Can someone explain to me how one gets addicted to nasal spray?
Its based on the rebound effect. People like me with allergies experience swelling inside the nose, the tissues in the nasal turbinates swells up and then air cant pass through. You "can't breathe" through the nose.
So you grab the afrin and spray that in the nose, and within minutes you can breathe again. Its like a miracle! The only problem is that within a few hours it starts to swell up again. So you have to spray again. Again it works.
After doing that for a long time you'll find that you're using it 6 times a day or more and spraying 3 or 4 squirts instead of just 1 or 2 like you're supposed to. It doesn't work so well anymore. If you read the label on the bottle it has a warning not to use it longer than X amount of weeks.
Then the rebound effect comes in. Using the spray works for a short time, but when it wears off your nose becomes swollen even worse than before. I dont know why, but using the spray makes your nose more swollen than if you'd never used it at all. Its a vicious cycle you get stuck in. At night you keep waking up every 2 hours because you can't breathe, so you end up using the afrin so you can sleep. Id end up waking up at least 2 or 3 times to spray my nose. Its a miserable way to live. Sleep is affected bad.
Now that I use flonase I am doing well. Its a corticosteroid that reduces swelling long term. The med lasts 24 hours, so just a squirt in each nostril lasts all day. I had used it in the past, but at times when I got sick I'd go back to the afrin. Got hooked on it. My advice, never use Afrin! No Afrin or its generic.