Originally Posted by Emily Jordan
This is for Vahid and all you other vain people out there thinking about using Benoquin, even if you do not need it.
I have used this drug from the minute it became available and it has been the right choice for me.
BUT and a very big but is that this should not be used by people who do not need it. I started having Vitiligo at 11. It may have stayed as a little white patch on my eyelids and may be I would have some white "moles" here and there if it was left alone. However, my parents were very diligent in trying to get the best trestments for me which meant using any god forbidden junk, from the most advanced pills recommended by the doctors to applying nathropathic creams no short of witchcraft.
One particular treatment required me to take some (now illegal and off the market) pills which would sensitize me to the ultra viloet rays of the sun and then I had to spend up to an hour under the sun or under special tanning lapms during the winter. One day I fell sleep and spent 15 minutes extra under the sun: I developed third degree burns on my arms and most of my face. When the burns cleared I never got the colour back. Any trauma to the skin rubs it of its colour and the patches will then spread.
By the time Benoquin was developed I had milky patches on over 70% of my body. I was 19. The use of benoquin helped me get my face back, not having to use heavy creams or cringe every time I saw a picture of myself.
BUT the use of Benoquin is not for every one: specailly for people who have normal skin and want to lighten it. First of all why lighten your skin, it does not change who you are. You can not de-ethnicize yourself, like Vahid. You will be Vahid, white or brown or black or red. If you do not like your self with this colour, you will not like yourself with white face as well. Furthermore, doesn't this feed into the stereotype of the "White" race being the dominant race, being the measure of beauty?
Have you guys considered the downside?
I use the highest SPF sunscreen and still burn. I love the sun and swimming, I go to the tropics twice a year and I am the only one by the pool who will be wearing a large hat, sunproof shirt over my bathing suit and towels draped over my legs if I have to sit by the pool more than 5 minutes. And you know what I can still burn: in stupid place like the back of your knee when it hurts like hell to even sit bending your leg. How about having to use sunscreen year-round? I can burn in the cloudy weather worse than in the sun! Attractive huh???
I was in Alaska in Sep 07. On a rare sunny day, I was swimming in the cruise ship's covered pool when they opened the top. I did not even feel the sun on my body but the next day I developed fine freckle like pigmentation all over my hands and arms, on my chest and one large one under one eye. I live in Canada and in the past few years you could get Benoquin without prescription. My dermatologist told me to use Benoquin again. I used up a half tube I had left but when I tried to buy new ones, I was told it was discontinued, Possibly due to mis-use by "skin-lighteners". My doctor has prescribed Lustra-AF. This is the correct cream to use if you are trying to lighten your skin a little and get rid of some spots. I still have not been able to get rid of my "Freckles".
Also be aware that any burnt part of skin that develops the pigment again is usually darker than your normal skin and is very resistant to lightening again, even with Benoquin.
Also use of beoquin may mean that you may get patches of white hair in the middle of your eye brow, lashes, hair, or even body hair for men. How would you like to have white chest and pubic hair to match that fair skin??? Not very sexy.
Most important of all the risk of skin cancer is quite serious. Understand this: YOU HAVE NO PROTECTION IN YOUR SKIN. Fair people have colour and melatonin, just less of it. Albinos and people with vitiligo have none.
Why would you want to reproduce a disease is beyond me.
Do not do this if you do not have to. I love this drug. It was my life saver. But I would gladly do anything to reverse the clock and to get my natural colour back. Sadly I do not even know what it is not to have Vitiligo. I have had it for 28 years and my non-colour complexion is a part of who I am. It is a part of the story of my life. It does not have to be a part of yours. It does not have to define who you are.
Like yourself as you are. If you do not like your self in the skin you are in, how can you like yourself in any other colour? After all it IS only skin deep. Self reliance is the most attractive trait. It trumps every physical characteristic. Try to get some of that and nothing else will matter.
