u/alleycyah

▲ 4 r/Herpes

Positivity

Over the past few days I’ve read quite a few negative posts that have made me feel really sad the way some people view themselves.

I’m not here to downplay anyone’s feelings. Everyone’s feelings are valid. I also understand that especially in the first breakout and when you first get diagnosed you feel a range of emotions - none of them positive.

I am the type of person who tries to see the glass as half full rather than half empty and as such I just wanted to share a little bit of positivity to hopefully give someone a bit of hope.

I got diagnosed I think about 6 years ago nearly.. of course I went through the whole my life is over , I’m never going to date again…but once I got through that I learnt how to put on my big girl pants and be brave, and I’ve dated pretty much solely on “conventional” dating apps. I have dabbled in positive singles but there’s not much of a crowd from the uk 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I’ve disclosed 5 times and 5/5 have been fine with it. I’m yet to find my Prince Charming but I am hopeful 🙏, and know this has nothing to do with hsv and everything to do with me being extremely picky😅

Hsv has pretty much forced me to learn how to accept myself, understand my body more, how to feel comfortable in the uncomfortable by way of confrontational conversations and as a consequence it’s made me even more self aware, confident and understanding. I’m not going to say I’m grateful for it but I have definitely grown as a person.

I say all this to say to any one newly diagnosed, who may feel like the world is pretty heavy right now, I promise you life is not over. Learn your body, your triggers and surround yourself with good people. You will be ok and you’ll likely forget you even have it. Negativity breeds negativity but luckily positivity breeds positivity.

Life is short and ultimately these are the cards we’ve been dealt. I hope any one who is not currently there can learn to truly accept yourself, because once you can I promise life gets better.

My DMs are always open if anyone needs a pick me up 👸🏻🫶

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u/alleycyah — 1 day ago

Product recs to elevate skin

Hi all, I’ve had fairly sensitive, combination skin that’s prone to acne all my life ( I’m now mid 30s) I have some mild acne scarring,mainly slightly dark spots and some boxcar/rolling scars nothing too severe but enough to bother me to not like being makeup free.

For about 6 months I had a dermatica prescription of adapalene and niacinamide together and azeliac acid twice daily. My skin hated it and I ended up with perioral dermatitis. Stopped using and managed to get my skin back to normal.

I then bought the products separately(not from dermatica) and I’ve found my skin responds pretty well to skinoren azealic acid and I currently use this every other night 20%. Every morning I wash my face and moisturise with la Roche posay toleraine line which my skin seems to like and use Kiehls 5% niacinamide.

My skin is looking fairly good for me, I am only really getting 1-2 spots a month now but wanted suggestions on what could be added in to elevate my progress/routine. Particularly my texture and scarring. I was thinking trying to introduce adapalene back in on the alternative nights to azealic acid?

Also open to suggestions to skin treatments.

Thank you!

u/alleycyah — 3 days ago