The first step is to face up to reality! When faced (literally) with the problem of teenage acne, it is hard to know what to do.
But before you go down a road of treatment, you need to take a good hard look at what you want and what you're willing to do to get it.
It would be awesome if there was good magic that could be done, so that in one afternoon, all your pimple problems disappeared and you could just keep rolling along with your friends, going out, having fun, going to work, fronting up to school, being cool and effortlessly flawless.
But you must have realistic expectations about what it will take and what the results will be.
There are costs and benefits to whichever treatment strategy you choose.
Pimples occur as your hormones are changing and for some people its worse than others.
Sorry about that, but it just is that way.
To make a decision about what to do, the following things need to be considered:

• how bad is your skin problem
• how quickly do you want / need an improvement in your condition
• how perfect a result do you want / need to have in your skin
• how much time do you have in your life to devote to looking after it
• how much money do you have to invest in your skin / health
• how many other health issues do you have
• how healthy is your lifestyle now - diet, exercise, hygiene, stress
• how disciplined are you to change your habits
• how much access do you have to various therapies, either geographically or financially
• how supportive are your friends and family
• how much negative effects of treatment are you willing to tolerate now or in the future

The biggest question though is, how informed are you about what's going on inside your body and what treatments are available for you to address the problems.
This is much easier now with information available worldwide on many different options, what they are, how much they cost and what the negative side-effects are.
Begin by finding out from a practitioner just what is causing your particular problems.
Once you know where you're starting from, the next step is to prioritise the above checklist, either on your own or with a friend or family member who wants to help.
GENERAL GUIDELINES Natural Remedies, including food, lifestyle and supplements:

1. FOR - Can be a much cheaper option and many things you can do for free and on your own.
   Works with your body and improves all aspects of your health, added benefits, longer term benefits, negative side-effects don't occur, you'll look better, feel better, smell better, think better and have better emotional moods.
   
2. AGAINST - Will probably take longer to get results, improvements may not be as dramatic, may be complicated to get to the underlying cause, takes more time and effort on your part, may be more expensive at the beginning if lots of new stuff needs to be purchased, may not be able to find some of the recommended things in your area, may not be strong enough to deal with extreme cases and this may result in frustration and physical scars.
   

Medical Treatments, including medications, prescription creams and surgical approaches (for scars):

1. FOR - Can get dramatic improvements in a short space of time, may be necessary in extreme cases, may be cheaper if covered by insurances/public health, almost guaranteed outcomes at specified dosages, don't need to change anything in your lifestyle if you don't want and still get results, generally have access to medical treatments in most geographic locations.
   
2. AGAINST - Often works against your body, controlling or messing up the natural functioning, negative side-effects can be unbearable and long-lasting, may be more expensive as you continually have to deal with these issues long-term, you're not getting healthier underneath.
   

No one treatment pathway or combination will work the same way for everybody, so you have to be willing to take responsible for your own choices and actions.