied with a moisturizer. On the other hand, some of the other side-effects are quite serious.

This one isn't of great concern to me, but it's still kinda interesting: accutane can cause birth defects when taken by pregnant women. Obviously, I'm not a woman, but if I was to, hypothetically, get a woman pregnant (which I really don't plan on doing any time soon), then there could still be problems. Because of this, anyone who takes accutane is required to join a pregnancy prevention program called iPledge. For guys, this is no big deal; you just sign up, and that's it. But girls have to constantly report things and take surveys and a bunch of other stuff. Makes me glad I'm a dude. But yeah, I don't anticipate this being any sort of issue. And if it was, I might have bigger problems on my hands.

The greatest concern is that accutane has been linked to cases of clinical depression and, in a few cases, suicide. While this isn't common, it's pretty serious business. After taking it for 3 days, I feel pretty fine, but to everyone reading this, if I ever seem to be really down in the dumps, that could be why. Feel free to come cheer me up! =D Of course, if it does prove to sadden me, I'll stop taking it.

Actually, it might prove to make me happier. I'll explain. At one point today, I was feeling kinda sad for no reason that I could think of. Then I thought 'maybe this is from the accutane stuff.' For some reason, that made me feel kinda fuzzy. Then I felt good again.

Personally, I don't think that I felt bad because of the medicine; I think it was just a down for no particular reason kinda thing. Plus, everyone else was doing their own little thing, which made me feel unwanted, but that's a social issue for another time. I think that the drug gave me something to blame for my bad mood; a sort of scapegoat.

But no matter the cause, I'm feeling like myself again.

In the mean time, I'm dying to see some results. (bleh, bad pun...)