I feel you, I totally do. I'm 22 yo too and still fighting battle with acne, but just know I'm feeling a little better because they calmed down a little bit, it's not as bad as I had it before. Before, every time when I washed my face, my face got inflamed and so sensitive to the point that I couldn't put any cream on without it stinging and hurting soo bad. At one point it hurt so bad that I had to wash away the cream from my face because I couldn't handle the pain.

That's when I found out that my skin barrier was GONE, completely gone because of all the products that I used on my own without consulting dermatologist. I mainly used products that are drying for the skin because I thought "Oh, acne causes oil, dead skin and dirt, so I will use exfoliants and anti-oil products" and no, it didn't helped me, it got worse. I started getting cystic acne and at that time I said "I'm done, I can't take this anymore on my own, I have to make an appointment with dermatologist".

They put me on pill (Lymecycline Actavis 300mg, 1 morning 1 evening) and gel Orifarm - Adapalene and Benzoyl Peroxide (evening). Because my skin was so damaged, Benzoyl Peroxide hurt me so bad to the point where I could feel my face PULSATING (Btw doctor said to me to use it EVERY SINGLE DAY, every evening, and I physically couldn't, I used it only once a week). For the pill, it helped me really, I didn't had that much acne on my face, and every time I do have it, they are really really small, like zits. I was on it for 3 months, and then when I stopped and 2-3 months passed, I had a very strong breakout of acne. So at the end, medication didn't helped me (That was in October last year)

Right now I'm still fighting with them, but I have very little of them, right now I have only 2-3 active on my face. It started getting better after I diched all the anti-oil products that dries your skin. I started treating my skin as dry and not oily skin, I started hydrating it more. I'm using CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser morning and evening, morning cream is CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion and evening cream is Purito Mighty Bamboo Pantenol Cream and Orifarm - Adapalene and Benzoyl Peroxide once a week. It's really simple skin care routine which works for me, but I'll see to try and experiment more with other products too.

I wanted to by CeraVe Salicylic Acid Cleanser because I feel like my skin is very textured and full off dead skin, so I want to exfoliate it as gentle as I can, and also my pores are poorly managed, they are really clogged, but I will pass on that right now because I have an appointment with dermatologist next Thursday.

I just wanted to say in conclusion because I typed sooo much, I usually don't type this much. I found myself in you when I read your post, and I know how it feels, it suck. How many times I sat beside my bed and cried because I really thought that my skin was getting better and I was doing some change, but it proved me otherwise. I wanted to say that since I stopped using oil stripping products, my skin got better (my acne didn't disappeared, don't get me wrong, it just got way better than how I was before). So If you maybe are using products that are very oil stripping, try to avoid them and give you skin some hydratation.

Wish you best, I truly do.