Another vote for Breath-rite strips. I’ve nver used a nsal spray but the Breath-rite strips allow me to sleep with my mouth shut which helps keep the snoring down. I think my wife appreciates the Breath-rites more than I do 
I never used Afrin again after it caused me to lose my sense of smell and taste for about 6 months but I did use 3 Way and one other, Neosynefrin maybe, for a couple of years. It began to seem like after I used it the stuffiness got even worse than before. This was really bothersome when it caused me to wake unable to breathe well in the middle of the night. I too worried that I was doing some long term damage so for a couple of months I stuck with just a neti pot and kleenex. It was tough at first but eventually things improved to the point where now I only use it in extreme cases, maybe 3 or 4 times a year, and then only a single shot to each nostril.
As far as the allergies I took shots for a couple of years, then quit. That caused a vast improvement in my sensitivity to most allergens.
It was a homeopathy joke. You have know their “theory” is, the more you dilute something, the stronger it gets. That poster was joking that by diluting Afrin to 1% you would make it so wildly strong it would be as dangerous as nitroglycerin.
I don’t know how I missed this the first go-round, but I’ve been addicted to Afrin for nearly 24 years when I was pregnant and was told taking Sudafed was bad for baby. I’ve been on the nasal steroids, bought a neti-pot, tried saline, still have a mostly full pack of Breathe-rite strips… Nothing worked, not even for a day. My doctor told me I needed to have my sinuses scraped at least 10 years ago. So I continue to spray, about one bottle’s worth a week, and the only one that really works for me now is Afrin Sinus. The generics just give me a sore throat and half-opened sinuses. It’s scary when I can’t find my nose spray. I feel like I’m drowning.
I was addicted to Dristan nasal spray 35 years ago. I actually don’t recall the way I weaned myself off of it, but I wanted to say this: Having had that experience, I have never again become addicted, but I can and do use decongestants when absolutely necessary. I’m simply extremely cautious about the way I use them, Relying on saline and blowing my nose and shifting positions as much as I can and only turning to the decongestant when I can’t tolerate it one more minute. By being so cautious, I can get relief from the decongestant during the most intense couple of days without becoming addicted. Oh, and also: I use internal decongestants as well, which help a lot. In other words oral cold remedies.
I used the “deprive one nostril at a time” method of withdrawal. That makes it bearable. I won’t use Afrin ever again no matter what.
I was badly addicted (to Otrivin, but I don’t think it really matters). One day I found myself in Denmark and found they didn’t sell nasal spray there (or not OTC anyway) so I went to a doctor for an Rx. She prescribed something. Someone once suggested it was a steroid spray. Whatever it was, it had no rebound effect and after a week, I was cured. Since then I have used nasal spray only very carefully. Only if I have a cold and need it to sleep, suffer during the day. Or when flying, a half hour before landing. And I have remained free of addiction for over 40 years. I wish I knew what the Danish doctor gave me, for it worked magic.
Short of that, the one nostril at a time seems the best way to go. Good luck!
This is what I’ve done and its the best way off IMO.
Get a prescription for Flonase or something, just tell the doc you’re hooked on the Afrin and that will make the transition off the stuff hardly noticeable.
Much less fuss and being uncomfortable by weening or using saline.
Try the Buteyko breathing techniques it has helped me quit nose spray after 25 years. It is on you tube. I have tried everything in the world to quit and this is the only thing that opens my completely blocked nose in 40 seconds. At first you have to do it alot and it is kinda annoying but the complete clearing with no drugs only breathing is worth it also at first I stopped using it on 1 side only and did the breathing method ALOT and slowly after 1 side was healed began stopping the other side. I too was told to use afrin while I was pregnant 25 years ago so it wouldn’t affect the baby and then I was helplessly addicted for the last 25 years and now am free of this crap. I hope this helps everyone who has this problem. I wish I would have found it years ago. Also a pack of steroids and a bottle of non addicting nose spray prescribed like Flonase are necessary if you are to miserable. Good Luck
Pseudoephedrine worked for me whenever I needed to get off the nose spray. Kinda made it hard to sleep, though.
A few years ago with a head cold I started using Afrin. Then after the first bottle was gone I bought another. When that was gone, I was jonesing for some more, but I was unwilling to go out at 9pm and hit up CVS for another. So to clear my head and sinuses, I took a hot shower and that’s what I’ve been doing for congestion ever since.
Yeah, it’s not as good as the OTC nosesprays, and sometimes I have to take 2 or 3 hot showers a night to keep my head clear when I’m congested, but my sinuses don’t clog up as much as they did when I used nose sprays, and when pollen season comes… I’m really really clean.
Thanks for the advice Maybelline. I’ll give the Buteyko breathing a shot.
I’ve never had a problem, but I do use the stuff when I get really congested, and will use it for more then the 3 days or so. I do like the idea of only opening one nasal passage though and I might try that the next time.
I do have a lot of sinus problems, none of which seem to be from allergies as I’ve been tested. My doctor did give me a nasal steroid that I use from time to time when I feel a sinus headache coming on and that helps a lot.
The rule my doctor gave me was 3 days for both sides, 3 days only one side, then you need to be done. I got mildly hooked on the stuff for a few months, but it was only at night, and really only one side. Sleeping on the other side for one or two nights cured it.
This is precisely what I do. I was addicted to Otrivin. Until I was in Denmark once where it is not available. A doctor there prescribed a different spray that someone once said it was likely a steroid, but I never found out. I used it for several days and, at the end of that time, I was free, free, of the addiction! And now I use a saline spray except when in the midst of a bad head cold and there I do what whiterabbit does and I have been off the spray for nearly 40 years.
When I was a kid my nose was constantly stuffed. It is not now. I wonder whether this had anything to do with the fact that both parents smoked. As did I eventually. But I gave that up 48 years ago.
Very interesting. I was able to stop using my nasal spray after my power went out for two days and I was forced to sit in a freezing cold apartment for two days.
I wonder why extreme temperatures seems to have this effect and I wonder if there might be some way that other people could take advantage of that.
It’s difficult to imagine how to arrange for someone addicted to this stuff to arrange to isolate themselves in a very cold living space for two days. But taking hot showers might be an alternative. I wonder if that would work for everyone or whether some people react well to cold temps while others react well to hot temps.
I am getting over a nasty bronchitis spell (see my thead on prednisone here), and in my follow-up visit today, the doctor mentioned he might put me onto longer-term maintenance therapy with Qvar. Is that anything like this?
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ETA: If you’re dealing with congestion, the BEST therapy I’ve discovered in my current bronchitis attack has been: Breathing warm steam, 30 minutes at a time, as often as I wish (like, 4 to 5 times a day or even more). You don’t need a Rx, it’s cheap, it has no adverse effects, you can’t OD on it. It loosens up congestion greatly (perhaps depending on what’s causing it, of course; IANAD; YMMV); and it’s soothing. Depending on your ailment, I suppose it could help greatly or slightly or not at all, but I’m sure it can’t hurt!
When I was a kid, I remember my mother had this electrical appliance that was shaped like a round sphere approx 12 inches in diameter. It was filled about halfway with water and near the outlet was a place where you cold put some kind of medicine or … well … we used to put something called Vick’s Vaporub in there. I just Googled “Vick’s Vaporub” and it looks like they still sell it. It’s a kind of cream that is menthol flavored and when you put it into this round electrical appliance, it mixes with the steam and permeates the entire room.
Darn! I sure wish I could remember what those appliances were called. I’d like to get one if they are still available. Seems to me that it might be a little better than breathing ordinary steam since it can be mixed with Vaporrub or some kind of medicine.
Here is a link to the Mayo clinic that talks about using Vaporub either directly or in a humidifier. I guess that appliance might be called a humidifier. But it’s different from modern humidifiers.
Looks like Vicks sells their own humidifiers. Here’s a link that shows a bunch of them.
I always thought a humidifier was a large machine sort of like a de-humidifier. But these look more like the size and shape that I recall from about 40 years ago.