# Which cold symptom sucks the most? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 1, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661 "2015-01-01T02:50:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/1 "2015-01-01T02:50:23Z")
I have now been dealing with my cold for seven days. I have been observing wish fascination the seemingly endless variety of ways this silly little virus manages to be so incredibly unpleasant. As the morphing of symptoms marches on, I can’t decide which is the worst. Is it The sore throat? The tight painful cough at the beginning? The complete congestion requiring breathing through the mouth?The shifting congestion, where one nostril is completely occluded while the other one is so open the air hurts passing through it? The weakness? Can we achieve a consensus on what part really is the worst? Poll to follow. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/2 "2015-01-01T02:52:55Z")
Coughing. No contest. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/3 "2015-01-01T03:01:06Z")
Amazing fact: when I was a smoker, I fucking smoked through my colds. Yep I really did. Unfuckingimaginable to me now. Now THAT’S addiction. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/4 "2015-01-01T03:04:00Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Coughing. No contest. Which kind? The one that comes from a tickly throat? The painful tight unproductive one? Or the productive painless but relentless an exhausting cough that lasts for days? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/5 "2015-01-01T03:09:49Z")
The sinus pressure. Just managed to get over one in point of fact, and I could handle everything else (and this time no throat drainage or lingering soreness), but the sinus pressure was pretty hard to deal with for a few days there, esp. when trying to sleep (yes I took an OTC pain reliever, helped a bit). ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/6 "2015-01-01T03:13:41Z")
The 24 hour period when your nose runs like a tap. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/7 "2015-01-01T03:16:08Z")
Any symptom that prevents me from sleeping, and it’s usually coughing (or that annoying, constant throat-clearing that doesn’t do anything except keep me awake). ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/8 "2015-01-01T03:23:57Z")
In several yearly colds (which I haven’t had in the last few years), I had bronchitis afterwards. Which was a drag. But it always went away before getting bad enough to see a doctor. Generally, I can handle colds well enough; I can take off a day or two to handle the worst. And avoid infecting my co-workers. If I was too weak to watch TV, I’d suspect influenza. But there shots for that… ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/9 "2015-01-01T03:31:57Z")
Delightfully-constructed poll. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/10 "2015-01-01T03:38:36Z")
I put something else because when I get any illness, no matter how mild it is, I get throbbing aching pain over my whole body – just like you’d get in a flu. I can handle all the other shit but when my hair and eyeballs hurt I just can’t take it. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/11 "2015-01-01T03:45:39Z")
The stuffy nose. I cannot stand the sensation of breathing through my mouth, and it makes me feel like I’m about to suffocate and messes with my sleep. Coughing doesn’t really bother me that much for whatever reason, and headaches or sore throats are almost always taken care of by regular doses of ibuprofen (once so well that I did not realize I also had strep for about 4 days). But I hate stuffy noses. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/12 "2015-01-01T03:48:29Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > The 24 hour period when your nose runs like a tap. This. The perpetually runny nose. _Hate_ it. It’s just annoying. And eventually painful when you wear away all the skin on and around your nose wiping it. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/13 "2015-01-01T03:57:37Z")
I’ve been over my cold for a week basically but I still have that “night cough” that wakes me up at least once a night. That is the suckiest part of all. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/14 "2015-01-01T04:16:23Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > This. The perpetually runny nose. _Hate_ it. It’s just annoying. And eventually painful when you wear away all the skin on and around your nose wiping it. Vaseline is your very good friend when you have a cold - I vaseline up my nose constantly when it’s running/blowing it time, and it saves my skin. Edit: You can also do up your chapped lips while you’re at it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/15 "2015-01-01T04:17:22Z")
> [@chizzuk](#): > > The stuffy nose. I cannot stand the sensation of breathing through my mouth, and it makes me feel like I’m about to suffocate and messes with my sleep. Coughing doesn’t really bother me that much for whatever reason, and headaches or sore throats are almost always taken care of by regular doses of ibuprofen (once so well that I did not realize I also had strep for about 4 days). But I hate stuffy noses. This. I would rather struggle with nausea that not be able to breath normally. And the drip drip drip, can I just shove tampons in my nostrils? I can’t breath through them anyway _sob_ I discovered that if I immediately hammer down guaifenesin and use nasonex the instant I get that tickle in the left side of my throat, and keep it up religiously for the 10 days of the cold, it totally supresses the symptoms but if I delay dosing for even half an hour, all the symptoms hit like a pallet of bricks dropped on my head. Barely makes it tolerable, IMHO. Nausea, on the other hand I can deal with - I was hyperemetic through 5 months and 7 months of 2 disasterous pregnancies. I rarely vomit any longer, I use a few techniques to control it, ranging from controlled breathing to postures, and using ginger and peppermint. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/16 "2015-01-01T05:20:27Z")
The inability to breathe out my nose keeps me up at night, which results in constant exhaustion (thereby ruining everything else in my life, \*\*fuck \*\*I hate colds), so that’s my pick. I can’t stay asleep for shit with a stuffy nose–mouthbreathing makes me snore, and dries out my mouth, so I wake up with uber-cotton mouth. The only way to clear that symptom up is by taking (real) sudafed, which is an amphetamine that prevents me from \*getting \*to sleep in the first place. Sort of a catch-22. For my next cold, I might try to take sudafed and nyquil at the same time. But idk if mixing uppers and downers is a good idea? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/17 "2015-01-01T05:23:05Z")
I actually kind of like a high fever. It’s a free drug-trip. The delirium of high fever goes really, really well with E.A. Poe. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/18 "2015-01-01T05:26:52Z")
Oh my god I jinxed myself. Right after I posted I started feeling a dull throb over my right kidney. In the last 2 hours the throb has spread to most of my body and my temp rising. I think this is my payback for not getting any of the random illnesses I’ve been exposed to since September. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/19 "2015-01-01T06:09:34Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Which kind? The one that comes from a tickly throat? The painful tight unproductive one? Or the productive painless but relentless an exhausting cough that lasts for days? For me, the tickly-throat cough that makes keeping one’s last meal down a challenge, and also can lead to urinary incontinence. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661/20 "2015-01-01T07:02:24Z")
for me it is the dizzy light headed feeling that makes it almost impossible to hold your head up. Work is not sympathetic to taking off 2 weeks because you have a cold no matter how crappy you feel. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-cold-symptom-sucks-the-most/708661.md?page=2)