OTC drug addiction - a cautionary tale !

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
So Christmas 2018 and i have a stinking cold,

I’m a utter baby when i feel i can’t breathe properly and congestion is really blocking my nose, I can’t sleep several nights in a row and start to understand why sleep deprivation is used effectively as a form of torture !

My wife goes to the chemist and returns with a bag full of every cold and flu remedy they sell, amongst it a decongestant nasal spray (DNS)

This spray is AMAZING - suddenly i can breathe and therefore sleep ! slowly the cold eases with the help of several shots of DNS each day I feel much better

BUT despite the worst of the symptoms going I find that at night when I lie down I become congested and can’t breathe properly, a shot of NDS sorts it though and i can sleep

I should have realised what was going on when in the summer 2019 I did a triathlon, before the start I “needed” a shot of NSD as I knew it would help me breathe better so therefore perform better

On holiday the same year I hadn’t taken any NDS with me and recall almost shouting at the concierge to get me some ! these things should have been big clues but as far as i was concerned I still have a “niggling” cold so I needed this stuff so i could sleep well, I didn’t “want” to use it but I “needed” to it seemed

Anyway - February 2021 and i’m speaking to someone about the “cold” I’ve had for “ages” now that won’t quite go away. They point out that if there is no snot being produced it’s unlikely to be a cold and probably an allergy or intolerance which gets me thinking

next month or 2 followed investigation into washing powders, various food etc, lots of suspects but couldn’t find anything that fixed things

Start looking online and “over the counter drug addiction” (OTC) keeps coming up with NDS being a very common problem

Read deeper and it seems using this stuff for more than a week can cause a physical addiction............. I had now been using it daily for over 24 months !

I call NHS direct who make me a doctor appointment, who confirms this is the problem, the NDS works by reducing blood flow to the nose, more you use it the more you need it to keep your airways open, more you use it the more you need to achieve the same effect, eventually it stops working and in a worst case your nose can be permanently damaged in the same way as a cocaine habit would !

Only cure is cold turkey, not pleasant, no proper sleep for a week, used whiskey and paracetamol etc (even some “left over” tramadol I had one night !) to help but it really was not a fun week and you would not have wanted to be around me !

I now really understand why smokers and drug addicts cant “just stop”. its not a mental addiction, your body is telling you that you need this drug

Now free of it I feel fitter and better than I have for ages, According to my watch data i’m getting at least an extra hour (deeper) sleep a night and o2 sat is a couple % higher on average

anyway ........ moral is read the label and just because its over the counter from the chemists it doesnt mean it cant do harm !
 
Last edited:
I work outside on a quad so get wet and cold. Mix in hard work and some sun and then you get a chill. Always used to get colds and be stuffed up but after reading and seeing the effects of the Garlic aspirin mix Dursban replacement studied Garlic a bit more.
I hate taking any pills but every day I have an odourless Garlic tablet and never get colds anymore.
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
There are other OTC medicines to beware of. Top of the list are the 'max strength' painkillers like Nurofen Plus and Paramol which contain the opiate codeine. People get addicted and it's not the codeine that does the damage it's the huge quantities of paracetamol or other painkillers mixed with the codeine they end up consuming. OTC Sudafed decongestant may not be addictive but contains a strong stimulant called ephedrine, long term use can cause heart damage. It's also used to make crystal meth. Finally steroid creams can be bought OTC in small quantities, they are great at relieving skin irritation and reducing swelling but over use damages the skin.
 

Lofty1984

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South wales
So Christmas 2018 and i have a stinking cold,

I’m a utter baby when i feel i can’t breathe properly and congestion is really blocking my nose, I can’t sleep several nights in a row and start to understand why sleep deprivation is used effectively as a form of torture !

My wife goes to the chemist and returns with a bag full of every cold and flu remedy they sell, amongst it a decongestant nasal spray (DNS)

This spray is AMAZING - suddenly i can breathe and therefore sleep ! slowly the cold eases with the help of several shots of DNS each day I feel much better

BUT despite the worst of the symptoms going I find that at night when I lie down I become congested and can’t breathe properly, a shot of NDS sorts it though and i can sleep

I should have realised what was going on when in the summer 2019 I did a triathlon, before the start I “needed” a shot of NSD as I knew it would help me breathe better so therefore perform better

On holiday the same year I hadn’t taken any NDS with me and recall almost shouting at the concierge to get me some ! these things should have been big clues but as far as i was concerned I still have a “niggling” cold so I needed this stuff so i could sleep well, I didn’t “want” to use it but I “needed” to it seemed

Anyway - February 2021 and i’m speaking to someone about the “cold” I’ve had for “ages” now that won’t quite go away. They point out that if there is no snot being produced it’s unlikely to be a cold and probably an allergy or intolerance which gets me thinking

next month or 2 followed investigation into washing powders, various food etc, lots of suspects but couldn’t find anything that fixed things

Start looking online and “over the counter drug addiction” (OTC) keeps coming up with NDS being a very common problem

Read deeper and it seems using this stuff for more than a week can cause a physical addiction............. I had now been using it daily for over 24 months !

I call NHS direct who make me a doctor appointment, who confirms this is the problem, the NDS works by reducing blood flow to the nose, more you use it the more you need it to keep your airways open, more you use it the more you need to achieve the same effect, eventually it stops working and in a worst case your nose can be permanently damaged in the same way as a cocaine habit would !

Only cure is cold turkey, not pleasant, no proper sleep for a week, used whiskey and paracetamol etc (even some “left over” tramadol I had one night !) to help but it really was not a fun week and you would not have wanted to be around me !

I now really understand why smokers and drug addicts cant “just stop”. its not a mental addiction, your body is telling you that you need this drug

Now free of it I feel fitter and better than I have for ages, According to my watch data i’m getting at least an extra hour (deeper) sleep a night and o2 sat is a couple % higher on average

anyway ........ moral is read the label and just because its over the counter from the chemists it doesnt mean it cant do harm !
Funny you bring this up I was listening to a podcast the other day with joe Wilkinson and David Earl The latter described exactly what you have quite a eye opener something so simple could become an addictive substance
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Mrs has this problem maybe for 6 years. Had a kenalog (sp?) injection to help allergies and switched to fenoxifenadine and the need for snort went away for a few months and slowly crept back. Now on prednisolone and has been for a few months because of sarcoidosis and, again could stop using snort. Slowly needing it again now though but she is also slowly reducing the steroids.

you’re right, the warnings on the bottle aren’t clear enough.... perhaps it should even be scrip only.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Not a good idea to take stuff like this for very long
When I crushed my back the doc put me on some strong painkillers, I can't remember what they were now as its a long time ago, after a couple weeks I though feck this lobbed them on the fire and put up with it, same thing when I had a lung operation I was told to take pankillers which I did or about 3 days, the doctor wouldn't believe this when I went for a follow up check up a month later, he said most folk would still be taking painkillers when they went for the check up , he asked if it hurt and I told him it did but such is life, tis OK now
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Not a good idea to take stuff like this for very long
When I crushed my back the doc put me on some strong painkillers, I can't remember what they were now as its a long time ago, after a couple weeks I though feck this lobbed them on the fire and put up with it, same thing when I had a lung operation I was told to take pankillers which I did or about 3 days, the doctor wouldn't believe this when I went for a follow up check up a month later, he said most folk would still be taking painkillers when they went for the check up , he asked if it hurt and I told him it did but such is life, tis OK now
No pill can offer something for nothing the book will always be balanced eventually
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Tramadol is posh codeine, in some people the side effects stop them from taking it as it makes them feel very weird.
They tried me on Tramadol after my opp, bloody stuff helped get rid of the pain but sent me off tripping which was awful I was seeing allsorts and the headache I had next morning was absolutely terrible. that is some rough stuff
 

MRT

Member
Livestock Farmer
So Christmas 2018 and i have a stinking cold,

I’m a utter baby when i feel i can’t breathe properly and congestion is really blocking my nose, I can’t sleep several nights in a row and start to understand why sleep deprivation is used effectively as a form of torture !

My wife goes to the chemist and returns with a bag full of every cold and flu remedy they sell, amongst it a decongestant nasal spray (DNS)

This spray is AMAZING - suddenly i can breathe and therefore sleep ! slowly the cold eases with the help of several shots of DNS each day I feel much better

BUT despite the worst of the symptoms going I find that at night when I lie down I become congested and can’t breathe properly, a shot of NDS sorts it though and i can sleep

I should have realised what was going on when in the summer 2019 I did a triathlon, before the start I “needed” a shot of NSD as I knew it would help me breathe better so therefore perform better

On holiday the same year I hadn’t taken any NDS with me and recall almost shouting at the concierge to get me some ! these things should have been big clues but as far as i was concerned I still have a “niggling” cold so I needed this stuff so i could sleep well, I didn’t “want” to use it but I “needed” to it seemed

Anyway - February 2021 and i’m speaking to someone about the “cold” I’ve had for “ages” now that won’t quite go away. They point out that if there is no snot being produced it’s unlikely to be a cold and probably an allergy or intolerance which gets me thinking

next month or 2 followed investigation into washing powders, various food etc, lots of suspects but couldn’t find anything that fixed things

Start looking online and “over the counter drug addiction” (OTC) keeps coming up with NDS being a very common problem

Read deeper and it seems using this stuff for more than a week can cause a physical addiction............. I had now been using it daily for over 24 months !

I call NHS direct who make me a doctor appointment, who confirms this is the problem, the NDS works by reducing blood flow to the nose, more you use it the more you need it to keep your airways open, more you use it the more you need to achieve the same effect, eventually it stops working and in a worst case your nose can be permanently damaged in the same way as a cocaine habit would !

Only cure is cold turkey, not pleasant, no proper sleep for a week, used whiskey and paracetamol etc (even some “left over” tramadol I had one night !) to help but it really was not a fun week and you would not have wanted to be around me !

I now really understand why smokers and drug addicts cant “just stop”. its not a mental addiction, your body is telling you that you need this drug

Now free of it I feel fitter and better than I have for ages, According to my watch data i’m getting at least an extra hour (deeper) sleep a night and o2 sat is a couple % higher on average

anyway ........ moral is read the label and just because its over the counter from the chemists it doesnt mean it cant do harm !
Glad you are sorted. You wrote "watch data" my eyes read "witch doctor"!
 
Read deeper and it seems using this stuff for more than a week can cause a physical addiction............. I had now been using it daily for over 24 months !


anyway ........ moral is read the label and just because its over the counter from the chemists it doesnt mean it cant do harm !

I've had a micro-version of this with an olbas inhaler, found myself carrying it in my pocket everywhere I went and just using it a couple of times an hour because it 'made me feel better', even though I wasn't actually ill.

A long time ago I spent a fair while in hospital, with lots of surgeries and lots of morphine (IV then oral). Wasn't easy getting back into everyday life once I was out of hospital.


people who become accustomed to them may well find the regular dose doesn't work whilst a larger one kills them stone dead.

Is this basically what happened to Michael Jackson?
 
Done in my knee one summer, 14 years ago now. Was on tramadol, and had been extremely careful and sparing with it. Still had the night sweats and the absolutely mental fever dreams coming off it. It was hard work.....

Tramadol is posh codeine, in some people the side effects stop them from taking it as it makes them feel very weird.

They tried me on Tramadol after my opp, bloody stuff helped get rid of the pain but sent me off tripping which was awful I was seeing allsorts and the headache I had next morning was absolutely terrible. that is some rough stuff
Isnt only me that trips on tramadol then
High for 5 hours then cold sweats coming down
 

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
Well this was truly eye opening:
@Clive has a ‘concierge’ when he goes on holiday.
I thought most people do.

Mine even told me when we’d been going out for long enough that it was time to be getting married, and didn’t let up till I “surprised” her with the ring she’d already chosen and had fitted.

True professional, so efficient. Expensive to run though, and I have to carry the bags.

think I’ll see if I can get the kids to start calling her “the concierge”, see how long we last! 🤣
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top