Life Update: Healing from an Issue not Commonly Discussed

Over the course of my short life of 18 years walking this earth I have struggled with various issues with myself that I normally don’t talk about, but there is one issue that has progressed extremely negatively in recent years and that is my use of nasal sprays. 

I know, I know, your thinking what the heck? How is that even a thing, but I’m here to tell you that it’s gotten to the point that for over a year I could not breath through my nose without spraying it every few hours or so every single day. Another thing you might be thinking is why is this such a big deal? 

Well, for starters needing to use nasal spray in public is an extremely embarrassing thing for me. Sticking a spray up my nose and inhaling like some sort of drug addict always made me feel super self-conscious and all the while while the spray was a temporary solution it was doing major damage to my health (at least for where congestion is concerned). My nose has adapted to the ingredients in the spray so well that when I take it I rarely even get fully decongested any more and I’m constantly blowing my nose and sniffiling and that’s a whole other sort of embarrassment. 

Every time I pick up that spray bottle I see a future with me never being able to live without it and thinking that way is making it so it’s harder and harder for me to be able to live life to the fullest. So, I did a bunch of research on it and the only way for me to cut the dependency fully is to quit cold turkey. (There are a few other methods, but I find that this is what would work best for me). So this morning I took my last dose of spray and I’m finally going to quit using the spray for good. 

From my research this process will take anywhere from about a few days to a few weeks before I can heal fully and breathe normally again and right now I can’t breathe at all. The hardest part is going to be getting through the anxiety of not being able to breathe which was the monster that drove me to my dependency in the first place. If I can push through this and start to feel healthier again it will be one of the biggest reliefs of my life. 

If you do ever have congestion issues please don’t use nasal drops. In the short term they are fantastic, but in the long run it can cause major issues to your health. 

Thank you for reading! I know this is a strange post, but after finding out how dangerous it was to use drops the way I have been using them I had to share. If I could help anyone with my story that may have this issue it would be a blessing. This is going to be a hellish few weeks, but in the end my future health is what is most important. 

-Till next time!