Anxiety with Flonase?

You may think this is crazy but I only used flonase ONE TIME in each nostril and I swear to you it messed me up beyond belief. Anxiety depression insomnia night sweats dark thoughts detached feeling daily crying for months. It's been almost a year since I took it and I am still not 100% but close . I still have strange dreams and feel a little off. I survived even though I truly did not think I would. I thought it was the end of me. I'm not saying this to scare anyone only to show how powerful this med is and some are more sensitive than others. I had NONE of these symptoms prior to the med and I knew right away it was something I had taken. The only other time in my life I had anxiety was medication induced. Good luck!! It will pass!!

Ok. recap. 3 days of flonase. Anxiety horrible....I mean horrible...I have never felt that scared in my life...Im a Texas country boy and have never had anxiety.... I finally had enough and went to see my Naturapathic Doctor at Peoples Rx. I feel 100 times better today. after dealing with this for over a week, I finally feel normal again. Here is what she prescribed me...it fixed me over night.....I dont work for peoples rx, I will not make a dime from this... I just dont want anyone to suffer from this like I did... Here it is.

Magnesium (Glycinate) 225-250 mg per day. (healthy heart rhythm (no more palpitations)
Professional health products "BH4 Assist" Methylation Series) 1 pill twice per day. (ANXIETY GONE! made from bee royal jelly)
Ortho Molecular Products Natural D-Hist 3 pills twice per day (to fix the original problem of nasal stuffiness and fluid behind ears)
Cedar Fever Drops ( also to fix the original problem of nasal stuffiness and fluid behind ears)
VSL#3 Probiotic. (Fixing the gut after 2 days of antibiotics)

Im better.... Praise Jesus!!

Hello Cliff,
I am so happy to hear that you are better!
A naturopath once helped me too. I have made a note of the supplements you have listed for future reference.
I sure hope my pal out there on this forum sees your posting, you may have helped many people. I haven't heard from the other guest in a while and I hope he/she is OK, if you see this, let me know how you are.

Thanks again Cliff!
Melody

I'm so glad I found this thread. I wanted to share my story in case it helps anyone since all of your posts really helped me.

I have been using flonase for seasonal allergies for many years now with no problems. I started getting very congested at the end of Oct so I started flonase as I normally would. Around that time I started having anxiety/panic attacks but I didn't make any connection as I have been going through a stressful family situation this year. I never had anxiety/panic before and the feelings were awful. I just thought maybe the stress had caught up to me, but it was strange because my stress started much earlier in the year and my situation was actually getting better. So I was wondering why is this anxiety/panic happening now? Anyway, in early Nov I went on a vacation abroad and had to come home early because I was freaking out. I continued to be so congested and I was continuing the flonase (which wasn't really working). When I got back home, it had been ~2-3 weeks of regular use. At this time I went to see my PCP and was prescribed Welbutrin but it all just seemed so strange to me so I kept thinking about it. And then it hit me - I had started the flonase about the same time I started having the anxiety/panic. I went on the internet and came across this thread and many other sites as well saying the same thing. So I immediately stopped taking the flonase.

It's now been exactly 21 days since I stopped. First week off: Very rough. A little less anxiety/panic but also completely lethargic, heavy/foggy head, couldn't concentrate, depressed. Second week off: Much better, clearer head, still bits of fogginess, but no anxiety. Third week off: Continued improvement, no anxiety/panic/nervousness. I now feel pretty much back to my normal self! (Note that I kept daily notes on my condition to track how I was doing. I wanted to see my progress and see if there were other factors.)

I'm pretty convinced it was the flonase. Now why didn't this ever happen before as I've used flonase for a long time now? I'm not sure, but perhaps the flonase triggered the anxiety/panic attacks because my stress levels were already elevated (this was the most stressful stretch in my life). In many of the posts I read, people were talking about having anxiety/panic previously in their lives but they had been okay until they started using the flonase.

So I never started the welbutrin and don't plan to unless the anxiety/panic returns. (If it does return, I'll update my post as it won't be from flonase which is long gone in the trash.) I told my PCP about it and he didn't discount me and just asked that I keep him updated. I did see an ENT doctor last week about the ongoing congestion and he DID discount the notion when I told him I thought it was the flonase. He said something about it being a nasal spray that couldn't get in my system and something about 98.7% of the time...blah, blah, etc.; but I wasn't really paying attention after he discounted it. I also wanted to point out this other site I found which tracks self-reported side effects from FDA reports. You can see that out of 28,764 people, 5.8% of them reported stress and anxiety as a side effect. So to me, this helped to solidify my conclusion. That is, it's not a very common side effect, but it seems ~6% of users have experienced stress/anxiety from it and now I can be counted as one of them.

Finally, I just want to thank everyone who shared their story. Having experienced this anxiety/panic for the first time in my life (I'm 42 now), I can definitely appreciate the sheer awfulness of it. I wish you all the best.

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Thank you for sharing this, the more of us who speak out the better. I feel so bad that you had to cut short a trip because of anxiety as well as all the other toll it took on your life. I hope your personal situation continues to improve.

The reason you started on Flonase though was because of your nasal sinuses. I have made previous posts as to non drug answers to chronic nasal congestion, maybe some of those would work for you. I suffered for years until I changed a few things in my diet. (Just sayin' :)

I am happy to hear that you are doing so much better now. I really enjoyed reading your post and I am sure others will be helped by it as well.

Did you get depression also?

Where would I purchased these?

I'm not sure where you live, but I got them from Peoples pharmacy in Austin, Texas.

Yes, but my father died of cancer at the age of 60 last month...so i expect the depression..

Hawaii.....and there listed on bottle exactly what you wrote.? Google search one and couldn't find it?

How are you feeling after a year?
Are you on any antidepressant?

I used Fluticasone nasal spray for 5 weeks.
I had exactly same thing happen to me.
After I stopped using Fluticasone/Flonese I had severe depression, I was walking around with this sad and lonely feelings which I couldn't make it up that time. I thought I was loosing my mind.

After I did research about the products I used within 8 weeks period of time, the nasal spray was it.
Yes first week was hell , second week no more exinety and panic attacks. It has been 5 weeks after stop using it. I still have problem sleeping , emotional (sadness) comes and goes.

I am hopping this will go away soon.

I used it for 6 weeks
It has been weeks stop using it. I still have emotions comes and goes and having trouble sleeping.

How long did you use it?
Do you still have the emotions?

Been on all Sudafed, clatrin,allerger, Flonase, all have made me a nervous wreck...

I unfortunately only used this med one time! It now has been exactly one year since the use. Finally NO MORE CRYING! My gosh. This has been the worst year of my life. But constant slow improvement the whole time which is good. Now they only things remaining are strange vivid dreams and the occasional distant feeling. Maybe in very stressful situations some anxiety but not all the time before. I did not take any meds personally just fought through. The emotional stuff does go away and that was the worst part for me. I was crying everyday. Sometimes all day. The second I got in the car after work or when I saw something or heard a song or something that used to make me feel happy. It was such horrible deep sadness I cannot explain but from an outside perspective it prob looked like I was crying for no reason. I thought I was going to die or go crazy at points. I felt so mucg guilt too for my significant other. Because I could not even feel love even though I wanted to so bad I was consumed in my pain. It was awful and I'm so glad it is over. The sleeping issue was so bad for me too. Night sweats for months and horrible insomnia waking up so anxious. That is better for me too now. I actually took a nap yesterday and did not feel weird afterwords! I'm able to sleep 8+ hours again but like I said the bulk of my remaining symptoms revolve around bad dreams and feeling off and weird distant in the mornings. Please hang in there!