Hi I was highly addicted to nasal spray this past summer when I had the WORST cold ever (and I'm 46). The cold literally lasted for four weeks, at which point I could not be without my nasal spray. In fact, I had to turn around on a bike ride when I realized that I didn't have it with me. I read online about someone breaking the addition one nasal passage at a time. I stopped cold turkey using the spray in my left nostril - and I even had anxiety w/ that. After my left nostril was completely free of addition (which probably only took a day but was still stuffy due to either residual cold symptoms or allergies for about a month or so) I reduced the daily intake in my right passage. Amazingly enough, I awoke a few days later (having continuously relied on my left passage and reduced spray in my right) free of my addiction. It wasn't easy - I had a lot of anxiety and even drank a few beers to bring me down (I'm not a big drinker), but, hey, it worked!!!
Ever since I was little I would get sinus infections and this was fairly regular. Never grew out of it. After I graduated high school I decided enough was enough. Pills sometimes helped, sometimes not. I wanted something I could count on to get me through the sinus infections. There it was. Afrin. My savior. Or so I thought. I was on the stuff from 2000 to 2009. I was using a full bottle every 2 weeks. I was a complete junkie. Mid 2009 I got walking pneumonia and went to the dr. Not only did they address that, but they gave me a prescription steroid nasal spray and I can't remember what it was called. I took it home, used it. No instant relief, so i was like screw it, I'm using my Afrin. Around day three I noticed I was needing less sprays per day. After a week I was down to 2 sprays a day. After a week and a half of using it, I woke up one day and didn't need my morning spray. Towards the afternoon I was tempted to use one but my symptoms were manageable. I skipped it. I have not had a spray of afrin in a year and a half. Do I still get sinus infections? Sure. But I'm controlling them with allergy pills (regular regimen). I seem to be doing okay. :-)
How long is this taking everyone to get completely get off afrin? I have been using Afrin for 2 years now and am trying to quite cold turkey no help. I cant stand living with Afrin anymore, im sick of waking up in the middle of the night needing my Afrin. So my question is whether or not your using anything to help you get off Afrin ruffly how long did it take to be completely clean.
I am among those who have been addicted - and then got addicted AGAIN (and yet, again) - to nasal spray, particularly Afrin. The first time was when I was 11 years old, and now at 39, I've been on it for 3 years straight. I know how scary nasal spray addiction can be. I've been there many time. As an RN, I wanted to post my experience for those who are bravely approaching the realization that this habit has to stop at some point.
1) Congrats for being brave. Most of us have some sort of chronic sinus condition (I have recurring sinusitis related to seasonal and pet allergies) that lead us to use the product for something other than an acute common cold.
2) This is a CHEMICAL. It isn't good for our bodies. Just because it is OTC (over the counter) does NOT mean it's ok to use for more than three days at a time. [/list]
3) The best way, in my opinion, to fight the physiological rebound condition in the nasal turbinates (your nose) and sinuses AS WELL AS the psychological fear that the pain of quitting might bring is to go "cold turkey." By doing it all at once, you break ranks with having to use a product in order to breath.
4) Create a serious space for yourself to do this if you can:
a. If you can, do this on your day-off. Plan to spend it in bed with a box of tissues.
b. KNOW that it will NOT be long before you can breath again. Take your last spray at bedtime so that it will give you a good
night's sleep. In the morning, you will feel the rebound coming on. It's ok. Set up your space to be "sick" for a day. You are sick!
But it isn't a recognized condition in the medical community as "needing acute care help" yet. But for goodness' sake, FINISH or
throw out your bottle. Commit to quitting. This is essential.
c. Here's how it went for ME this week: spent the day with SOLID sinuses for 18 hours (complete with mouth breathing! Drooling!
petty uncomforableness, thinking about going back! Yuckiness!!!),
stuffiness for 24 hours, and am now breathing comfortably now at 36 hours. It will take a good week or so to have it out of our
consciousness, but at two days, I'm healing and can sleep at night. It takes more energy to go out and pay $8 to replenish our
stash of Afrin than it does to quit.
d. Over-the-counter items that can help:
1. Advil or ibuprofen per the box's instructions as an anti-inflammatory and for body aches.
2. Diphenhydramine (the pink allergy pills) to combat any allergies that can make quitting worse.
3. Alka Seltzer - (I had body aches. AS really helps me psychologically, too)
e. Your doctor might be able to help you out with Prednisone or prednisolone as a steroid to help you quit in the first three
days,then a steroid nasal spray like Nasonex to deal with the underlying condition that makes you want to use the spray for
chronic conditions in the first place.
Good luck. My name is Anne Judson on FB if you need help or a friend to hold your hand. I've done this for most of my life and know how GREAT it feels to let go (again) of the need for nasal spray. If we pay it forward enough, perhaps the FDA will make the company provide to physicians a protocol to others who get into our situation.
1) Congrats for being brave. Most of us have some sort of chronic sinus condition (I have recurring sinusitis related to seasonal and pet allergies) that lead us to use the product for something other than an acute common cold.
2) This is a CHEMICAL. It isn't good for our bodies. Just because it is OTC (over the counter) does NOT mean it's ok to use for more than three days at a time. [/list]
3) The best way, in my opinion, to fight the physiological rebound condition in the nasal turbinates (your nose) and sinuses AS WELL AS the psychological fear that the pain of quitting might bring is to go "cold turkey." By doing it all at once, you break ranks with having to use a product in order to breath.
4) Create a serious space for yourself to do this if you can:
a. If you can, do this on your day-off. Plan to spend it in bed with a box of tissues.
b. KNOW that it will NOT be long before you can breath again. Take your last spray at bedtime so that it will give you a good
night's sleep. In the morning, you will feel the rebound coming on. It's ok. Set up your space to be "sick" for a day. You are sick!
But it isn't a recognized condition in the medical community as "needing acute care help" yet. But for goodness' sake, FINISH or
throw out your bottle. Commit to quitting. This is essential.
c. Here's how it went for ME this week: spent the day with SOLID sinuses for 18 hours (complete with mouth breathing! Drooling!
petty uncomforableness, thinking about going back! Yuckiness!!!),
stuffiness for 24 hours, and am now breathing comfortably now at 36 hours. It will take a good week or so to have it out of our
consciousness, but at two days, I'm healing and can sleep at night. It takes more energy to go out and pay $8 to replenish our
stash of Afrin than it does to quit.
d. Over-the-counter items that can help:
1. Advil or ibuprofen per the box's instructions as an anti-inflammatory and for body aches.
2. Diphenhydramine (the pink allergy pills) to combat any allergies that can make quitting worse.
3. Alka Seltzer - (I had body aches. AS really helps me psychologically, too)
e. Your doctor might be able to help you out with Prednisone or prednisolone as a steroid to help you quit in the first three
days,then a steroid nasal spray like Nasonex to deal with the underlying condition that makes you want to use the spray for
chronic conditions in the first place.
Good luck. My name is Anne Judson on FB if you need help or a friend to hold your hand. I've done this for most of my life and know how GREAT it feels to let go (again) of the need for nasal spray. If we pay it forward enough, perhaps the FDA will make the company provide to physicians a protocol to others who get into our situation.
Hello,
I have finally broken down and I am writing on this forum. I would like to share my story about afrin and congestion problems. I had been using afrin for roughly 5 years after I got sick and irresponsibly used the medicine to long, like most of you on here. It got to the point where afrin would hurt my nose when I sprayed it, like it was too powerful, so I had been diluting it with saline for a very long time, dont know how long; no precise diluting involved, just enough that it wouldn't bother me when i sprayed it. I always had it in the back of my head that I had to stop, but never really TRIED. I did attempt to quit using the one nostril at a time method and went 3 days without afrin but I just used it again. At that point, I thought i would never stop using the afrin on my own, some type of surgical intervention would be the only answer for me i thought. After going to my ENT 100 times and trying every bottle or nasonex, flonase, rhinocort, zyrtec, claritin, allegra, you name it, ive tried it, he told me about the surgery. I researched it and it scared the living c**p out of me; I said, there has to be another way. With the help of these forums,I saw that many had quit after having problems with afrin for way longer than I have and that gave me hope that there actually is an answer to the problem that I thought was eternal. I went and researched the rhinostat tritation kit and decided to try it out. I mentally prepared my self for the fact that once i start this, i am not stopping, and I AM QUITTING. Day 1 of the rhinostat was, well, hell, WHY? because i used the 1st drop of decongestant and decided to see how long I can last without using it again. I AM NOW 2 WEEKS WITHOUT USING AFRIN! I noticed that although i was completely blocked, I was not freaking out like i used to. Alot of people say, take a day off, take 3 days off, dont talk to anyone, etc. I found that I just decided to stop using it and went on my normal day. YES I WAS COMPLETELY BLOCKED, but i went through it. I have had panic attacks in the past because of the afrin not working that well and i just wanted to breath so bad through my nose. I had countless sleepless night, I have woken up completely blocked gasping for air thinking that I am drowning. I have had ALL those episodes, i honestly dont know what happend. I came on this site, got inspired by what I read, took the positive, left the negative and I decided I was done with it. I have not used afrin now for 2 weeks. Although I thought my problems where over, I was wrong. day 1 of not using afrin was the expected, completely blocked, and did not sleep. Day 2 was shockingly better, i could breath through my nose but was still congested a bit, i slept ok that night. Day 3 and on has not changed, pretty much when I lay down to sleep I get horribly congested in the nostril on the side I am sleeping on. When i turn around, it switch sides. When I wake up I am congested on the sie I slept on for 1-2 hours than it goes away. I can breath ok during the day, but nothing like I have a 100% problem free nose. Alot of people said it would take 5-7 days of complete blockage to stop afrin. I used it for 5 years and it did not come close to that; but alot of people dont tell you what happens after those 5-7 days. Do you just wake up and, poof!, you nose is 100% back to normal? I dont know, thats not what happened with me. From day 3 and on my nostrils would switch side with mild congestion during the day and then when I would lay down to sleep, the would just fill up like a balloon in a matter of seconds when I would lay down. If I drop something on the floor and pick it up, I could literally feel the pressure building up in my frontal sinuses and blood going to nose and start to get stuffy, then when i would stand upright, i would get decongested. I dont know what the hell is going on! My nose is really runny with clear mucus. Tonight I feel horrible, I started to feel bad last night and my nose just started acting up. I would blow my nose and brownish mucus would come out of my right nostril only, my left nostril would still produce clear mucus. I hardly slept last night. But today, I have been significantly worse than all the other days that I have stopped using afrin. I have been stuffed up mostly all day and tonight I have not slept a minute. each time i lay down the congestion comes on so strong. When I lay on one side, the congestion all goes to that side, and when i flip over, vice versa. Same as all the other nights i have stopped but 5 times worse. I am thinking maybe I have a cold, I dont know. I dont feel body pain or anything else other than my nose being extremely stuffed up, although I dont have anymore brown mucus, its kind of like thick white mucus and kind of green at times. The congestion is so strong that nothing helps. Today I have taken zyrtec in the morning, and 1 12hr maximum strength sudafed at night to try and sleep. It is the REAL sudafed not the PE on and it still did not help, I took another an hour and a half later and still has done nothing. I also used nasonex and NOTHING.
My fear is, I will have sinus problems for ever. I hear my girlfriend sleep next to me at night and she breaths so well. I want to sleep like that. I forgot what sleep is. I sleep just to get by. Not to rest.
The thing for me is, I AM MORE MISERABLE NOW THAT HWN EI WAS USING AFRIN. Atleast with afrin I could SLEEP! I made all this effort, I have been 2 weeks without using afrin, and I still cant have a good nights sleep. I went to the ENT to tell him I had stopped and to see what he can do about the remaining congestion I had. He said I was probably allergic and told me that we can treat them with allergy shots, or guess what NASONEX! another spray! and if that doesn't help me, guess what, SURGEY, im pretty much in the same boat as if I was still using the afrin, except that I am off it, I cant sleep, and im miserable. He looked at my nose and said that no permanent damage was caused by the afrin and that it looks alot better than last time he saw me, he also said i has a mildly deviated septum but it should not contribute to congestion because it is so mild. He pretty much just gave me a bottle of nasonex, told me hell see me in a month and pushed me out the door. I dint even see him for more than 10 mins. I have used the nasonex, along with zyrtec once a day and still feel the same. I feel the same way as I did when I tried to stop using afrin and failed the first time, HOPELESS. I feel like I will never sleep like my girlfriend, like I will always be stuck with these problems of congestion.
My question is this, can anyone please read my story and provide me with some feedback as to what you think can be wrong?
I have finally broken down and I am writing on this forum. I would like to share my story about afrin and congestion problems. I had been using afrin for roughly 5 years after I got sick and irresponsibly used the medicine to long, like most of you on here. It got to the point where afrin would hurt my nose when I sprayed it, like it was too powerful, so I had been diluting it with saline for a very long time, dont know how long; no precise diluting involved, just enough that it wouldn't bother me when i sprayed it. I always had it in the back of my head that I had to stop, but never really TRIED. I did attempt to quit using the one nostril at a time method and went 3 days without afrin but I just used it again. At that point, I thought i would never stop using the afrin on my own, some type of surgical intervention would be the only answer for me i thought. After going to my ENT 100 times and trying every bottle or nasonex, flonase, rhinocort, zyrtec, claritin, allegra, you name it, ive tried it, he told me about the surgery. I researched it and it scared the living c**p out of me; I said, there has to be another way. With the help of these forums,I saw that many had quit after having problems with afrin for way longer than I have and that gave me hope that there actually is an answer to the problem that I thought was eternal. I went and researched the rhinostat tritation kit and decided to try it out. I mentally prepared my self for the fact that once i start this, i am not stopping, and I AM QUITTING. Day 1 of the rhinostat was, well, hell, WHY? because i used the 1st drop of decongestant and decided to see how long I can last without using it again. I AM NOW 2 WEEKS WITHOUT USING AFRIN! I noticed that although i was completely blocked, I was not freaking out like i used to. Alot of people say, take a day off, take 3 days off, dont talk to anyone, etc. I found that I just decided to stop using it and went on my normal day. YES I WAS COMPLETELY BLOCKED, but i went through it. I have had panic attacks in the past because of the afrin not working that well and i just wanted to breath so bad through my nose. I had countless sleepless night, I have woken up completely blocked gasping for air thinking that I am drowning. I have had ALL those episodes, i honestly dont know what happend. I came on this site, got inspired by what I read, took the positive, left the negative and I decided I was done with it. I have not used afrin now for 2 weeks. Although I thought my problems where over, I was wrong. day 1 of not using afrin was the expected, completely blocked, and did not sleep. Day 2 was shockingly better, i could breath through my nose but was still congested a bit, i slept ok that night. Day 3 and on has not changed, pretty much when I lay down to sleep I get horribly congested in the nostril on the side I am sleeping on. When i turn around, it switch sides. When I wake up I am congested on the sie I slept on for 1-2 hours than it goes away. I can breath ok during the day, but nothing like I have a 100% problem free nose. Alot of people said it would take 5-7 days of complete blockage to stop afrin. I used it for 5 years and it did not come close to that; but alot of people dont tell you what happens after those 5-7 days. Do you just wake up and, poof!, you nose is 100% back to normal? I dont know, thats not what happened with me. From day 3 and on my nostrils would switch side with mild congestion during the day and then when I would lay down to sleep, the would just fill up like a balloon in a matter of seconds when I would lay down. If I drop something on the floor and pick it up, I could literally feel the pressure building up in my frontal sinuses and blood going to nose and start to get stuffy, then when i would stand upright, i would get decongested. I dont know what the hell is going on! My nose is really runny with clear mucus. Tonight I feel horrible, I started to feel bad last night and my nose just started acting up. I would blow my nose and brownish mucus would come out of my right nostril only, my left nostril would still produce clear mucus. I hardly slept last night. But today, I have been significantly worse than all the other days that I have stopped using afrin. I have been stuffed up mostly all day and tonight I have not slept a minute. each time i lay down the congestion comes on so strong. When I lay on one side, the congestion all goes to that side, and when i flip over, vice versa. Same as all the other nights i have stopped but 5 times worse. I am thinking maybe I have a cold, I dont know. I dont feel body pain or anything else other than my nose being extremely stuffed up, although I dont have anymore brown mucus, its kind of like thick white mucus and kind of green at times. The congestion is so strong that nothing helps. Today I have taken zyrtec in the morning, and 1 12hr maximum strength sudafed at night to try and sleep. It is the REAL sudafed not the PE on and it still did not help, I took another an hour and a half later and still has done nothing. I also used nasonex and NOTHING.
My fear is, I will have sinus problems for ever. I hear my girlfriend sleep next to me at night and she breaths so well. I want to sleep like that. I forgot what sleep is. I sleep just to get by. Not to rest.
The thing for me is, I AM MORE MISERABLE NOW THAT HWN EI WAS USING AFRIN. Atleast with afrin I could SLEEP! I made all this effort, I have been 2 weeks without using afrin, and I still cant have a good nights sleep. I went to the ENT to tell him I had stopped and to see what he can do about the remaining congestion I had. He said I was probably allergic and told me that we can treat them with allergy shots, or guess what NASONEX! another spray! and if that doesn't help me, guess what, SURGEY, im pretty much in the same boat as if I was still using the afrin, except that I am off it, I cant sleep, and im miserable. He looked at my nose and said that no permanent damage was caused by the afrin and that it looks alot better than last time he saw me, he also said i has a mildly deviated septum but it should not contribute to congestion because it is so mild. He pretty much just gave me a bottle of nasonex, told me hell see me in a month and pushed me out the door. I dint even see him for more than 10 mins. I have used the nasonex, along with zyrtec once a day and still feel the same. I feel the same way as I did when I tried to stop using afrin and failed the first time, HOPELESS. I feel like I will never sleep like my girlfriend, like I will always be stuck with these problems of congestion.
My question is this, can anyone please read my story and provide me with some feedback as to what you think can be wrong?
Hi,
I know exactly how you feel. I have been using afrin for 3 years now. it all started 3 years ago i woke up at 3am with my nose clogged couldnt sleep after that, was walking around the house like a zombie restless wanted to scream etc. trying to breath from my mouth was not easy.
I waited that morning for the pharmacy to open then went and bought me a bottle of afrin. The relief i felt was so good, i thought to myself i wished i had a bottle in my medicine cabinet that night and would have suffered so much.
well as the days went by my nose was still stuffy no different than the first time. I thought to myself what the heck im not addicted to this stuff its only been a few days after all.
Days turned into weeks, months, years and 3 years later i would still tell myself i am not addicted to this spray i really cant breath.
i was going through 2 bottles a week. and there were times the afrin was just not working for me anymore. I switched to different brands and the smell they had couldnt stand made me sick. Dristain hate it i would smell it and 4 way did nothing.
I went back to afrin and it did the job for me.
I knew the day would come that i would need to get off of this. It would scared me, because i did not want to go through not being able to breath. if i would yawned which is something i do alot my nose would clog up more.
if i would lay on my bed it would just get worst, the nights were the worst.
if i would try and blow my nose it would swell up more and clog and become worst.
sleeping at night my mouth, lips and tongue would get so dry and painful.
i finally had surgery because i thought since had a deviated septum that was part of my problem, and would improve. not the case i still have breathing problems 2 weeks later.
i have been off the afrin started before my surgery to ween off of it by only using it on one nostril. was okay from the left nostril so using it on the right side was not needed as much.
okay so i am free from afrin from left side for 4 weeks now and from the right 1 week.
i dont know how much longer will i have to suffer before i get better, but this is driving me insane. i refuse to go back to the afrin.
there were times when the afrin wouldnt work and i would just start crying hysterically because just wanted to end it once and for all. The fear and thoughts thinking i was going to be like this for the rest of my life, just scared the c**p out of me.
i find that using a piece of tissue up my nose with half of it sticking out of the nose but the rest all the way up the nose on one nostril has helped me get by when i am at home.
im just looking forward to the day when i will breath again normal!!
my surgery was $15,000 and it kills me because it didn't do a thing and my problem was always the afrin.
counting the days and praying to god to let me get through this one day at a time!!
I know exactly how you feel. I have been using afrin for 3 years now. it all started 3 years ago i woke up at 3am with my nose clogged couldnt sleep after that, was walking around the house like a zombie restless wanted to scream etc. trying to breath from my mouth was not easy.
I waited that morning for the pharmacy to open then went and bought me a bottle of afrin. The relief i felt was so good, i thought to myself i wished i had a bottle in my medicine cabinet that night and would have suffered so much.
well as the days went by my nose was still stuffy no different than the first time. I thought to myself what the heck im not addicted to this stuff its only been a few days after all.
Days turned into weeks, months, years and 3 years later i would still tell myself i am not addicted to this spray i really cant breath.
i was going through 2 bottles a week. and there were times the afrin was just not working for me anymore. I switched to different brands and the smell they had couldnt stand made me sick. Dristain hate it i would smell it and 4 way did nothing.
I went back to afrin and it did the job for me.
I knew the day would come that i would need to get off of this. It would scared me, because i did not want to go through not being able to breath. if i would yawned which is something i do alot my nose would clog up more.
if i would lay on my bed it would just get worst, the nights were the worst.
if i would try and blow my nose it would swell up more and clog and become worst.
sleeping at night my mouth, lips and tongue would get so dry and painful.
i finally had surgery because i thought since had a deviated septum that was part of my problem, and would improve. not the case i still have breathing problems 2 weeks later.
i have been off the afrin started before my surgery to ween off of it by only using it on one nostril. was okay from the left nostril so using it on the right side was not needed as much.
okay so i am free from afrin from left side for 4 weeks now and from the right 1 week.
i dont know how much longer will i have to suffer before i get better, but this is driving me insane. i refuse to go back to the afrin.
there were times when the afrin wouldnt work and i would just start crying hysterically because just wanted to end it once and for all. The fear and thoughts thinking i was going to be like this for the rest of my life, just scared the c**p out of me.
i find that using a piece of tissue up my nose with half of it sticking out of the nose but the rest all the way up the nose on one nostril has helped me get by when i am at home.
im just looking forward to the day when i will breath again normal!!
my surgery was $15,000 and it kills me because it didn't do a thing and my problem was always the afrin.
counting the days and praying to god to let me get through this one day at a time!!
All I can say is - you're an id**t. Prednisone is a very powerful STEROID anti-inflamatory. If you think that's better/safer than an OTC nose spray...God help you.
I have been on afrin for about 10 years. It has always worked for me with no problems. This past october i got a cold and like any other time i got a cold the afrin didnt work very well. Every other time after a week or so the cold would go a way and i could breathe again by using afrin all day long. But since october i have been stopped up in the right side of my nose and afrin does absolutely nothing, sometimes it is so stopped up i cant even get the afrin to go in at all. I spray and spray and spray it up there anyway thinking that one time it might work. So i am now to the point where nothing at all helps. I want so badly to get off this stuff but have no idea what to do. I like everyone else on here have tried everything, OTC drugs like sudafed, zyrtec, claritin, and have been prescribed nasonex and the other allergy sprays and nothing seems to work. I went to the ER about a month ago and they gave me prednisone and that with the afrin and i was able to breath great. but as soon as the prednisone was gone my nose got stopped up to where i cant get any air through the right side AT ALL!! After reading all these posts of people trying to quit it really makes me want to give it a try but most of you all say it is still the same terrible experience after 2 weeks or more. I just do not know what to do.
Please don't take that advice on predisone too lightly. predisone is one of the really bad steroidal medicines it can destroy soft tissues in the body so Please use sparingly no more than once every tweo years to be safe. One should only use it when here is no other known avenue,it can be a life saver but can be deadly.
First thing you may notice after long term use is that the slightest knock on the arm and it will bruise and light knock against somehtign solid can see the skin peel back off the arm.
Alastair
I've been addicted to afrin for about 2 years using it 10 to 15 times
A day. I'm taking a 6 day rx of prednisone plus flonase, pantanase
,and Pseudoephedrine the real stuff. I'm going on my 5th day without
Any afrin. I'm so happy now I feel free of that c**p I highly recommend
It
Agough wrote:
danclear wrote:
Ask your doctor for a prescription of Flonase. Tell him you used it in the past and it works well for you. Dont tell him about your addiction to Afrin.
Under no circumstance should you lie to your doctor.... BLAH BLAH BLAH
It's nose spray for crissake - not like you're lying to get opiates. Doctors can be idiots and make mountains out of molehills - just do whatever you need to do to get the flonase nobody has to be any the wiser.
Quit the abuse please. We're here saying that it is addicting and uncomfortable. Please respect us or visit other boards.
I've been off afrin for a day. I used rhinostat to slowly ween myself of the nasal spray. It was working great until i accidentally spilled it. I was using it for about two weeks. Four days after i spilt the bottle, I couldn't breathe easily anymore. If you don't know how rhinostat works, you basically keep adding saline solution to dilute the afrin. So anyways i decided not to use the rhinostat anymore because it didn't work anyways and it be really annoying to have to start over. Last night was miserable and i felt really panic-y and anxious. Couldn't breath and about an hour of sleep breathing through my nose. What provided me some relief was a bit of exercise. Getting the blood flowing towards my sinuses cleared them for about 1 minute. Today is better. As the day wore on my sinuses cleared a bit. If you can get through one night of hell you can beat this addiction. To motivate myself i would use a flashlight to look into my nose and see the swollen flaps in my nose. I also had a bit of worn out skin and a little blood. After i am fully recovered i will never ever use afrin again. Please don't give up! 3 days of hell is worth being able to breathe on your own again, I promise. Reading forums like this has also given me a lot of motivation.
That doesn't work 4 every 1 I'm doing that now 2 no avail...
Well it sounds good but I have had no doctor even mention any such kit. What is it & what does it do, please?