I have been taking Flonase for over 3 years and till today I did not realize what was causing my anxiety. I can assure you all it is the flonase. Here my story: I am German and moved end of 2013 to NYC. Unfortunately, the first few months I had every month a sore throat so the doctort prescribed me flonase due to my nasal drip. This was in 2013/2014. While using this back then I did not have major anxiety. In 2014 you still needed prescription for it, so I didn't use it anymore after I finished it. However, when it started selling over the counter I would buy a bottle whenever I felt like my nasal drip was bad. Still no side effect. Maybe there was, but I probably just thought it was me just being nervous. Back then i didnt know much about anxiety. However, last year 2016 I had lots of pressure on my forehead and sinuses, so i figured its the usual, my sinuses. So I started using flonase the full amount thats suggested and just right now i realize i had two major panic attacks (one at dinner and one at the beauty salon). I was confused where this was coming from and since the pressure wasnt getting better I decided to go the doctor. He prescribed me steriods. It was like a total of 21 pills. First day you take 6 pills and the next 5 and so on. On the 5th day I had to take 2 pills and holy s..t let me tell you that night I literally thought if I go to sleep i am going to die. I was going up the walls. I had to keep lights on in my room and couldnt sleep on my usual side of the bed. I was so close to go to the hospital. Back then i googled steroids and side effects and saw that many had the same experience on steriods. These side effects were not mentiond anywhere.
So tonight i decided to use my oh so awesome flonase and right now I am laying in bed and cant go to sleep (in germany). I feel nervous and I am wide awake. When I am about to fall asleep, I jump up. My anxiety is on full blast and I couldnt explain myself from what. Thats when I started to put the dots together. For some reason it daunt to me that there is steriods in this medication and this has been causing my anxiety the past year. So to everybody here: it is def the steriod in the flonase that gives you the anxiety. I am so glad that i found this page and I will def going to get rid of my flonase tmrw morning. I hope at some point I will get back to normal, since I have been using this stuff for a while now. :(
I got off of it it March of this year. I noticed I was getting more iritable over stupid things and anxious, so I decided to quit.It takes about a week before you feel better, maybe two for full dtox. There is a slight rebound effect for a few days. I honestly don't think that this stuff should be OTC.
I have been using Flonase as needed for a couple of years now with no issues. This morning I used it and then started having terrible anxiety, almost panic attacks. There's no reason for it, so I just now googled, "flonase anxiety" and found this board.
I'm so glad this is here, I thought I was losing my mind. Looks like I'm not the only one.
I have used Flonase for about 3 weeks and have every symptom you guys are explaining. I have been ruling things out and finally found this blog. Thanks, thought I was going crazy. Felt like my heart was about to race out of my body. Hope the symptoms go away soon.
5 yrs ago I wound up in the ER. I woke up at 2 am out of a dead sleep and felt like I couldn’t breath. I thought that I was having a heart attack. I told my wife to tell the kids that I loved them and that we needed to get to the hospital. After many tests it was determined it was a massive anxiety attack. At the hospital I was asked what, if any drugs I might be taking. It was an easy question to answer because I don’t normally take anything. I was preparing at the time for surgery to correct a severely deviated septum. My ENT had prescribed Nasonex. I thought I was being asked what drugs I might be taking as part of an effort to determine the cause of my anxiety attack. It was not. Instead, they informed me the didn’t have any Nasonex at the hospital but they did have Flonase which is the same thing, just a different brand name. So they gave me some. I continued to use the nasal corticosteroids. My problems got worse. I continued to be jolted out of my sleep waking up at 2 am every night in full blown panic attack. My body began to fear going to bed at night in anticipation of the soon to come panic attack. I began to have black bowel movements. My vision became blurry, I was not getting sleep, my short term memory was failing, and I noticed I was no longer feeling emotion. My doctor wanted to prescribe anti-depressants. I refused. With no doctor being able to explain why my life and health had suddenly turned for the worst, I struggled to try and figure it out on my own. I felt as though I could not go on living this way...and that thought scared me. I asked myself what had changed in my daily routine. I was having massive anxiety attacks. I was taking nasal steroids every night before trying to get to sleep. I googled “Flonase, Nasonex, anxiety attacks” and began reading about people who were having problems like mine. It was obvious now that the problem was the nasal corticosteroid. I immediately stopped taking it. I noticed an improvement almost immediately. But the damage had been done. Like turning your car on in the driveway, pressing the gas pedal to the floor while in park and holding it there. The engine will roar but there will be damage when the pedal is finally lifted. The steroids had turned on my adrenaline and left it on for extended periods. Your body is not designed for extended periods of adrenaline. My brain was fried and my body was broken down. My memory was shot, my joints ached, I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t sleep. I was out of work for six months and struggled greatly upon my return. As I researched more online I discovered that the anti-depressants suggested by a doctor could have made things worse...to the point of suicide. Since I wasn’t sleeping, I was exhausted constantly. So I relied on caffeine during the day. I’m not much of an alcohol drinker but upon having a single beer I noticed a relapse of the symptoms I was experiencing while using the steroids. Through more online research I discovered that any alcohol or caffeine was going to prevent me from healing. I also discovered that the trauma from the anxiety attacks can ruin your body’s ability to produce vitamin D. I had my blood tested and discovered my levels were rock bottom. I immediately began taking vitamin D and began to have a much better sense of well being. This was a huge step as I was always feeling down (the “depression” my doctor wanted to give me meds for instead of figuring out the cause). Retesting my D levels indicated they were back to normal. I stopped taking the vitamins thinking the problem was fixed and immediately I relapsed into feeling “depressed”. Turns out the effects of the anxiety attacks “permenantly” affected my body’s ability to produce vitamin D so a daily dose of 2,000 iu in the am and 2,000 iu in the pm became a daily routine and is to this day....btw ...the pain in my joints shortly went away. I discovered that the anxiety attacks had fried my neuro receptors. My brain was trying to begin healing itself but was being prevented from doing so as I was confusing it by using caffeine and occasionally alcohol to deal with my symptoms. Think of your brain as a beehive with all the bees in place perfectly resting at night. Then somebody throws a rock at the hive causing the bees to scatter creating complete chaos. If left alone in the right environment the bees eventually find there way back to the hive and it slowly returns to normal...until the next rock is thrown at it. My brain was fried...it was trying to begin healing itself. By introducing any stimulants or depressants (caffeine or alcohol) it prevented my brain from beginning to heal. Once I discovered this I immediately stopped using any caffeine or alcohol and eating anything that could be a stimulant or depressant. No chocolate, no artificial sweeteners like Aspartame. I quickly noticed I began to heal but the process was slow and often difficult. It has taken several years to fully recover. Everytime I thought I was better I would notice another improvement. The combination of vitamin D, no alcohol and no caffeine allowed my body to heal itself...where as prescription drugs would have masked the real problem and likely made things much worse. I’ve taken the time to write this in hopes that it helps someone going through a similar experience. I know the despair, I know the pain. And I have discovered there is healing.