Sudafed

This may sound strange, but I do believe that taking Sudafed semi-regularly since the end of August made me mentally and emotionally unstable and irrational. I remember Polly complaining in college that she could not take too much Advil Cold & Sinus or just plain Sudafed because it made her crazy. I believed her, but I thought she was just a very rare and special case. Now I am not so sure.

It all started back in August at my yearly allergy and asthma check up. Dr. Smith stuck his little light up my nose and exclaimed to the intern beside him, "wow, you snould look at this!" He told me I could take periodic steroid regimens to reduce the swelling and inflamation or take Sudafed when I felt especially plugged up. I opted for the Sudafed because prednisone (a steroid) does weird things to me too.

I didn't notice any change at first, but by November I was irritable (easily annoyed and mean) and very emotional. One time I was sitting at the front desk of the Old Courthouse Museum and I could not stop crying. I wasn't even sad or upset about anything, but I kept crying. I even started to laugh at the situation and I still couldn't control it. I thought, what is wrong with me? I didn't have anything to be that depressed or stressed out about.

I did some research on the Internet (yeah, not very scholarly, I know) and found some other peoples' testimonies on how pseudoephedrine made them crazy, too. One girl had been taking decongestants daily since she was in junior high. It changed her disposition, but she did not realize it until ten years later. Now she is off pseudoephedrine and back to her "old self," if she can even remember what that was. Another source I found was a more scientific study that said pseudoephedrine had caused emotional instability in some of the people in the study.

These findings encouraged me to stop taking Sudafed for a while to see if it helped. I stopped right around Thanksgiving and have felt fine since. There are probably other variables involved so I will conduct this "trial" for a while longer, but still, what a crazy experience. I talked to a nurse at the allergy clinic to ask her about my suspicions. I told her I thought Sudafed was making me crazy and she laughed. I laughed too because it is kind of a funny and strange situation. Now I am congested at times, but a happier person.