Botox Was the Worst Mistake of my Life. - London, England

Honesty babe, don't do it. The muscles in the face are attached to the skin. When you over paralize the muscles, the skin can still move (thats why I hav the bunching effect) -and its still REALLY bad. Also, if a muscle is paralised for a long period, it starts to waste away due to it not being used hence why the skin on my face is saggy and loose. think of it this way, just say you broke a leg, and it gets put into a cast to help it mend. when that cast comes off, the leg that was in the cast will have lost the majority of muscle tone, and would be considerably smaller than the 'healthy' leg. -same thing with botox, if a muscle isnt used, it wastes away. As for the dents; its because i was injected too deeply. And they are still there! The botox migrated down my face and caused AWFUL deformities. Thing is, the DR that injected me was a GP, and knew the facial anatomy very well. He'd also been injecting for 5 years! So thats why I was saying its a ''hit and miss'' thing. Botox is the most harmful substance known to man, and there is NO antidote. If you have it done, and it messes up, you have to live with the results. Believe me, when you get robbed of your pretty face, you'll wish you'd never done it. Also, im sure botox isnt approved by the FDA for use on crows feet, -so beware. Hope this helps you make your decision. Wish you the best of luck xx

Hiya wooly :) Not good I'm afraid babe :( my face is a mess. I can't believe I'm still this bad after 2 1\2 yrs! There's been very slight improvements, but nothing that tells me, or gives me hope that my face will get back to how it was before botox. Dont give up wooly! I'm having a [RS bleep] time too, just gotta get thru it haven't we :) Yeh I dun the facial exercises but I don't think they worked for me. What are your symptoms? Are they exactly the same as mine? X

Hi B.B, Yes, all of the same and my jaw is smaller, too. Seriously, I can't take this anymore. I don't think I can live with this. I also have big bags under my eyes. Do you have any other physical symptoms along with the facial symptoms? I look creepy. Also, my eyes look possessed. Every time i look in a mirror i cry. I feel so much for you. [RS bleep]

Wooly, please don't focus too much on this one aspect of your life. I can tell you that, even though I look 'good for my age', at 49 I am basically invisible to men (except my beloved). The pleasure I used to get out of being a good-looking, fertile-age woman is over forever for me, and though it hurts sometimes, I try not to let it matter by focusing on other aspects of life: my relationships, literature, music, my home, nice walks. Please don't think things like 'can't live with this'. Sure, it's hard if you spend all day thinking about what you have lost. Do you have lots of other interests? I spend so much time trying to become a better musician - that can basically occupy brain and body for hours!

Hi InnerBeauty1, Thanks for your response. What happened to you? When all of your self confidence is gone, life sucks! I can occupy my mind for a short time, but that's it. Then it's back to reality. I feel so self conscious talking to anyone.... I don't like to make eye contact with anyone....this has ruined my whole life. I also have other physical symptoms from the injections. Is it even worth trying to get the muscles to come back?

Hi Wooly Nothing bad happened, just the normal aging process. I try to control it with exercise, facial exercises and some microneedling, but basically I can't fight it completely, and I look like a healthy, decent-looking 40-something. Ie. totally unattractive to men generally. I've never tried botox though - I like the idea of having some control over my body and face - thus facial exercises and DIY needling. But my point is: however hard we try and good we look after mid-40s that attractiveness seems to be gone for ever. The only men who flirt a little with me these days are in their 60s! And I can't worry about that, must focus on other aspects of my life. I don't even visit this site much anymore, just saw your sad post through my e-mail alert and wanted to tell you my experience.

Hey Wooly, keep the faith babe. Believe me, I know how hard this is for you babe I really do :( One thing I noticed over the last year or so, is that when I almost gave up hope (sometimes to the point I didnt wanna be here anymore) -Id notice a slight change in my face (for the better) nothing spectacular, but a slight little change where I thought things might eventually come to an end, and id get my face back.. other symptoms?? definitely :( ive suffered with an upper respiortory infection for the last 18 months, repeat water infections, even acne! Slight brain fog, and panic attacks (although, I no longer suffer with the panic attacks anymore) Botox has done more than ruin my face.. from my experience, your eyes will definitely change, mine looked sunken in (like someone had literally poked them to the back of my head!) -they no longer look so sunken which is a relief. -they had that sunken look for a good 1 and a half yrs, -but they are however VERY hollow, with saggy skin that hangs, and bunches, that has nver gotten any better over the last couple of years. babe, dont cry :( I know its hard when you dont look a thing like yourself, I hate what i see in the mirror too, it bothers me so f*cking much! I feel like my life has stood still, in the background waiting and praying for my face to return while everyone else is out there enjoying life, what a joke! I went out with friends for a night out a couple weeks ago (which is a rare for me, because ive become a hermit) got my make up on, little black dress, heels, killer red lipstick etc.. looked in the mirror, and thought ''jeez, what the f happened to you girl' -that reflection wasnt mine :( I looked and felt awful! not everyday is a bad day tho, probably to do with my frame of mind more than my face. If i based how i feel everyday on my face, i probably wouldnt leave the house. sending you lots of love and hugs missy, dont give up hope ok [RS bleep]

Hey Wooly, keep the faith babe. Believe me, I know how hard this is for you babe I really do :( One thing I noticed over the last year or so, is that when I almost gave up hope (sometimes to the point I didnt wanna be here anymore) -Id notice a slight change in my face (for the better) nothing spectacular, but a slight little change where I thought things might eventually come to an end, and id get my face back.. other symptoms?? definitely :( ive suffered with an upper respiortory infection for the last 18 months, repeat water infections, even acne! Slight brain fog, and panic attacks (although, I no longer suffer with the panic attacks anymore) Botox has done more than ruin my face.. from my experience, your eyes will definitely change, mine looked sunken in (like someone had literally poked them to the back of my head!) -they no longer look so sunken which is a relief. -they had that sunken look for a good 1 and a half yrs, -but they are however VERY hollow, with saggy skin that hangs, and bunches, that has nver gotten any better over the last couple of years. babe, dont cry :( I know its hard when you dont look a thing like yourself, I hate what i see in the mirror too, it bothers me so f*cking much! I feel like my life has stood still, in the background waiting and praying for my face to return while everyone else is out there enjoying life, what a joke! I went out with friends for a night out a couple weeks ago (which is a rare for me, because ive become a hermit) got my make up on, little black dress, heels, killer red lipstick etc.. looked in the mirror, and thought ''jeez, what the f happened to you girl' -that reflection wasnt mine :( I looked and felt awful! not everyday is a bad day tho, probably to do with my frame of mind more than my face. If i based how i feel everyday on my face, i probably wouldnt leave the house. sending you lots of love and hugs missy, dont give up hope ok [RS bleep]

Hi InnerBeauty1, I understand where you are coming from. When I hit 45, I started to see some aging. That is why I got Botox. I even had a couple of men tell me that basically, I was looking older. I know its hard, but I am sure you are attractive to more men than you think and at 45 plus do we even want to attract men in their 20s and 30s. Before I got the Botox this past time, I had a man 6 years younger than me tell me I didn't look my age. My husband used to tell me I was good looking. All of that is gone because Botox has ruined all of the looks that I had left. I still had big, beautiful blue eyes and they are now gone and been replaced by big hideous dark bags. My whole face is sunken and sagging. The folds around my mouth are now prominent. I don't even look like myself and I know people think what the hell happened to her? It's really shocking physically and emotionally to have these changes with a 19 month period. I have aged 20 years, at least. I don't look well at all. Please, please, please be thankful for the looks that you have and don't ever do Botox. I wish I knew then what I know now. I so much wish I can get my late 40's natural face back again. Kris

Hi B.B, Thank you for the compassion, caring and understanding! Are you on the Botox Support Community website? There are a lot of people on there that have Botox related issues. Do you work at all? I just hate going to work looking like this. I know people probably wonder what in the ______ happened to her? I try my best to dress nice and I wear my glasses all of the time to try and hide the big hideous, dark bags under my eyes. I also have blurry vision and dry eyes from the Botox along with a lot of other symptoms. As much as feeling bad is horrible, looking bad is worse. It's like a viscous cycle. I know stress is bad for this, but every time i look at myself it causes so much stress. I just don't want to look like this anymore!!!!!! Blah!!! I just can't take it. Is the infection getting any better for you? Have you tried any of the things that ToriS recommended? She recommended exercises to strengthen the core muscles and facial muscles. I've hired a personal trainer who has had some experience with people with Botox related issues. She said they all improved after about a year out from Botox. Many hugs back to you!!!!!! [RS bleep]

Thanks Kris, I'm definitely taking that advice. I've never liked the idea of losing control of part of my body. I've also never understood why botox should do a better job than practising controlling/relaxing that part of the face (eg forehead lines) until one really knows how a relaxed muscle there feels and can do it without the mirror. I am grateful that things are still OK, but of course every wrinkle, every little sag is upsetting. Kris, are you 100% sure that things are as bad as you think? You haven't just become so obsessed with it that you're seeing it worse than it is? I'm thinking of my long-ago problems with weight, where I really thought I was 'fat' when really I was a healthy weight.

Hi InnerBeauty1, I'm sure I am hyper sensitive about my face. But, within 6 weeks every muscle in my face and head was sunken. I had a plastic looking flat face with no wrinkles. My face looked strange. As time went on the normal wrinkles came back, as time has progressed all of my muscles are still sunken, wrinkles are where they weren't before and my face is now sagging. I look awful....like I am sick or emaciated. Oh, I forgot the horrible eye bags. I have no shape to my face and my face looks so small now. I used to be able to look in a mirror and think I looked OK, but now I can't stand to look in any mirrors. I wish I could go back to aging gracefully.

My good God.. will We ever wake up from this nightmare??? Wish Iv looked in here before I have done this bigest mistake of my life, I dont know how much longer I will manage to live like now and if it will ever come back to normal :( I feel so depressed and every morning I'm scared to look in the mirror, I start and end my days crying , cant look at my pics anymore, it is so painful and not fair :( I pray every day girls, my life is hell now and when I read your posts It just scares me that Im only 6 months post this f...poison and still so much pain and tears infront of me :( sorry about my english, im still learning, I live in UK 10 years. I hope you all feeling any better , Im sharing your pain and pray for all of us x

Sounlucky, I'm sorry to hear of another bad botox experience. Are you trying facial exercises to try and re-build muscles? I recommend Flexeffect and Ageless If You Dare. Others have had good experiences with Carolyn's Facial Fitness. All of these work on really building muscles to make up for lost fat, and in the case of botox I imagine could help with re-building lost muscles.

Hi sounlucky, What issues are you having with your face. I cry, too. I don't look like myself. I put a picture of myself that was from a few days before the Botox and a current one and I have aged so much. All of my self confidence is gone, too. I hope it gets better for you soon. I'm trying Carolyns Facial a Fitness. I am having some trouble doing it because I developed TMJ as a result of the Botox. I am going to try acupuncture too.

Hi InnerBeauty1 , thank you for your advice, I will definitely try that excercise, I am so depressed and sad, Im trying elecrostimulation now but no results yet :( My whole face is sagging :(

Hi WoolyB, Im sorry to hear about your TMJ, my God this is some nightmare, this stuff should be banned! The worst thing is that nothing can be proved as a botox result and that is how they make money ruining peoples health and life :( My face is all sagging, have terribly sunken in eyes and disfigured, lumps above my brows, cheeks drop, chin drop, lips drop, huge saggy forehead, lost almost all my eyebrows, my lashes, still falling out almost 6 months post injection, have lost my hairline about 2 cm and also still falling out, have no sensation in my skin on the right side of my face, I cant feel my right ear too, every morning my whole face is swollen and 10 mins after I get up is sagging again, my eyes get sunken in again too, every morning I see different face for that 10 minutes, thisis so scary and painful, sometimes I really think I cant handle it any longer :( But I have a daughter I cant just give up, she is already very stressed and upset because she lost her "old" happy , full of energy and young looking mum :( I look like dead already, I have lost 15 kg so far in last 4 months and still loosing weight like my body doesnt keep anything , my skin all over my body getting dry and weird like plastic, full of wrinkles like 80 years old woman :( Im pretty sure Its gone to my body and did some damage there too, as I was straight very ill 3 weeks after injection, I felt sick , had diarrhea , brain fog, blurred vision, vertigo, rashes all over my whole body and face, pain under my jaw that lasted 3 months and no any painkillers helped, muscles weakness came later, about 2 months after injection, everyday was getting worse and worse and finally I wasnt able do my job, now sience last month I am off sick as Im barely walking, Im so skinny and have no energy at all, of course I had already MRI scan for my head, many blood tests, and yesterday endoscopy with biopsy to see why am I still loosing my muscles and weight but Im affraid they wont find anything in my stomach too :( I am seriously scared what's gonna happen with me. I really already look like deadly sick and feel like dying every day more and more, but no any test, scan cant find anything, that makes people think that aybe Im only depressed so much ! I have trouble speaking also due to very loose lips and cheeks, even my tongue feels weird and stiff sometimes exactly when my forehead and face pulling, then gets normal again when everything back to sagging , My God If it wont get better soon I really WILL get mental too :( Hope acupuncture will help for you, maybe I should try too, let me know how you doing and dont give up Wooly, I am trying so hard too x

Are you eating enough protein? I found my above-eyelid area became very puffy and saggy when my protein levels were too low. The body seems to look after just about everything before the skin, if protein is short.

I am eating well and healthy but I will tty a bit more protein, maybe you're right and mine is still low too now, will see , thank you anyway. I'm still very upset about my sunken in eyes, they look so bad, so deep inside my head , with dark blue-gray circles around, I can feel pain inside my eyes, feels like muscles squeezing my eyeballs inside or there's no fad pads and they are too deep in skull, I really dont know how to explain :( anyway its not my eyes anymore, you can have a look at my photos on my profile, but now its even much worse..

Sorry I meant FAT pads not fad pads, Im typing on mobile , forgive any mistakes

Sounlucky, you have been through the mill, too. I still can't believe this is happening. It's like some huge nightmare. I wake up every morning hoping it will be over, but it keeps getting worse. I just can't take anymore either. I really thought by this point things would be better. This crap racks your system. Sorry, you are having so many problems, too. It's really hard to stay strong. I really thought I wasn't going to make it lately. Everyone says you can get fillers, face lift or a fat transfer. It just makes me so mad. I didn't need any of those things before the Botox. Plus, who wants to have those things done when we are already going through so much now. I'm just praying that we will recover from all of this. That once our nerves heal, our faces will get better. No one told us that this had the potential to destroy our faces.

InnerBeauty, I do eat protein. How do you know how much you need?

I totally understand about your eyes. Mine have been sunken in with dark circles and horrible bags. My muscles are still tight around them. They look so small and glazed over, now. My vision is still blurry. Ugh how do you access your profile?

No problem, I read it as fat pads. I didn't even notice.

Hm, well things got bad when I just had a bit of meat in the evenings. Big improvment when I went back to my normal diet of 2 eggs for breakfast, a bit of meat or fish for lunch, yoghurt for afternoon tea and normal dinner with some meat. So that's what works for me.

Ohhh Wooly, I have noticed today that my lips geting tight on one side and I talk and look like after stroke or something, Im so scared my whole face will be deformed when it all wore off :( How to access my profile ? Damn I dont know really, I thought you only need to press on my nick name? You said your eyes BEEN so is that mean they not sunken in anymore? Did they come out finally?

Hi IB, sorry for the late reply. Thank you, i will. -think il give anything a go lol. Did you do both of these? X

Hi KP :) sorry for the late reply, don't often come in here these days. No hun, haven't tried it, have you tried it yourself? X

I think Tua Viso is like facial exercises. They make you feel like your doing something positive more than actually helping. Did you face recover from the botox? Do you feel like yourself again? I hope it all came good. x

Hiya KP Babe I'm nowhere near recovered :(. I still have all the problems botox created. -things have eased slightly (I'm probably 25/30% better) My skin is saggy, still have the hollow eyes, indentations etc. in fact, can still feel it pulling when I make certain expressions.. I have a very long way to go before I recover (or if I ever do) -it's been nearly 2 1/2 yrs for me. How about you? X