14 months on Zepbound, hit my goal, doctor and then I agreed to stop. My first two weeks felt fine, by week four the food noise was back in a way I hadn't felt in over a year.
Up 4 lbs now:( not panicking but also not pretending it's not happening.
Seriously looking at Foundayo as a maintenance option. Guide me in!
Genuinely asking because I'm losing my mindd
I've tried a bunch of different setups and every single one forgets who my characters are after like 3 sessions. I'll ask for help with a scene and it's like it's never heard of any of them before
is this just how it is or am I doing something wrong, feels like there has to be a better way
Nobody prepared me for this, I genuinely thought acne was something i'd left behind in my 30s. then perimenopause showed up and my face decided to start completely over.
The pimples are different too- deeper, angrier, and they leave marks that stick around so long that by the time one fades the next one has already moved in. My teenage skin healed overnight. my 45 year old skin is holding grudges.
Everything I try is either too harsh and wrecks my barrier or too gentle and does nothing. I feel like i'm stuck in the middle of two skin problems at once and nothing is designed for exactly this. Is anyone else in this specific kind of skin hell and have you found anything that actually works?
During the week I have structure. Work fills time, gives me interaction, gives me purpose. I'm busy enough that I don't feel it.
Then Friday afternoon arrives and I watch colleagues make weekend plans in conversations I'm adjacent to but not part of, and I drive home knowing I have 60 hours of unstructured time with no one who's expecting me anywhere.
I've gotten good at filling it. I have routines. I exercise, I cook properly, I watch things, I take myself to places. On Instagram it probably looks like I live a full and independent life. And parts of it are genuinely okay.
But underneath there's this low hum of dread I've been ignoring for two years. The knowledge that I'll go the whole weekend without a real conversation. That no one will text to check in. That Sunday night I'll feel relieved Monday is coming because at least there will be people.
Admitting that feels both embarrassing and necessary. I'm not sure what the next step is from here but naming it felt like it mattered.
I used to be pretty outgoing. I'm a different person now and I don't think most people around me even realize why.
I stopped putting my hand up in meetings because I didn't want people looking at me. I stopped making plans on bad skin weeks. I've turned down dates. I take photos from specific angles or I avoid them entirely. I've built an entire set of behaviors around managing how much of my face people see and I've been doing it so long it just feels normal now.
The worst part is nobody sees it as a real thing. "It's just acne" is something I've heard my whole life. But it's not just acne when it's quietly been shaping your decisions for years. It's not just acne when you can trace your confidence dropping in direct proportion to your skin getting worse.
I don't really have a question. I just wanted to say it out loud somewhere that people might actually get it and maybe ask if anyone has found a way out of this cycle, because I really want my personality back.