Does differin and duac work?

so i know that it sounds like a lot, but i've just been prescribed with duac and differin for my moderate acne. i used proactiv for a while but it stopped working recently. i just read tonsss of horror stories on differin, and now i'm pretty scared shitless of the initial breakouts i heard it causes. has anyone who's actually STUCK TO differin for a while see any improvements? also, should i continue to use my proactiv cleanser or the duac one that came with the duac gel? thank you so much.