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Took afrin once years ago and was much worse after it wore off than before I took it and threw it out. Need to do a saline rinse in the evening some time before bed and as others have said, use xlear. I use it as a moisturizer, not to flush. Also, if you don't know what's causing your allergies, keep a journal to try and nail it down. That's how I found out I had a bad mold problem in the office I worked in at the time. All the medication in the world isn't worth a damn if you're still getting repeated exposure. As others said, eventually you can manage it if it's beyond your control with flonase or similar.
In the interim, try sinex severe gel caps. Non addictive, take half an hour before bed and you should get about 6 hours of solid sleep. Found a hack where if you open the package days ahead of time that improves the efficacy of it significantly and even talked with proctor and gamble about it but the corporate retards there are too dumb and communication was too painful |
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"My irritability keeps me alive and kicking" --Howard Devoto
"Didn't watch it. You don't rack up 100k posts by reading the articles before commenting on them, slow poke." --Aimless |
My mom was hard hard hard core addicted to that stuff
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It's weird, since I've been on the carnivore diet, I have had zero allergies. Here in socal, the "superbloom" is in full effect. Wife is battling it daily.
I use to rotate my nasal sprays, and throw in some otc primatine mist, bronkaid, sudafed, you name it. So far this spring, I have been golden. The ONLY thing I have changed is my diet. CSB but still weird. |
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I diluted it in stages. Eventually it was just water, and I quit altogether.
That was half a century ago. Now if I get stuffy it goes away by itself if I let it be. It’s in your mind! |
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Start using saline spray until your off the nasal spray.
You can even dilute your nasal spray by 50% that works. |
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Originally Posted By Lawmonkey: Been there (30 years ago) Cold turkey. It's gonna suck for a bit View Quote Yep, been there too. The one time I tried it was as a kid, overdid it, and couldn't breathe through my nose at ALL if I didn't. Had to completely stop and it sucked for a while. Haven't used it since. |
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"Beware the fury of a patient man" - John Dryden
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God" - Simon Bradstreet "I may crossdress but I don't dress like a whore" - LittlePony |
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Cold turkey for me. It was the only way. Miserable two days, then it starts clearing up. Sleeping was a bitch.
Throw that spray away. Do not make it accessible or you will go back to it. When I got Covid I made the mistake of using it again. Got hooked. Had to go through the whole cold turkey thing again. Good luck. |
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I got addicted to it as a kid. My parents took me to the doctor because I said it wasn’t working and had to keep using more and more of it. If you feel like it is less effective now, that’s a good hint that you’re addicted. As everyone else said, the doctor told my parents I had to quit cold turkey. It was not pleasant. I still remember going through that and I was like eight or nine. I have never touched it again. I never will. Not going through that again.
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Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
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Nasal irrigation devices aka Neti Pot
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For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.
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I use Afrin sinus for a few weeks a year, one mist in each nostril before I leave the house in the morning and one again before bed and I've got relief. I don't bring it with me so I've never been a 3 or more times a day user but I've never had trouble putting it away once my sinuses are better.
It's also the one thing that keeps me from being miserable on the rare occasion I get sick. If I can still breathe through my nose the rest of the illness I can put up with. |
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"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives."-Abba Eban
"I like it both ways, but still mainly mouth it" -gonzo_beyondo |
Originally Posted By UTCenturion: my uncle took afrin instead of a real antihistamine for years. It eventually closed up his nasal passages so much he had to have a gnarly nasal surgery. DONT USE AFRIN. use flonase if anything. It has afrin in it but also has a steroid to counteract the afrin il effects. View Quote That's incorrect. |
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Originally Posted By Lawmonkey: Been there (30 years ago) Cold turkey. It's gonna suck for a bit View Quote About 40 years ago for me. I lived in the country at the time. Walmart was a 2 hour round trip. I had ran out of nose spray and at 11pm one night had to make the trip. I was going into a panic. I quit cold turkey and was stopped up completely for maybe 2 weeks. It sucked big time. Now. I very seldom get stopped up like that. |
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Originally Posted By MDI:I-think-I-m-getting-addicted-to-nasal-spray Any tips..before it’s too late? View Quote Crank Hospital Scene - nasal spray substitute for Epinephrene (embed play is disabled by owner of video, watch on youtube) Crank Hospital Scene Part 1 - Epinephrene |
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Cold turkey is the best way. Suck it up. 😆
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Poking internet kooks with pointy sticks since '81
FL, USA
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Very easy to get "bounce back" addicted to nasal spray. Taper off, good luck.
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Repeal the 17th Amendment. Restore the Republic!
A right should restrict the government, not obligate it! |
"Freedom isn't free. It costs a hefty fuckin' fee. And if we don't toss in our buck 'o five, who will?"
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Originally Posted By ThePitbullofLove: Xylitol is a sweetener. Xyzol is the nasal spray. Just FYI View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By ThePitbullofLove: Originally Posted By shaneus: Try xylitol nasal spray. Opens sinuses pretty good with zero addiction. May help ween off afrin. Thats a suckfest. Xylitol is a sweetener. Xyzol is the nasal spray. Just FYI The product I got from Amazon is XLEAR, and clearly lists xylitol as the second ingredient after water. It is sweet, and it burns. But it works well at opening up sinuses without the addicting aspect. |
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Originally Posted By Papposilenus: gonna suck, but better sooner than later I won't touch Afrin View Quote Yep. First time you try it, it's like magic. You can't believe how clear your nasal passages are. Within a couple days its effectiveness drops off drastically, and if you stop using it they completely close up. It's pretty much the nasal equivalent of heroin. Never again. |
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Huh
I had no idea this was a thing |
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Battle Of West Appalachia Survivor
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It’s a vasoconstrictor (like Visine). The rebound vasodilation is the issue and you have to keep dosing (like Visine). People become dependent on both all the time. It also makes the root cause of what’s causing the problem harder to diagnose.
TLDR: Don’t use Afrin or Visine |
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Cold turkey and use saline to flush
If i use afrin i only us it for 2-3 doses max and only in very dire need. Like need to sleep for a big day... |
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The mountains are calling, and I must go. -John Muir
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nasal steroid it fine and safe, but that afrin/diristan shit is really bad for you
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Originally Posted By Crazyascanbe: Originally Posted By ThePitbullofLove: Xylitol is a sweetener. Xyzol is the nasal spray. Just FYI xyzal Xylitol nasal spray is a thing too. Just uses xylitol as the saline ingredient
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The mountains are calling, and I must go. -John Muir
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Originally Posted By armoredsaint: nasal steroid it fine and safe, but that afrin/diristan shit is really bad for you View Quote Steroids are far from safe. OK if used in moderation but the risk of complications goes up with duration and dosage. I have a patient whose glaucoma was difficult to control until we finally got her to tell us she was using a steroid nasal spray. DC’d the spray and she was back under control. |
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Stop using that shit.
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My dad was addicted to that shit, I’ve used it on an occasion but don’t like to. Saline and Netti pot works well.
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Originally Posted By MDI: Any tips on how to ween off this before it's too late? View Quote Then one Friday night a friend of mine invited me to spend the night with him and I forgot to bring my meds with me. It was a rough night, pretty sure I remember not sleeping much at all. Tossing and turning and such. I woke up that morning I decided that I was going to quit the habit. And I want to say the middle of the following week I was fine. but this was me in a child's body that can probably heal itself a lot faster than an adult. You may need to seek professional help? |
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Start on Zyrtec/Claritin, use Flonase for 3 days prior to weaning down from the Afrin. For severe cases you can get a steroid dose pack to reduce the inflammation. I must be immune to the addiction - I can use it for literally 6 months straight then stop one day and be just fine.
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Switch to Budesonide. Not addictive, and Big Pharma had to cover up the fact that it was extremely effective as a therapy to reduce the effects of covid on your lungs.
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Didn’t read all the replies so I apologize if this has been mentioned. Go to your doctor, a prescription for steroids (for me it was a dose pack) resolved the rebound congestion from the Afrin.
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Neilmed. Saline solution in a bottle. Put one end in your nose it will seal and squeeze the bottle until it comes out the other nostril. Do both sides as many times as you want. Doctor approved. I was on Afrin 3 years Doctor told me to quit now. I us it every day.
Costco has best deal with a bag containing 2500 packets and 3 bottles. Try it. I was a Afrin junkie now free 2 years. |
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The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. ~Thomas Jefferson~
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Originally Posted By shaneus: Try xylitol nasal spray. Opens sinuses pretty good with zero addiction. May help ween off afrin. Thats a suckfest. View Quote It doesn't seem to do much for tissue swelling, though if you use it cold it will. Same with saline. Cold saline is more effective if you can handle it. Brain freeze baby, but the tissue will shrink some, just like.... other tissue does when it's cold. |
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100%-PureBlood-100%
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Originally Posted By Lawmonkey: Been there (30 years ago) Cold turkey. It's gonna suck for a bit View Quote Yep. Used it daily as a kid for years. I keep some on hand for horrible sinus issues that rarely happen. You're going to be a mouth breathing post nasal drip Neanderthal for a couple weeks. |
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Afrin, or any of the store brand equivalents? They're bad about that.
Get a prescription for Fluticasone or Flonase and USE AS DIRECTED. Expensive, but it works. |
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"...Capitalism...shares its blessings unequally; ...Socialism...shares its miseries equally."
Winston Churchill |
1. Quit cold turkey
2. Start using saline spray 3. When clear, use Flonase (generic at Costco is great) 4. Get real psuedafedrine - over the counter but behind the counter. 12 hour, 2x day. 5. I still have to use "afrin" type 1-2x day sometimes.... |
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Sudafed and Sinex saline nasal spray.
Went through that years ago. I never use the stuff now. |
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Originally Posted By MDI: About two weeks ago allergies hit me. Happens every now and then. It’s been two weeks and I have to hit the nose spray every few hours or I am 100% plugged. Any tips on how to ween off this before it’s too late? View Quote Friend of mine was stuck on Afrin for years. Could not breathe and had headaches without it. I think he got off it with Seldane before it was banned |
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