Sorry if the title is offensive. I'm just poking fun at the side effects. I deal with this in a light hearted way, because that's how I dealt with it at the time.

Now many of you have read my suicides in the family review. I started taking this drug after the 1st uncle had killed himself. I was still taking it when the 2nd killed himself. However, I neglected to tell my doctor this, because I knew it would mean they'd take me off the drug. My uncles had nothing to do with depression and none of my family have suffered it.

I would not recommend this product to anyone to be honest. The side effects are too risky. But I was desperate and I didn't want to stop half way through

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What it does
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I don't know how it works, but Roaccutane cures spots, forever. You take 1 tablet a day, for about 3 months (more, or less if your doctor thinks so) and then they disappear.

They go away gradually, but most go away a few months after you finish treatment!

They are only given by dermatologists after all else fails. This is because of the serious side effects.

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My Experience
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Well, I started out with antibiotics, things like that. After trying a variety of creams, pills and lotions I was still as spotty as ever. It covered my face.

I'm not that concerned about my appearance, I've never had any trouble with bullying because of it or whatever. But it's the horrible oily feeling, the painful spots and general feel of my face to the touch I couldn't stand.

So after a year of other drugs, the doctor suggested that I take 2 weeks to consider whether I want to take this one.

There's lots of leaflets on it, lots of information and the doctors all know what they're talking about.

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Blood Tests
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Most doctors, in most cases, will request you take a blood test 1 month before you start and every month during the period.

This is because of cholesterol levels. Apparently the drug can mess with them and they have to make sure the change isn't too bad. They also have to check it's ok to start with.

Now I hate needles, I hate blood tests. This was awful, luckily my "vampire" (she calls herself that) was really nice. So I just about managed to bear the 5 blood tests I had to have.

It also saves on our food bill, you're not allowed to eat 12 hours before the test (which is always in the morning around here). That's to do with altering fat levels.

I found out, by coincidence, that I have a low white blood cell count.... Great! But it's not too low thank god, anyway, I've strayed from the pills

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The pills
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You know what, I can't remember what they looked like! I've taken so many different types I can't remember which ones these were.

They only gave me one month at a time and the prescription could only be filled by the dermatologist. Good idea given the dangers of these pills.

So I took one a day. For the first week or two I didn't notice any change at all. But after that things started getting bad...very bad.

The most noticeable effect was the lips, the dry skin. It was very painful. I don't like using moisturiser, it feels horrible on my skin, plus I have sensitive skin as it is!

But it was so bad that I couldn't open my mouth fully. My lips were all crispy and red and looked really weird. When I tried to open it, it hurt and sometimes cracked at the sides and started bleeding.

Thank God I didn't have a girlfriend at the time! My skin was also very white and dry and peely. My neck also had a bad reaction. It felt horrible

But I kept going nonetheless. There was no way I would get this bad and quit before my spots were cured!

People were embarrassed to be seen with me. Granted, I would have been the same. Thank god I had a good set of friends.

Then came the effect that the doctor raised a lot and warned me about. But you always think "they're just trying to scare you, it's just a couple of kids by coincidence" but that view is wrong.

Suicide. Well, evidently I didn't commit suicide, but the depression anyway. Me and my friends all had a good laugh about this side effect when I first went on them. We still did to the end, I never told anyone what I was feeling, because I knew it was only due to these pills. It's a strange feeling, knowing it's caused by pills but not being able to stop the way you're feeling.

After my second uncle committed suicide, it sent me into a huge depression. But I still smiled at school and home. My life riddled by sleepless nights.

My joke has always been, the way they cure spots is simply by making all the spotty people commit suicide. This way they eliminate genes that create spots in the long term.

I don't know what the point in taking something that will depress you further to cure your depressing condition is. I mean, it seems to have the adverse effect during the course. But afterwards is great!

Again, I didn't want to give up half way through. So I pushed myself to keep going with the medication.

Eventually, it ended. Just one week after I stopped taking them my lips healed, my skin stopped flaking and my thoughts at night returned to Holly Valance and Rachel Stevens :-) I even started sleeping.

But my spots were still there, most of them anyway.

It took a further 2 months for my spots to clear completely. I found this strange. But it worked, boy did it work well!

I am now pretty much spotless, without oily skin and with no spots anywhere on my body. Great! No longer do I feel like sh**

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The other bad effects
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Ok, so I've described the obvious ones, suicide and skin problems. But there are indeed more. Try looking at the leaflet, it's filled with tonnes of stuff. Don't take these if you're pregnant etc. and all the regulars but also note the following:

They damage your liver. So if it's already damaged, for whatever reason, you can't take them. The liver will heal afterwards but during treatment it puts a lot of pressure on it.

You can't drink. Being only 16 and obviously adhering to the law, this wasn't a problem :-P. But alcohol contains some fats that increase cholesterol. The pills don't go well with fats.

Diet. Some people may need a low fat, low cholesterol diet. I didn't, but I did make sure I kept it down to a minimum. Don't take any chances.

Other medications and allergic reactions. These don't mix well with some medications, I think either aspirin or paracetemol (one or the other) is banned. You can also have allergic reactions (apparently skin peeling isn't allergic) to the pills. These are spotted quickly and you can stop at any time.

Some other pills I've used have to be weaned off, these don't. You can just stop whenever you want. Things get better almost instantly. So at least you know you can stop if you do start getting too bad

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Conclusion
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My analogy is this: These pills f**k you up big time while you're taking them. They turn you into the worst looking, worst feeling person. They turn you more into the very thing you are trying to cure. But afterwards everything is better.

It's a "get worse to get better" and in my life, this worked considerably well. Everything's improved.

Not everyone will suffer the side effects as bad as me, so I'm probably one of the bad cases. So don’t let this discourage you too much.

But listen to your doctor, they aren't exaggerating the bad effects. This is a last resort, so make sure you really want to before you even consider asking for this.