“7 days use”: This is what it’s really like to be addicted to nasal spray

No fairy tale
Dependent on nasal spray – a field report

© Maksymiv Iurii / Adobe Stock

It’s one o’clock in the morning when I’m roused from my sleep: I can’t breathe! I sit up abruptly and try to take a deep breath. The nose is closed. Breathing is only possible through the mouth, but it is so dry that breathing only works properly again after a few sips of water. Reaching for the bedside table is routine. One nudge to the left, one to the right, and then lean back. Sometimes I can’t do without a nasal spray.

“But don’t use the nasal spray for longer than a week,” I get to hear every time I buy nasal spray in a pharmacy. However, this is now rarely the case. As a rule, I simply order my addictive substance online from one of the numerous digital pharmacies. I didn’t used to believe that you could become addicted to nasal spray. I always thought it was a fairy tale. Now I know better.

Nasal spray addicted by severe runny nose

But how did it start? I have suffered from a chronic cold and chronic sinusitis for most of my life, caused by my numerous allergies throughout the year. Being able to breathe through my nose has always been a privilege for me, and yet I’ve managed not to become addicted to nasal spray for 30 years. I’ve always hated the feeling of spraying something up my nose, most of the time I’d have a sneezing fit afterwards.

But in 2022 something changed. I got Corona in March and, in addition to the miserable cough and bouts of fever, I had to deal with a bad cold. So strong that the nose didn’t even open anymore. It felt like someone was holding my nose in a vise. So I texted my mother, “I need nasal spray.” She brought it to me in quarantine. Since then it has become my daily companion. The first wave of allergies followed the corona infection. So my nose didn’t have time to relax a bit and the habituation effect had long since set in.

I had to use nasal spray every hour

At peak times I needed a new push every two hours, otherwise the vice feeling would come back. I developed a real panic from this feeling. Not being able to breathe through my nose at all, even I with my allergies and illnesses don’t know that – some air always came through. Now the nose was sometimes so tight that I felt pressure on my ears when I swallowed. So I ordered a small supply and distributed the small bottles in the apartment. One in the bedroom, one in the living room, one at work, one in my purse and one in reserve.

After the first wave of allergies it got a little better, I didn’t have to use the spray quite as often and even had days when I could do without it. Then came corona infection number two in December. This was even more sniffle-heavy, so I couldn’t avoid using nasal spray again. Again I had to spray up to ten times or more a day, sometimes even twice within a few minutes – one push was no longer enough.

Nasal Spray Addiction: It’s hard to get out of the spiral

Over Christmas the symptoms subsided and I tried to endure more nose-vice attacks again until I only had to spray about five times a day. For a long time, however, I kept waking up at night because my mouth was so dry and my nose was so stuffy that I could hardly breathe.

Now I only manage to spray two or three times a day. In the morning after getting up so that I can enjoy my coffee at all, again at noon or in the afternoon and then go to sleep. I hardly need it at night and during the day I can stand it when my nose is thicker than I thought. I underestimated this addiction, this fear of not having a spray and rummaging through your purse is exhausting. Not once did I have to quickly go to a pharmacy in my desperation before I met friends.

Long-term use of nasal spray can have serious consequences

I know what can happen if you use the spray for too long and what changes can be associated with the nasal mucosa. And I also know what strategies there are. The one-hole method, where you only spray into one nostril at a time, or switching to a children’s nasal spray to reduce the dose. That’s my next plan now, along with a seawater nasal spray to lubricate. I hope I’ll be spared another cold infection and the first pollen are still a bit long in coming.

I will continue to stock bottles of nasal spray just to be safe. And I will always keep one in my purse. But hopefully soon only as a security and no longer in permanent use.

Bridget

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